Sunam in Sangrur district is old, appearing in medieval records, and was a pargana town under the Delhi Sultanate.
It is known now as the town of Udham Singh, born there in 1899, orphaned young and brought up in the Central Khalsa Orphanage at Amritsar. He shot Michael O'Dwyer, who had been Lieutenant Governor of Punjab through the Jallianwala Bagh year, at Caxton Hall in London on 13 March 1940. Whether he was himself in the Bagh on 13 April 1919 is the account he is always given and is not established by any record.
His remains were returned to India in 1974 and taken to Sunam. The town is formally Sunam Udham Singh Wala.
He gave his name in court as Ram Mohammad Singh Azad, which he had adopted deliberately to name all three Punjabi communities in one name.
That is the most explicit political statement made by anyone in the whole independence period and it was made by a man from a small town in Sangrur district in a London courtroom.
Sunam is an old town, named in sultanate period records, and it was a pargana headquarters long before it was anything else.
The town's other trade is hosiery and light engineering, and it is the market centre for the tail of the canal country running down toward Lehragaga and Moonak.
He was hanged at Pentonville in July 1940 and his remains were returned to India in 1974. The town has a memorial and the district carries his name.