Shambhu Dutt Sharma was born in Punjab Province, British India in Hoshiarpur District near Mukerian on 9 September 1918.
[2] After studying law he became involved in the Indian independence movement at the age of 24 as a supporter of Mahatma Gandhi's Quit India movement which he joined in 1942 after resigning as a civilian gazetted officer in the British Indian Army.
[3] In 1975 he was again imprisoned protesting during the Emergency in India imposed by Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.
[5] He favored the adoption of the Corrupt Public Servants (Forfeiture of Property) bill prepared by the Law Commission of India in 1999, which proposed to bar criminals from contesting elections.
[6] At the age of 92 on 30 January 2011 he ended a hunger strike he had gone on demanding the end of corruption in India, after being persuaded by several prominent people including Kiran Bedi, Swami Agnivesh and also by Prashant Bhushan and Arvind Kejriwal.