In his student days in British India he was affiliated with the Khaksar movement, with which he later parted ways due to a difference of opinion.
After passing Intermediate exams from Meerut, he went to Agra University and got master's degrees in English and Urdu.
He started working at Meerut College in 1933, where Jameel Jalibi, Hasan Askari, Intizar Hussain, and Saleem Ahmed were his students.
In 1948 he migrated to Pakistan, where he continued as a lecturer in English at several colleges and was appointed as the first vice-chancellor of the University of Balochistan in 1976.
He also wrote Urdu poetry, including Naat, Salam, Munqibat, Marsiyas, Nazm and Ghazals.