So is there any separate Rehat Maryada document that applies for the Golden Temple? Is it written anywhere that women cannot perform kirtan sewa inside Golden Temple? For Sikh women, joining congregation with their veils drawn over their faces is contrary to gurmat (Guru’s way)”. The section (o) in Article V of Chapter (IV) – titled Gurdwaras, Congregational Etiquette, Rites – reads: “No Sikh should sit bare-headed in presence of Guru Granth Sahib or in the congregation. Yes, it says that women should not sit in congregations with veils uncomfortably covering their faces as it is against Guru’s teachings.
Even when SGPC Advisory Committee on Religious Matters reconsidered the document in 1945, then Akal Takht jathedar Mohan Singh and then head granthi Golden Temple Bhai Achhar Singh were part of that committee, as written in the document’s introduction.ĭoes the Sikh Rehat Maryada document say anything about women? The first sub-committee which drafted the document in 1932, also had Bhai Labh Singh, then granthi of the Golden Temple as its member. It specifies no other condition or eligibility criteria or who may or may not perform a kirtan. In Chapter V of the document, Article VI, pertaining to kirtan (devotional hymn singing by a group or an individual), reads, “Only a Sikh may perform kirtan sewa in a congregation”. Nowhere does the document say that any person, on basis of gender, can be stopped from performing kirtan sewa inside a gurdwara. The 41-page Sikh Rehat Maryada, which describes a proper set of conventions for gurdwaras (Sikh places of worship) was drafted in 1932 by a sub-committee constituted by the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC), then accepted by SGPC through a resolution on August 1, 1936, and later amended on February 3, 1945.