PATIALA, Nov 15: The Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) would set up a Sikh religion university at Anandpur Sahib to train granthis and religious preachers. Knowledge about other religions besides Sikhism would also be imparted at the university, SGPC chief Gurcharan Singh Tohra said in an interview to the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) here yesterday.The granthis would be trained in other foreign languages, including English, so that that they could preach Sikhism in other countries and interact with the people living abroad.He said that Sikhism provided equal rights and status to men and women in the society. There was no bar on women getting elected to the SGPC. So far only men had been performing kirtan at Darbar Sahib but now the SGPC had plans to allow women to perform kirtan.The SGPC chief, replying to a query on the hukamnama on langar (community kitchen), defended the Akal Takht directive saying that such a hukamnama had been issued even by Guru Amar Dass asking the Sikh sangat to partake partake on floor. The fresh hukamnama had become necessary since the Sikhs settled abroad seemed to be ignoring the Sikh traditions and customs.Tohra said that during the celebrations of the 300th year of the birth of Khalsa, seminars, awareness camps and amrit sanchar campaigns would be conducted throughout the year to motivate the Sikh masses to become Amritdharis.Three hundred books on Sikh history and religion would be released this year to mark the celebrations. While the Punjab government was undertaking different development projects in this connection, the SGPC was organising the main function at Anandpur Sahib, he said.
