Sunamਸੁਨਾਮ

History

Sunam is an ancient town — its original name was Surajpur, after the Surajkund tank — but its history is dominated by one man. Udham Singh was born here on 26 December 1899, orphaned young, and raised in Amritsar's orphanage. On 13 April 1919 he was in Amritsar when General Dyer's troops fired on the unarmed crowd at Jallianwala Bagh; the massacre shaped his life. For two decades he carried the vow of revenge across continents, and on 13 March 1940, at Caxton Hall in London, he shot dead Michael O'Dwyer — the Lieutenant-Governor of Punjab at the time of the massacre. Tried and convicted, he was hanged at Pentonville Prison on 31 July 1940, going to the gallows with the name of the motherland on his lips.

Independent India honoured him: his remains were brought home in 1974, and Sunam was officially renamed Sunam Udham Singh Wala. The town's memorial to its martyr is its civic and spiritual centre — schoolchildren are brought here, and every 31 July the town remembers the hanging at Pentonville.

Geography & people

Sunam lies in Sangrur district, about 20 kilometres south of Sangrur town, on the Ludhiana–Hisar railway line and the roads toward Mansa and the Haryana border — the southern gateway of the district. The 2011 census counted 69,069 residents in the municipal council. Punjabi is the everyday language; Sikhs form the majority. The economy rests on the grain market, small industry and the services of a sub-divisional town.

Places of interest

The Shaheed Udham Singh memorial — and the town's institutions named for him — are Sunam's principal attractions, drawing visitors on his birth and martyrdom anniversaries. The Surajkund tank recalls the town's original name, Surajpur. The old town's gurdwaras and temples serve its population, and the railway station on the Ludhiana–Hisar line keeps it connected to Sangrur, Mansa and the Haryana border towns.

Notable people

Shaheed Udham Singh — born 26 December 1899, martyred 31 July 1940 — is Sunam's immortal son, and the town's official name carries his. His journey from the Surajpur orphan to the gallows at Pentonville is taught in every Punjab schoolbook, and Sunam's children grow up in its shadow. Baba Bhai Mool Chand, a figure of the town's religious history, is also remembered here — his name lives on in the town's religious institutions. But it is Udham Singh who defines Sunam: the boy from Surajpur who carried Jallianwala Bagh's revenge to London.