SGPC Dharam Parchar Committee

The Dharam Parchar (also spelt Dharam Prachar) Committee is the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee's body for preaching Sikhi. The SGPC itself came from a 175-member committee set up in November 1920, was registered on 30 April 1921, and works under the Sikh Gurdwaras Act, 1925, according to its own site. The Encyclopaedia of Sikhism lists the propagation of religion among its functions.

What it runs: The committee runs the Shaheed Sikh Missionary College at Amritsar, which opened in October 1927 as a memorial to the Sikhs killed at Nankana Sahib on 20 February 1921. The college trains preachers, granthis and ragis in three two-year diploma courses, and the committee is also its examining authority. Giani Zail Singh, later President of India, studied there. The committee also sends out preaching groups. After a meeting chaired by SGPC president Harjinder Singh Dhami on 17 May 2022, it decided to send groups of preachers to every village in Punjab, with month-long Gurmat camps in gurdwaras in the summer holidays run by students and staff of the missionary colleges.

Key moments

• October 1927: the Shaheed Sikh Missionary College opens.
• January 2019: the college gets its first woman principal, Prof Manjit Kaur, after 92 years of male heads. The Tribune says it is run under the committee's auspices.
• 17 May 2022: village preaching and Gurmat camps are decided.
• 28 March 2025: the SGPC house passes a budget of Rs 1,386.47 crore for 2025-26, with Rs 110 crore set aside for the committee.
• April 2025: the committee starts a preaching campaign, "Khuaar Hoye Sabh Milenge", under the auspices of Sri Akal Takht, beginning at Gaggo Mahal village near Ajnala. Giani Kuldeep Singh Gargaj, then officiating Jathedar of Sri Akal Takht, launched it with Baba Tek Singh, saying it answered the recent rise in religious conversions in Punjab (The Tribune).

A note on the numbers: The 53 schools, 35 degree colleges and 2 universities listed on the SGPC's site belong to the SGPC as a whole. The budget reports list education allocations, such as Rs 8.40 crore for free education for Sikh children, separately from the committee's Rs 110 crore.