RULĪĀ SIṄGH, a Ghadr leader, was the son of Bhāī Jagat Siṅgh of the village of Sarābhā in Ludhiāṇā district. Because of his meagre means, he left home to seek employment outside the country. This he ultimately found in Astoria, Oregon, in the United States, where many Punjabis were working on farms. Kartār Siṅgh Sarābhā, then a student at the University of California, Berkeley, used to come to that area during the holidays. Rulīā Siṅgh helped him secure part-time work to earn money to pay his university fees. His contact with Kartār Siṅgh, the articles in the Ghadr and speeches by the leaders of the Indian revolutionary movement had a stirring effect on him. He felt further embittered by the daily humiliations he, like other Indians, suffered as one coming from a slave country. On the outbreak of World War I, Indians in America were exhorted to return to their country and participate in an armed revolution against the British under the aegis of the Ghadr party. Rulīā Siṅgh, now 36 years old, was one of those who responded to the call. He had neither money nor proper clothes, but he was provided with passage money by his friends.

         After the attempted revolution failed, Rulīā Siṅgh was arrested, along with others, and tried in the first Lahore conspiracy case. He was given the penalty of death, but the sentence was later commuted to transportation for life. Rulīā Siṅgh was sent to the Andamans Cellular Jail where he was subjected to violence, put on short rations and made to wear handcuffs and bar fetters. He contracted tuberculosis which proved fatal.