Baba Iqbal Singh Ji

Sant Baba Iqbal Singh was president of the Kalgidhar Trust at Baru Sahib, whose Akal Academies brought schooling to villages across five states. He was named for the Padma Shri in 2022 in the field of social work, from Punjab ^[1].

From civil servant to educator

Iqbal Singh was born on 1 May 1926 ^[2]. He took a postgraduate degree in agricultural sciences from Khalsa College, Amritsar, and rose to be director of agriculture in the Himachal Pradesh government ^[2].

A hut and five students

In 1986–87 he started a school in a hut with five pupils, putting in his savings of 2,200 rupees ^[2]. It grew into 129 CBSE-affiliated rural schools, the Akal Academies, in Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Himachal Pradesh, along with Eternal University at Baru Sahib and Akal University at Talwandi Sabo, together serving more than 70,000 students ^[2]. The schools combine a spiritual way of life with modern science and teaching ^[2]. The growth of this network became a case study at IIM Ahmedabad and was written up in the Harvard Business Review in 2018 ^[2].

Under his guidance the trust also set up two music schools for Sikh devotional music, a women’s empowerment centre, a charitable hospital and drug de-addiction centres ^[2]. In 2020 the UN Development Programme commended the trust’s quick switch to online teaching ^[2].

He died at Baru Sahib on 29 January 2022, aged 96, days after his Padma Shri was announced ^[3].