[1][2] Born on 18 May 1905 in the village of Khandasahi, Kendrapara District, Odisha State to a Hindu Brahmin jamindar family, he originally had the name Banshidhar Mishra before he later changed it.
[3] He co-founded and was Secretary of the Colonial Seamen’s Association,[6] whilst Chris Braithwaite was President, which formed in 1935 in reaction to the British Shipping (Assistance) Act.
[7][8] Alley recalled the CSA "started at the time when Italian fascism threat [to] attack Abyssinia.
[13] During his time in the United Kingdom he was in contact with N. G. Ranga, Feroze Gandhi, Krishna Menon, and Siddhartha Shankar Ray.
[2] In 1945, representing the FIAGB, he attended the Fifth Pan-African Congress in Manchester drawing comparisons between Indian and his fellow African seamen.
Despite being offered a role by the Indian National Congress, he became a teacher, founding a primary school in his village Khandasahi.