Gurdwara Governance And The Granthi's Institutional Setting

The modern institutional framework surrounding a granthi's appointment and duties in India traces largely to reforms following the early twentieth century Singh Sabha and Gurdwara reform movements, which sought to standardize Sikh religious practice and remove hereditary or non Sikh custodians from gurdwara management, and which led to the creation of the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee, the elected body that today oversees many of the most historically significant Sikh gurdwaras and sets standards for their religious staff, including granthis. Major gurdwaras typically employ a head granthi alongside several assistant granthis, dividing responsibility for the near continuous cycle of readings, services, and ceremonies larger gurdwaras maintain throughout the day, while smaller gurdwaras may rely on a single granthi or, in some communities, on rotating volunteer readers rather than a permanently appointed one.

Because Sikhism deliberately rejects a formal ordained priesthood, a granthi's authority rests entirely on recognized skill in reading and reciting the Guru Granth Sahib correctly and respectfully rather than on any rite of ordination, and in principle any suitably trained Sikh, not only those formally employed as granthis, may read from the scripture, a point Sikh teaching consistently emphasizes against the idea of a specialized priestly class standing between worshippers and the Guru.