Bhagat Puran Singh

He was born Ramji Das on 4 June 1904 in the village of Rajewal (Rahnon) in Ludhiana district, Punjab, into a Hindu family. His father, Lala Shibu Mal, was a moneylender; his mother, Mehtab Kaur, is credited with shaping his ideas about compassion and service.

After sitting his matriculation examination in 1923 he was turned away from a Hindu temple's kitchen, and found by contrast that the langar at Gurdwara Reru Sahib fed all comers without distinction. He embraced Sikhism and took the name Puran Singh; the honorific 'Bhagat' was conferred on him later.

From 1924 until Partition in 1947 he served at Gurdwara Dera Sahib in Lahore. In 1934 an abandoned, severely disabled child named Piara Singh was left at the gurdwara; when no one else would take responsibility, Bhagat Puran Singh did, carrying the boy on his back for years. This is regarded as the beginning of Pingalwara.

At Partition he moved to a refugee camp in Amritsar and worked among the displaced, gradually building a permanent home for destitute, disabled and orphaned people. Pingalwara admits people irrespective of caste or religion, and after his death was led by Dr Inderjit Kaur. The society today runs homes, hospitals and schools bearing his name.

Bhagat Puran Singh printed and distributed pamphlets and tracts free of charge on social and environmental questions from his time in Lahore onwards. He campaigned on pollution, soil erosion and deforestation, organised tree planting, and wrote a number of books on environmental themes, among them Plant or Perish.

The Government of India awarded him the Padma Shri in 1981. He returned the award in 1984 in protest at the Indian Army's Operation Blue Star at the Golden Temple in Amritsar. He was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991. After his death a chair was established in his name at Guru Nanak Dev University, and a commemorative postage stamp was issued in 2004.[2][3][4][5]