In prison, communist leader Man Mohan Adhikari and other jailed activists used to take classes on Marxism from him. Whence out of jail Regmi took a non-violent stand. On January 26, 1947, Regmi inaugurated the first convention of the Nepali Rashtriya Congress in which B. P. Koirala was nominated as the acting president until election was held (with the nominated President of the party Tanka Prasad Acharya in jail in Kathmandu). In 1947 Regmi became the first elected working President (Karyakari Sabhapati) of the party (which many books have erroneously cited him as nominated president). At the time of the election B. P. Koirala was in jail. On his release he declared himself the acting President of the party. This led to the split of the party with one group Koirala faction and the other Regmi faction. In 1948 Koirala formed Nepali Congress Regmi continued as the President of Nepali National Congress. The Regmi group although smaller than the Koirala group had attracted many followers - among them being Pushpa Lal Shrestha who later started the first Communist Party of Nepal. Regmi was a follower of the Gandhian philosophy of no violence, he was one of the pioneers of the Democratic Movement in Nepal. He played a leading role in the restoration of democracy in Nepal through non-violence against the Rana Regime and later the party-less Panchayat system. After his return to Nepal following the overthrow of the Rana regime he became Nepal's education and foreign minister. His efforts led to the formalizing of ties with China Nepal's admittance to UNO and numerous other steps that integrated Nepal with the rest of the world and moved it out of isolation that it was under for more than a century under the Rana regime. As home minister of Nepal he organized Nepal's first democratic elections. It was a tough task as voter rolls had to be built and government machinery geared for a task it had never undertaken before. After the advent of Partyless Panchayat regime in Nepal Regmi started full-time working on history books on Nepal. Writing books was a hobby for Regmi but his contribution towards that field was equally remarkable as was his contribution to politics. It could not be wrong to say that Regmi introduced Nepal to the outside world through his multiple books. Regmi wrote history books under the name D. R. Regmi and all his books were written in English.