I AND MY WORDS

Gurdwara Sisganj Sahib in Delhi (Courtesy: Wikipedia) In the first part, we had a brief glimpse of the history of the Akali movement to wrest gurdwaras in Punjab out of government control. In this part, we shall have a look at the administrative models arising from the movement, which have seen several amendments over time, but have remain pretty much the same in principle and spirit since 1925. We shall elaborate particularly on two aspects of gurdwara management and administration set up, namely the constitution of the Boards as well as the management of the properties and finances of the gurdwaras. We shall also examine the criticisms obviated by such models, and explore the key takeaways for Hindu religious institutions in order to propose alternatives to the current governance model that we see with temples. The Administrative Models of Gurdwaras in India - Observed Differences There are gurdwaras across all parts of India, and that has meant that the way many of them ru...

Akali Jatha (Courtesy: http://manvirsingh.blogspot.in) There is a lot of discussion these days with respect to the way Hindu temples are being administered across the country. While there is a lot of debate on how the temples are being managed in the current form, and there are efforts going on through legal means to create greater accountability and transparency in the systems, it is important to also propose alternatives to the current administration frameworks, which completely leave out local communities from the well-being and care-take of the temple management affairs, leaving them to be open fields that breed rampant corruption and avenues for belittling the Dharmic faith. In this regard, efforts are now needed to explore possible alternatives to the status quo. In this multi part series, I shall try to examine the merits and demerits of models of administration that are visible across India among different communities, in order to obtain positive lessons that Hindus need...