He finished his school education from Amar Jyoti High School, Luintel, Gorkha.  He stood first in School Leaving Certificate (SLC) exams in his batch. He went to intermediate college at Amrit Science College and stood first in the row in all the exams. He received a Colombo plan scholarship and studied Bachelor of Architecture in 1977 from Chandigarh, India. Baburam did M.Tech from Delhi School of Planning and Architecture and later in 1986 he finished his PhD from Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Dehli, India . Dr. Bhattaria’s Ph.D. thesis was later published as a book titled "The Nature of Underdevelopment and Regional Structure of Nepal- A Marxist Analysis".

On 4 February 1996, Bhattarai gave the government, led by Nepali Congress Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba, a list of 40 demands, threatening civil war if they were not met. This was February 4, 1996. 

Those demands were very revolutionary and related to "nationalism, democracy and livelihood".  There were demands including "there should be end of domination of foreign capital in Nepali industries, business and finance", and "discriminatory treaties, including the 1950 Nepal-India Treaty, should be abrogated", and "land under the control of the feudal system should be confiscated and distributed to the landless and the homeless.

 

Immediately after the demand, Baburam started guerilla insurgency and he was underground till April 2006. The 40 demands were whittled down to 24 in subsequent political negotiations. 

Bhattarai has contributed some publications too. 

The Nature of Underdevelopment and Regional structure of Nepal: A Marxist Analysis (Adroit Publishers, Delhi, 2003) - His PhD thesis.

Politico-Economic Rationale of People's War in Nepal (Utprerak Publications, Kathmandu, 1998)

Nepal! krantika Adharharu (in Nepali) (Janadisha Publications, 2004). 

Let’s Give No Legitimacy to the Beneficiaries of the New Kot Massacre - News Paper Article written in the aftermath of Palace Massacre of 2001.