His father, Kishan Singh, and Uncle Ajit Singh, both were revolutionaries and were released from jail on the day he was born. He was a very brilliant student at school. The famous revolutionary Kartar Singh Sarabha was his model. Even as a child he was greatly moved by the Jallianwalah Bagh massacre. He expressed his desire to grow guns in the Indian soil to force the British rulers to quit India.
He learnt about the brutal death of Lala Lajpat Rai at the hands of a British police officer in 1928 while leading a peaceful but noisy demonstration against the Simon Commission. In order to avenge the murder of Lajpat Rai, he killed Saunders.
He along with his companions, Rajguru and Sukhdev, was hanged on 23rd March, 1931 on the bank of Ravi near Ferozepur. Earlier, he had floated Naujawan Bharat Sabha and also thrown a bomb in the Assembly. He wanted a free, secular, happy prosperous India. Indians can never forget his sacrifice for the motherland.