Bhagat Puran Singh

Bhagat Puran Singh (4 June 1904 – 5 August 1992) was an Indian writer, environmentalist, and philanthropist. As a young man he decided to dedicate his life to humanitarian work, and in 1947, he established Pingalwara, a home for the sick and disabled in Amritsar. He was also an environmental campaigner, raising awareness of pollution and soil erosion and writing many books about environmental topics. Bhagat Puran Singh was born in Rajewal (Rohno) Ludhiana district, Punjab. Born into a Hindu family, he was given the name Ramji Das as a child, but later in his childhood converted to Sikhism, taking the name Bhagat Puran Singh. After the death of his father, his mother encouraged him to finish the matric level of education, which would allow him to obtain a government job. His mother worked as a domestic help in the house of a doctor at Montgomery (Sahiwal), in part to pay for her son's education. Later, she moved to Lahore, where she cleaned utensils in households, sending ten rupees per month to Puran Singh, who was living in a hostel.