Gupta was born on 5 February 1902 in Bhurewal village, which is in the present-day's Naraingarh subdistrict of Ambala district, Haryana, India.

[1] His Ph.D. thesis examiner was Jadunath Sarkar, who states:Professor Hari Ram Gupta’s thesis on the Evolution of the Sikh Confederaces, which I examined, along with Sir Edward Maclagan, the scholarly ex-governor of the Panjab, for the Ph.D. degree of the Panjab University, struck me as a work of outstanding merit which completely fills up a gap in our knowledge of modern Indian history.... One period of Panjab history and that of Delhi Empire, too, ... has thus been set up on a granite foundation.

After the partition of India, he authored Narratives of Persian and Iraq Force and Burma Campaigns of World War II during his stint with the Ministry of Defence's historical section.

Starting with 1957, he was Panjab University's professor and its History department's head till 1963, along with being its dean of instruction for more than one year.

It dedicates considerable space to excerpts from Sarkar's fifty-plus years of correspondence with his friend Govind Sakharam Sardesai, who was a Marathi historian.

"[9] Panjab on the eve of first Sikh war is described by William T. Walker as "a noteworthy collection of essays on the prewar conditions in Punjab that contributed to the outbreak of hostilities.

"[10] His writings on the current events of his time include his multi-volume book titled India-Pakistan War, 1965.

[2] The Asiatic Society acknowledged Gupta's work for the Punjab history by awarded him Sir Jadunath Sarkar Gold Medal in 1949.

[3] The Hari Ram Gupta Memorial Lecture is annually organised in his commemoration by the History department of Panjab University.