Shaheed Udham Singh Ji was born at Sunam in Sangrur district in 1899. He shot Michael O'Dwyer, who had been Lieutenant Governor of Punjab in 1919, at Caxton Hall in London on 13 March 1940, and was hanged at Pentonville on 31 July 1940.
A memorial museum at Sunam carries his name. In July 2026 the Punjab government reviewed a ₹62-crore heritage package that included ₹14.30 crore for its expansion.
Udham Singh was born at Sunam in 1899, orphaned young, and brought up in the Central Khalsa Orphanage at Amritsar. He was present at Jallianwala Bagh in 1919.
The pistol he used was bought secondhand and the shot he fired was one of several. O'Dwyer had approved the action at Jallianwala Bagh and defended it for the rest of his life, which is why he and not Dyer was the target.
His remains were returned to India in 1974. The town is formally Sunam Udham Singh Wala and is otherwise a market town in Sangrur district.
He waited twenty-one years. He worked in East Africa, in the United States and in Britain, and he moved under several names before he did what he had come to do.
He was tried at the Old Bailey, refused to plead in a way the court could use, and used the dock to make a statement that the press was restrained from reporting in full.
His remains were returned to India in 1974 and taken to Sunam. The town's memorial and the district's name are both later than that return.