In the gurdwaras, Sri Guru Granth Sahib, draped in fine raiment, is placed on a palanquin, often flower-bedecked, and under a canopy. The devotees, as they come, kneel before -the Granth Sahib, the forehead touching the ground, place a small offering, generally some coin, and take their seat on the carpeted floor.

Most of the important historical Sikh shrines in Punjab are managed by the Shiromani Gurudwara Prabandhak Committee, a statutory body elected from amongst the members of the community. The other gurdwaras also generally have locally elected and registered managing committees. The community had, however, to undergo great suffering to acquire the control of these shrines in its own hands. In the last century, a hereditary group of priests or mahants had entrenched themselves in these shrines, and they were treating them as their personal property. The large income from the lands attached to the shrines and the offering of the devotees was used up by the mahants in pursuit of pleasures of the flesh and in debauchery. Even in matters of prayers, they had introduced idolatry and other practices contrary to the basic tenets of the Sikh faith. A movement for the reform of the gurdwaras and their management was, therefore, launched. The British rulers backed the mahants and their vested interests.