Vikram ji

You have me wondering now too! I think they have so much money that they need a professional team to keep track of it. That was my only hunch.

More important is your point that this is not supposed to be run like a business

[qupte]It may be mentioned that The Sikh Gurdwara Act 1925 was clear that the Shiromani committee or institutes being run by it could not be treated as an industry, corporation or a business house. The employees who were recruited got salary for the “seva” they rendered to gurdwaras or SGPC-run institutes. [/quote]

But they have now all these schools, medical colleges, and the rest.
Either one day this will all blow up. Or the Sikh Gurdwara Act will be amended to make everything they do legitimate. Or they will simply become a business, run like a corporation, with their own constituencies, and the rest of the quom will ignore them. Not unlike other religious institutions, in almost any religion, where a "sect" within a larger religious denomination runs its own affairs and non-members are essentially disinterested. When I think about it from my end what is growing is a sense that they have their own operation. For example, they run a missionary college. Someone interested in attending a missionary college will pick that one if it fits their needs and their beliefs. Or will pick a different one that has no connection to SGPC...and there are several of those as well. Their are many examples of how this would work within various Christian groups. It is interesting that religious institutions evolve in that way.