AMRITSAR SAHIB—From now on copies of the Sikh Guru, Guru Granth Sahib, will be transported abroad only by air, and not by truck, or sea route, says the Akal Takht.
There is no facility for printing copies of the Guru Granth Sahib outside of India. These are exported to gurdwaras in the US, the UK, and Europe. On April 24, a group of young Sikhs in Delhi had blocked a shipping container carrying 150 copies of the Guru Granth Sahib from Gurdwara Rakabganj Sahib to the Faridabad container depot, sparking a row.
Following the row over disrespect to Guru Granth Sahib during transportation abroad, these will be allowed to be sent only by air.
“The security process at the dry port was an insult to the Guru Granth Sahib, besides the containers would get contaminated. We have got a complaint on the Delhi incident. We have decided that only air route would be used for export,” stated Akal Takht’s appointed Jathedar Giani Gurbachan Singh.
Guru Granth Sahib is the central religious text of Sikhism, considered by Sikhs to be the final sovereign authority of the religion after the 10th Sikh master Guru Gobind Singh. At present, there are only two facilities of printing this text in India, one in Amritsar run by Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) and the other in Delhi managed by Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee (DSGMC).
In 2010, SGPC had also planned to set up a printing facility in North Carolina in the US on 2.5 acres of land, but the project never took off.
