[2][3] While he was engaged in social reform as part of the Arya Samaj, a Hindu reformist institution, according to Bhandari he frequently denigrated her for her dark complexion.

As a student she was active politically and in 1946, helped organize a strike after two of her colleagues were dismissed for being involved with Subhash Chandra Bose's Indian National Army.

[5] Bhandari initially worked as a lecturer in Hindi in Calcutta, teaching first at Ballygunge Shiksha Sadan, a primary and secondary school, and later at Kolkata’s Rani Birla College 1961–1965.

Ek Inch Muskaan was an experimental novel, narrating the story of a marriage between a man and woman, with Yadav and Bhandari writing for each character in alternate chapters.

It portrayed the collapse of a marriage through the eyes of a nine-year old child, the titular Bunty, whose parents ultimately divorce and remarry other people.

[10] The book was initially serialised in Dharmayug, a Hindi magazine, and immediately attracted a wide readership, resulting in Bhandari receiving large amounts of fan letters and reader comments with each chapter's publication.

[10] Published to great acclaim, the novel has been described as a 'milestone and a turning point in Hindi literature',[14] and was subsequently translated widely, including into French, Bengali, and English.

Bisu's attempt to investigate and hold accountable the perpetrators of these crimes results in his death, and the intimidation and massacre of his entire village, in the novel.

In 1974, a story by Bhandari titled, Yehi Sach Hai (This is the Truth) was adapted into a film by Basu Chatterjee, called Rajnigandha.

It was staged by Amal Allana for the National School of Drama in Delhi, in a production that was also commercially successful, critically acclaimed, and ran for several years.

[5] These writers reflected society in newly-independent India, as it came to terms with rapid industrialization and urbanization and wrote in a markedly realistic style, in opposition to the prevailing romantic forms of Hindi literature.

Singh has noted on an assessment of Bhandari's oeuvre that her "...forte is the middle-class woman seeking emancipation from social and moral conservatism in order to develop her personality on an equal footing with man's, and thus make her existence meaningfully significant.

[13] Her short stories frequently employed satire, especially when addressing political themes, such as the functioning of India's legal system, or wealth and poverty.

In 2017, a classical Kathak dance performance of her story, 'Trishanku' earned critical acclaim for her daughter, the choreographer and dancer Rachna Yadav, and for music composers, the Gundecha brothers.

[26] In 1986, Bhandari sold the rights to her second novel, Aap Ka Bunty and it was subsequently adapted for a film produced by Dharmendra Goyal and directed by Sisir Mishra.

The film, Samay ki Dhara, starred Shabana Azmi, Shatrughan Sinha, Tina Munim and Vinod Mehra.

[27] Bhandari subsequently sued the filmmakers, Kala Vikas Pictures Pvt Ltd, on the grounds that the adaptation distorted her novel and consequently violated Section 57 of the Indian Copyright Act, 1957.