Maghi, and How a Gurdwara Is Run

The annual gathering at Muktsar falls at Maghi, in January, when large numbers come to bathe in the sarovar and attend the diwan. Maghi is one of the festivals kept across the Sikh world, and at Muktsar it carries the specific commemoration of the forty. The fair that grows around it is a substantial regional event, with the religious programme at its centre and a cattle and trade fair alongside, which is a common pattern at Punjabi shrines. Muktsar is also a working example of how Sikh institutions are governed.

Historic gurdwaras in Punjab came under elected management through the Sikh Gurdwaras Act of 1925, which followed a long campaign to remove hereditary custodians from control of shrine property and revenue, and the resulting committee structure still administers them. That is unusual among religious institutions in the region and it has shaped Sikh public life, since control of the shrines carries control of substantial funds and of a platform. The atlas records the arrangement as a matter of the tradition's own law and institutions. The Sikh Rehat Maryada, the code of conduct issued by that same body, sets out how worship at a gurdwara proceeds, and the observance at Muktsar follows it.