S. Raja Ratnam came to Britain to study law at King's College, London. With the outbreak of the Second World War, he was no longer able to continue his studies and turned to journalism and writing to earn his living. While in London he became politically active, taking an anti-imperial, anti-British stance. He joined the Left Book Club and became a Marxist. He published with the New India Publishing Company and in journals Asian Horizon, Life and Letters Today, and Indian Writing.

He returned to Singapore in 1948, initially working as a journliast and later in politics.