[2] Born at Rawalpindi (now in Pakistan) on 24 October 1911, to Satya Dev, Headmaster of a Government High School and Durga Devi, he did his matriculation from the Government High School, Gujrat, Pakistan in 1927 and his Intermediate as a private candidate in 1930 before completing his graduation and Post Graduation from the F.C.

An admirer of Swami Dayanand Saraswati, Subhash Chandra Bose and Maulana Abdul Kalam Azad, he was also influenced by the lives of Shivaji and Garibaldi.

Chandra started his political career at the age of 16 and formed the Multan Student Union in 1927.

He was closely associated with the Lahore Revolutionary Party and was arrested in connection with the Multan Bomb case in 1929.

He was also selected as the sole representative of the Indian students to the 1938 World Youth Congress which he could not attend.