SGPC to revive its Sikh history research department

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, July 28

The Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) will make special efforts to revive its Sikh history research department.

As per a press note issued here today, department secretary Diljeet Singh Bedi said the Indian Army had “taken away treasure trove of rare manuscripts and books” from the Sikh Reference Library which it has not yet returned to the SGPC.

He said they have time and again written to the Union Government that these rare books should be returned to the library, but nothing had materialised so far.

He said Central agencies had merely returned 75 books to them till date. They would now ensure that the Sikh Reference Library gets back its lost glory.

Dwelling on the current scenario, Bedi said the library had 23,359 books and 487 handwritten ‘birs’ of Guru Granth Sahib, besides other important documents.

He said the work on the digitisation of the library was underway on a war footing and they had already digitised around 3,000 manuscripts and books. The Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee would also re-publish the books which were not available in the market so that people could get useful information about ‘gurbani’ and the Sikh history.

He added that they would also be installing CCTV cameras in the library in the near future. He said they would also rope in scholars of different languages so that they could publish books in other languages as well.