On the eve of the 550th birth anniversary of Guru Nanak, two Iran-based universities have desired to establish academic Chairs to conduct research on the life and teachings of the first Sikh Guru. Another proposal from their side was to initiate the Sikh religious study programme in collaboration with the Iran-based universities. University of Religion president SayyidAbulhasanNavab and a representative of Al-Mustafa International University recently held a discussion with Akal Takht officiating JathedarGianiHarpreet Singh to work on the modalities of installing the Chairs. GianiHarpreet Singh said to arrange literature and reference material, they had tied up with the Punjabi University, Patiala. “Besides this, the SGPC will be directed to assist the Iranian scholars in collecting the information on the life, philosophy and vision of Guru Nanak. It was an honour for the Sikh community that our Guru’s message was being spread on a global platform by installing a dedicated Chair,” he added.
Syed AfrozNazvis, an Iranian delegate, said that besides setting up Chairs by the universities under the patronage of the Government of Iran, a detailed discussion was also done with Akal TakhtJathedar over a religious study programme proposed to understand the concept of Sikhism. “We proposed that there should be a Sikh religious study programme for Indian and Iranian intellectuals”, he said
Meanwhile, Pervinder Singh Chandhok, a Sikh citizen of Iran, said though the Sikhs comprise a miniscule population of Iran, the Iranian government had accorded them all rights to observe the Gurpurbs and other religious ethics. “I can say that the ‘shaan’ (glory) of turban is there in Iran. There are around 60 Sikh families living in Iran. They visit two gurdwaras located in Tehran and Zahran. We are free to maintain the ‘maryada’ of Sikhism and the authorities never interfere in our religious occasions,” he said.
(Extracted from sikhnet.com)
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