Mahavir Tyagi was born in 1899.He received his early education at Meerut, Uttar Pradesh.He took job in the British Indian Army.After Amritsar Massacre in 1919, he left the job. Mahavir Tyagi was deeply moved by Gandhiji and and started following him.He joined Indian Freedom Movement in 1920. He actively participated in the Kisan movement of Uttar Pradesh. Mahavir Tyagi was incarcerated by the British Government many times for his revolutionary activities.When he was in jail he came in close contact with the great nationalist leader, Motilal Nehru. In the plolitical circle of Uttar Pradesh he was mostly known as a "Rafian".It means he was the follower of Rafi Ahmed Kidwai,the great leader of Freedom Movement.

Mahavir Tyagi was selected as the member of Uttar Pradesh Legistive Council before independence.He was also the member of a committee which was set up for supervising the social welfare and land reforms in the tribal areas of Uttar Pradesh.Though Mahavir Tyagi was a Gandhian he was closely associated with some extrimists leaders like Sachindra Nath Sanyal, Prem Kishan Khanna and Vishnu Sharan Dublish.In the communal violance of 1947 he did a great job to rescue the Muslims .He also maintained peace in Uttar Pradesh. As a member of Constituent Assembly of India Mahavir Tyagi strongly opposed unsafeguarded Preventive Detention laws and suspension of fundamental rights during emergency.In 1951 he was appointed as the minister for Revenue & Expenditure in the Nehru` cabinet.During this tenure he launched Voluntary Disclosure Scheme for the first time.After that Mahavir Tyagi served as a strict Finance Minister.He also served as the Defence Organisation from 1953 to 1957.At that time he orderd to recruit more Muslims in the Indian Army because the number of Muslims decreased drastically after partition.

In 1956 Mahavir Tyagi protested against the restructuring of Indian states and the decision to topple the Communist Government in Kerala.As the chairman of Direct Taxes Administration Enquiry Committee he tried a lot to enact the Income Tax Act which came into existence in the year 1961. Mahavir Tyagi was appointed as the Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee of Parliament in1962. In 1964 he took the charge of Minister of Rehabilitation.He was the chairman of the Fifth Finance Commission in 1968.During the division of the congress he remained in Congress(O).From 1970 to 1976 Mahavir Tyagi represented the Congress(O) in the Rajya Sabha.He opposed the decision of Emergency in 1975.He also critisized the movement led by Jaya Prakash Narayan. Mahavir Tyagi wrote books - Ve Kranti Ke Din and and Meri Kaun Sunega. Tyagi passed away on May 22nd, 1980 in New Delhi