Prime Minister Manmohan Singh described him as "a man of peace, an idealist who lived by his principles and an intellectual with the human touch" in a tribute on his official Twitter account. Gujral was born on December 4, 1919 in the city of Jhelum, Punjab (now part of Pakistan) into a family of Congress party workers. He began his career in politics as a student leader and member of the underground Communist Party of India. He was arrested in 1942 and jailed for his involvement in the anti-colonial Quit India movement.
Gujral joined the ruling Congress party after India won independence and rose through the ranks to become minister of information and broadcasting under prime minister Indira Gandhi from 1969-71 and 1972-75. The soft-spoken Gujral ran foul of the Congress leadership when he refused to censor radio bulletins during the state of emergency imposed by Gandhi in 1975. He then spent five years working as India's ambassador to the Soviet Union from 1976 to 1980.