Chief Khalsa Diwan

The Chief Khalsa Diwan (CKD), based in Amritsar, was established on 30 October 1902. The Encyclopaedia of Sikhism says that until the Sikh League (1919), the SGPC (1920) and the Shiromani Akali Dal (1920) emerged, it was the main council of the Sikhs, controlling their religious and educational affairs and speaking for their political rights.

How it began: It was conceived as one central body to replace the Khalsa Diwans of Amritsar and Lahore, whose conflict was hampering the Singh Sabhas affiliated to them. A public assembly near the Golden Temple on Baisakhi 1901 set up a committee to draft a constitution, which was adopted on 21 September 1902. The first session met on Diwali day, 30 October 1902. Bhai Arjan Singh of Bagrian was elected president and Sundar Singh Majithia secretary. Twenty-nine Singh Sabhas affiliated at first, and 53 within a year.

What it did: It institutionalised the Singh Sabha view of Sikhism as a separate religion with its own rituals, which the Encyclopaedia names as the first of its three key contributions. It launched the weekly Khalsa Advocate in 1903, opened a school at Tarn Taran in 1906 to train ragis, granthis and preachers, and helped form the Sikh Educational Conference in 1908. Its code of conduct, Gurmat Prakash: Bhag Sanskar, was published in March 1915 and stands, the Encyclopaedia says, between the old rahitnamas and the SGPC's Sikh Rahit Maryada of 1950.

After 1920: Beside the SGPC and the Akali Dal, which were more dynamic and mass-based, the Encyclopaedia calls the Diwan moderate, pro-government and elitist. The SGPC and the Akali Dal soon took the lead in religious and political matters from the Diwan, which now mostly voices opinion through resolutions and memoranda and keeps its initiative in education.

Key moments

• December 1916: it wrote to the Lieutenant Governor rejecting the Lucknow Pact and saying no constitution would be acceptable without a Sikh share in the councils and the civil administration. Gurmit Singh calls it the Sikhs' representative organisation at that time.
• 24 November 1960: its Executive Committee passed a resolution against the abuse that Prime Minister Nehru hurled at Sikhs who shouted Punjabi Suba slogans at Rudrapur.
• 1 August 1965: its Executive Committee discussed the Ludhiana resolution demanding a self-determined political status for the Sikhs within the Indian Union, and asked the Government to study why the Sikhs were dissatisfied. Gurmit Singh calls the Diwan a most conservative non-political educational body.
• 13 to 15 March 1981: the 54th All-India Sikh Educational Conference, organised by the Diwan at Chandigarh, passed a resolution that the Sikhs are a nation. On 16 April 1981, under government pressure according to Gurmit Singh, the Diwan's resolution No. 246 disowned the Khalistan slogans and the demand for associate membership of the United Nations, but did not disown the separate-nation resolution.
• 18 February 2024: The Tribune reported that Dr Inderbir Singh Nijjar was re-elected its president, with 247 of 399 votes polled, and called it the Sikhs' oldest body.