Born in 1906, as Chandra Shekhar Tiwari in Bhabhra (Bhavra) village of Madhya Pradesh, he joined the Non-Cooperation Movement as a 15 yr-old and was subsequently arrested. On being presented to the District Magistrate, he gave his name as ‘Azad’. After the suspension of the Non-Cooperation Movement, Azad was disappointed. He then became an active member of the HRA and started to collect funds for HRA. Most of the fund collection was through robberies of government property. He was involved in the Kakori Train Robbery of 1925, the shooting of J. P. Saunders at Lahore in 1928 to avenge the killing of Lala Lajpat Rai, and at last, in the attempt to blow up the Viceroy of India's train in 1929.
Being Azad’s birthplace, the name of Bhabhra tehsil has been changed and it is now known as Chandra Shekhar Azad Nagar.
In popular culture, the lives of Azad, Bhagat Singh, Rajguru, Bismil, and Ashfaq were depicted in the 2006 film Rang De Basanti.