Rahul was born into a south Indian family, the son of noted botanist late Professor H.Y. Mohan Ram. He is a nephew of the late H. Y. Sharada Prasad, who was best known as the media adviser to Indira Gandhi. Considering that he finally became a guitar player with a rock band, Rahul has some unexpected educational qualifications, earned at some of the top-ranking educational institutions in India and the USA. After schooling at St. Xavier's School, Delhi, he took a bachelor's degree in Chemistry at St. Stephen's College, Delhi and followed this up with an MSc in Chemistry from IIT Kanpur. Next, he took a PhD in Environmental Toxicology from Cornell University, which he attended on an Andrew White scholarship. His PhD research on environmental toxicology is what moved him to become an activist with the Narmada Bachao Andolan. His stint with that activist group consumed five years of his life immediately after he took his PhD from Cornell. Concurrently with his Narmada activism, Rahul had joined the Indian Ocean band in 1991, soon after returning to India with his PhD. Later, he went to America to learn to play the Alto saxophone, which he intends to bring to the band's music. Inside his group, he is known as Logic Baba because of his rationality. He has composed music, done playback singing in Bollywood. Rahul, along with Indian Ocean member Asheem, has sung 'Yaara Maula' in an Anurag Kashayap's Gulaal, a Hindi movie based on student politics. Rahul also created tribute videos for independent artists for ThankYouForMusic an event by Songdew. Rahul Ram's band Indian Ocean has also given music for the following films:
In 2015, Indian Ocean composed the music for critically acclaimed Masaan, in which Rahul Ram collaborated with writer Varun Grover and Swanand Kirkire for two songs and an original composition Bhor. Later the same year Rahul toured with Being Indian original series Aisi Taisi Democracy, the coming together of three prolific talents. Stand-up comedian and social-satirist Sanjay Rajoura, stand-up comedian, writer and lyricist Varun Grover joined him. Rahul also acted in A. R. Rahman's musical film99 Songs
