He reveled in satire and spoke and wrote with biting irony and sarcasm. He was known as gadfly.

Born in 1888 in an upper class family in Hyderabad (Sind), he had his education in Karachi. He made a mark even as a student leader. He was professor of English and History at the Muzzaffarpur College in Bihar for five years from 1912; he also taught for a year at the Banaras Hindu University (1919-20). From 1920-27 he became a member of the Gujarat Vidyapith founded by Mahatma Gandhi. It was as the Principal of the Vidyapith that he was hailed as "Acharya." He was married to Sucheta Kripalani who later became the first female Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh in 1936

Kripalani became President of the Congress at its Meerut session in 1946, just a year before Independence. He steered the organization through those critical days of the transfer of power with great skill. Kripalani differed from the other leaders of the Congress in his insistence on the supremacy of the organizational wing of the Congress. He parted company with the Congress and founded a political party known as Krishak Mazdoor Praja Party (KMPP) which subsequently merged itself into the Praja Socialist Party (PSP). He resigned from the PSP in 1954. He was closely associated with the Janata Party which came to power in 1977 riding the wave of national resentment against the Emergency. Kripalani is the author of a number of book including authoritative biography of Gandhiji.

Acharya Kripalani died in 1982