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The Act of 1925 and What It Made Permanent

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The Act of 1925 and What It Made Permanent

The campaign ended in legislation. The Sikh Gurdwaras Act of 1925 transferred the historic gurdwaras of the Punjab from their hereditary custodians to a statutory elected body, provided a judicial commission to determine which shrines were covered, and set out how the managing committee was to be constituted and elected.

Three consequences outlasted the dispute that produced them. The first is the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee itself, which acquired legal standing, an income and a permanent administrative machine. The second is that the Act had to define who counted as a Sikh, because somebody had to be entitled to vote in the elections, and a statutory definition of religious membership is a durable thing to create. The third is the Shiromani Akali Dal, formed to run the campaign, which became and remains a political party.

The result is that gurdwara administration in the Punjab is conducted through elections held under a statute, contested by parties, with an electorate defined by law. A religious reform movement that set out to remove unsuitable custodians ended by fusing the management of shrines with electoral politics, and every subsequent argument about Sikh religious institutions has taken place inside the structure the Act of 1925 created.

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