Sankaran Nair was a lawyer who became a Judge in the Madras High Court in 1908. He played an active role in the Indian National Congress and served as their president in 1897. He founded and edited The Madras Review and The Madras Law Journal. In 1915, he became a member of the India Council.

Sankaran Nair visited Britain in 1920 as part of the Indian deputation to the Southborough Committee on Indian franchise. He had travelled with Herabai Tata and Mithan Lam to put forward the case for female suffreage in India. He served as councillor to the Secretary of State for India in London 1920-1. During his time in Britain he gave a number of addresses and was involved in a campaign for a residential club for Indian female students in London.

Sankaran Nair continued to pursue an active political career when he returned to India. In 1922 he wrote Gandhi and Anarchy which criticized Gandhi's noncooperation movement but also criticized Michael O'Dwyer and British suppression. He was chair of the All-India Committee which met with the Simon Commission in 1928-9.