Hardik was an average student during his studies but he used to have a great amount of interest in cricket.He is said to have achieved below 50% marks in his B.Com.After completing his graduation, he was involved in his family business of water supply in the commercial sector.His father, Bharat Patel is a BJP worker from Viramgam.He started his social activist career by joining Sardar Patel Group (SPG), a Patidar youth group, and was the president of one of its unit.The idea that ignited him to raise the Patidar movement was that in July 2015, his sister, Monica didnt qualified for a state government scholarship, which she could have achieved had she been under the Other Backward Class (OBC) quota. After which, he formed the Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti (PAAS), a non-political organization to get Patidar caste under the OBC quota.In 2015, he parted his ways with the SPG and started concentrating on PAAS.The same year, he organized a Maha Kranti rally on 26 August 2015 for Patidar caste in Ahmedabad, which later turned out to be an agitation full of violence.On 14 July 2016, he was released on bail from the Lajpore jail in Surat after 9 months in cases of sedition and violence during the Patidar quota movement in 2015.Political parties such as Congress and BJP alleged him to be politically motivated by opposite parties. Once his photo with a Congress MLA Tejshree Patel was leaked, after which he released his photo alongside a BJP politician Purshottam Rupala, Rajnikant Patel and a video with VHPs Pravin Togadia, to show his unbiased protest.