 He was born in Travancore, then a princely state in the British Indian Empire and was educated in Madras and at the University of Oxford.After a stint as professor at Aligarh Muslim University and later at University of Calcutta, he became editor of "Hindustan Times" in 1925.Later, he was appointed Secretary to the Chamber of Princes, whence he moved to Patiala State and then to Bikaner State as Foreign Minister and later became the latter's Prime Minister.