Lakhs of Sikhs living abroad do not have representation in the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC), leaving them with no platform to highlight their problems and questions.Confirming this, SGPC Chief Secretary Kulwant Singh Mannan said, “At present, there is no representation for Sikhs outside India in the apex Sikh body. However, formal discussions over the matter have been held within the SGPC several times, but no final decision has been taken in this regard.”He elaborated that there are two ways to include them in the SGPC. One is to form an international Sikh advisory board and appoint them members, which does not require government permission.The other way is that the SGPC should pass a resolution and send the same to the Union government for ratification by Parliament to co-opt members from overseas in the SGPC.The present SGPC comprises 191 members of whom, 170 are elected from different areas, including Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and Chandigarh. Fifteen members are nominated from all over the country, six members include jathedars of five Takhts and the Head Granthi of Sachkhand Sri Harmander Sahib. Among these, 30 seats are reserved for women.Sikhs overseas would like to be part of the decision-making body, ask questions and also have a platform for settling differences in their gurdwara managements as inter-group differences are a very big problem in many countries on the conduct of religious affairs.Certain issues pertain to replying to questions on religious affairs asked by governments of countries in which they stay. The setting of no representation for foreign gurdwaras continues to be the same as it was since July 28, 1925, when the apex governing body of all Sikh gurdwaras in India was created.Inderjeet Singh, a representative of the UK-based Guru Nanak Nishkam Sewak Jatha International in India, said it would certainly be an encouraging move to give representation to overseas Sikhs, managing gurdwaras in their adopted countries, in the oldest and reputed apex Sikh body. “Several global Sikh organisations have been demanding representation in the SGPC.”Headquartered in London, the Guru Nanak Nishkam Sewak Jatha International operates its centres in the UK and Africa. He said the move should be taken up only after developing a consensus.He cautioned that the move needed to be evaluated constitutionally as the Overseas Citizens of India (OCI) has been granted immigration status, as per which they have the right to live, work and study in India indefinitely, but with no voting right.When the SGPC was created, there was a negligible Sikh population outside India. Over the years, the issue remained unaddressed, while the community spread across almost all continents of the world.There are several countries, including the UK, USA, Canada, Australia, Malaysia and others where the number of gurdwaras are in large number. A gurdwara in Malaysia is among the oldest ones, established in Kuala Lumpur in 1898, while a gurdwara in Golden City, which falls on the Cagliari-Surrey road, was set up way back in 1891.According to Professor Anneeth Kaur Hundle, Associate Professor of Anthropology and Chair of Sikh Studies at University of California, Irvine, more research is required to understand how the global Sikh diaspora understands its relationship with the SGPC, especially when they are living outside India. In general they follow the “rehat maryada” (Sikh code of conduct) and doctrines established by the SGPC in regard to religious practice, but they also likely question aspects of its governance and relationship to Punjab party politics due to an external perspective shaped by other societal contexts.The SGPC is also representative of the normative Khalsa-Panth tradition. The diaspora and the Punjab-based Sikh communities are deeply connected and influence each other, so certainly more research on the Sikh diaspora’s desire for representation in the SGPC and what that would look like is most welcome, said Prof Hundle.An academician Amarjit Singh, former director of the Centre for Studies in Sri Guru Granth Sahib at the GNDU, said the move of adding Sikhs from abroad in the SGPC would enable it to become a truly international body of the Sikh community.