A veteran leader of the Ghadar Party, Banta Singh was born in 1890 at village Sanghowal, District Jullundur. His father, Buta Singh Gill, was a prosperous farmer and commanded great respect in the village. Banta Singh received his early education at the Bal Primary School and after that passed the Matriculation examination fromBanta Singh the Anglo-Sanskrit High School, Jullundur. that, he decided to go abroad. On the way to America, he came across some people of his acquaintance in Singapore and Hong Kong in dire distress and helped them out with money despite the fact that he himself badly needed every pice he had. When he reached Canada, he found his countrymen deeply involved in a national movement aimed at expulsion of the British from India. He felt instinctively drawn towards it and started working for the Ghadar, the Party organ. As the international horizon became overcast with dark clouds of war, he genuinely began to feel that his place of work was not America but India. Accordingly, he returned to India in December, 1912 and embarked on a_ well-thought-out programme of winning over Indian soldiers in military cantonments to the national cause. His house became a rendezvous of revolutionaries such as Harnam Singh Tundilat, Kartar Singh Sarabha, Munsha Singh Dukhi and Rash Bihari Bose. With a band of youngmen mostly drawn from his own village he tempered with railway lines and cut telephone wires near the Suranasi Railway Station and committed a political dacoity in village Alawalpur. When arrests began to be made and a police post was set up in his village, he quietly slipped away. In his absence his father Buta Singh, his brother Santa Singh and two close relatives of his were detained. Later on, his father was released but his brother was sentenced to 14 years’ and the two relatives to 7 years’ imprisonment each. When he was working underground, he once went to Lahore to forcibly get hold of some fire arms. There he was detected and two policemen attempted to arrest him and his companion Sajjan Singh. He hit back and killed one of them. Having done that he escaped and boarded a railway train at Mughal Sarai. But a few policemen also followed him and succeeded in boarding the same train. Banta Singh jumped down from the running train and frustrated the designs of his pursuers. Soon after, with the help of a few other revolutionaries he made a raid on the police chowki at Mananwala and seized all their firearms. When they were chased by the police, all but Banta Singh were arrested. Undaunted by what had happened, Banta Singh continued his work as usual. He was declared an absconder and a prize of two squares of land and two thousand rupees was announced for anyone catching him. His own close relative, Partap Singh of village Jaura in the Tanda Police Station, fell: victim to the temptation and betrayed him into the hands of the authorities on 15th June, 1915. He was tried under Martial Law in the Central Jail Lahore and sentenced to death. He was hanged on 12th August, 1915.
References :-
- Eminent Freedom Fighters Of Punjab by Fauja Singh (1972)