Kirupakaran was born on 17 June 1939 at Point Pedro Hospital in northern Ceylon.

[4] Orphaned at a young age, he was educated at Methodist Girls' High School, Point Pedro and Hartley College.

[4][5][6][7] After being expelled from Hartley College in 1955, he, with the help of his church, obtained an athletics scholarship to study in London.

[8][9][10][11] Karan had falsely claimed that he was expelled from LSE for participating in Vietnam War protests.

[9][10][11] Europeans found it difficult to pronounce his name so upon obtaining British citizenship Kirupakaran changed his name to Ian Kiru Karan.

[9][10][11] He then supported the Christian Democratic Union of Germany (CDU), donating it 570,000 euros over several years.

[4][8][17] He was awarded the Federal Cross of Merit in June 2007 for his social and cultural work.