Appointed by the SGPC in March 2025 after it removed the sitting Jathedar; also holds Takht Sri Kesgarh Sahib at Anandpur Sahib. Strong traditional scholarship and a younger generation — but his appointment is opposed by Damdami Taksal, sections of the Nihang orders, and questioned by Punjab's chief minister. ★ Contested · verified 07-25
Re-checked 2026-10-08 · holdsThe field file →
★ Arguably the most powerful Sikh alive, and he holds no religious office at all. The SGPC administers the historic gurdwaras — and appoints and removes the Jathedars. Re-elected for 2025–26 with 117 of 136 votes , after resigning in February 2025 and having the resignation refused. ★ Verified 07-25
Re-checked 2026-10-08 · holdsHead of the orthodox seminary founded, by tradition, by Guru Gobind Singh in 1706 — the most influential body outside the committee structure, and one of the organisations that rejected the current Akal Takht appointment . Where the SGPC has offices, the Taksal has students.
Re-checked 2026-10-08 · holdsHeads the DSGMC, the second great gurdwara administration after the SGPC — running the historic Delhi gurdwaras, schools and hospitals. A reminder that Sikh institutional power is regional and electoral, not hierarchical: Amritsar cannot instruct Delhi.
Re-checked 2026-10-08 · holds
★ The strangest power on this board: a sitting Member of Parliament running a political party from a prison cell 2,000 miles from his constituency. Held under the National Security Act, detention extended; his supporters launched Akali Dal (Waris Punjab De) on 14 January 2026 and named him its chief-ministerial face. ★ Verified 07-25 ⚠︎ Re-checked 2026-10-08: Still MP for Khadoor Sahib and in Assam jail, but the NSA detention "was lifted on 22 April 2026" (April 2026 reports say he stays in Assam jail; on what basis not confirmed). Akali Dal (Waris Punjab De) was launched 2025-01-14 at Maghi Mela, not 2026 (party Wikipedia page); a 2026-07-29 Chandigarh protest demanded his release. UNSOURCED: named chief-ministerial face (only an April 2025 headline pitch seen); 2,000 miles.
Re-checked 2026-10-08 · CHANGEDThe 17th chief minister of the only Sikh-majority state on earth, in office since 16 March 2022 . Holds the civil power in Punjab — and has publicly questioned the legitimacy of the acting Akal Takht Jathedar , putting the state directly into a religious appointment dispute. Verified 07-25
Re-checked 2026-10-08 · holdsFormer — and the word is the point. For decades the Akali Dal was the political vehicle of the Panth and effectively controlled the SGPC; its collapse is why the seats above are contested. Still campaigning, with a rally at the Maghi Mela in January 2026 . ★ Catch · no longer president ⚠︎ Re-checked 2026-10-08: Card's 'former president / no longer president' is wrong as of now: Wikipedia (edited 2026-09-26) says he is "currently the president of Shiromani Akali Dal". Re-election date not sourced in this pass. Also attacked with a knife near a gurdwara in Nanded on 2026-08-13. UNSOURCED: Maghi Mela rally January 2026.
Re-checked 2026-10-08 · CHANGEDA US-based lawyer who founded SFJ in 2007 for Sikh "self-determination"; SFJ was banned in India in 2019 and he was designated a terrorist in 2020 . Hold two things at once: a US indictment alleges an Indian official plotted to kill him — and his own rhetoric telling Hindus to leave Canada was condemned across the Canadian parliament. Verified 07-25
Re-checked 2026-10-08 · holdsLeads the largest Sikh civil-rights organisation in the United States , in post since 2024 and active through 2026 — the body that litigates for the right to wear a turban and keep a beard in the army, in police forces, in schools and at work. Religious-liberty ground we benefit from too. Verified 07-25
Re-checked 2026-10-08 · holdsAt Colby since 1986; fourteen books and over a hundred articles , and the leading translator of Sikh sacred poetry into English. Her work on gender in Sikhism is the best route into a tradition that declared the equality of women in the 1500s and has not always kept it. Verified 07-25
Re-checked 2026-10-08 · holds
Holds the Dr. Jasbir Singh Saini Endowed Chair in Sikh and Punjabi Studies and works on the formation of the Sikh scripture itself — textual scholarship on the Guru Granth Sahib. Read him before Field C: he studies the book that Sikhs treat as a living Guru.
Re-checked 2026-10-08 · holds
Taught at Columbia 1988–99, then held the Kapany Chair at UC Santa Barbara until 2015; now founder and director of the Global Institute for Sikh Studies in New York. A scholar who left the university to build an institution — the diaspora funding its own memory.
Re-checked 2026-10-08 · holds
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