Lal Bahadur Shastri

Lal Bahadur Shastri, the second Prime Minister of India, was born on October 2, 1904 in Munshi Sharda Prasad Shrivastav in Mughalsarai, Uttar Pradesh. His father was a teacher in primary school. In this case, everyone called them 'Munshi ji'. Later, he had worked as clerk in the revenue department. Lal Bahadur's mother's name was 'Ramdulari'. Due to being the smallest in the family, the boy used to call Lal Bahadur as 'Nanhe' by family-loving.

Unfortunately when he was eighteen months old, his father died. His mother Ramdulari went to Mirzapur, home of his father Hazarilal. After some time, his grandfather did not even live. Raghunath Prasad contributed a lot to his mother in raising the child's parenting.

While living in maternal house, he took elementary education. After that the education took place in Harishchandra High School and Kashi Vidyapeeth. On receiving Shastri's title from Kashi Vidyapeeth, Shastri ji removed the caste word Shrivastav permanently from the birth. 

After this the word 'Shastri' became synonymous with the name of Lal Bahadur. In the later days, the slogan 'Do not die, hit' was given by Lal Bahadur Shastri who made a revolution in the whole country. Another hailstorm given to him is 'Jai Jawan-Jai Kisan', which is still on the lips of people.

Lal Bahadur, a worker of non-cooperation movement run by Mahatma Gandhi against the British government in India, was jailed for a short time (1921). On release, he studied at a Nationalist University Kashi Vidyapeeth (presently Mahatma Gandhi Kashi Vidyapeeth) and earned the title of postgraduate scholar. After getting education in Sanskrit language till graduation level, he joined the Bharat Sevak Sangh and started his political life from here, taking a fast for country service.

Shastri was a true Gandhian who spent his entire life with simplicity and put him in service to the poor. He had active participation in all important programs and movements of the Indian Independence Movement, and as a result, he had to remain in jail many times. Non-cooperation Movement of 1921, Dandi March of 1930 and Quit India movement of 1942 were notable in the movements of independence struggle which played an important role in their movement.

Shastri's political directors included Purushottam Das Tandon and Jawaharlal Nehru in addition to Pandit Govind Ballabh Pant. First of all, after coming to Allahabad in 1929, he started working with Tandonji as secretary of Allahabad unit of the Bharat Sevak Sangh. While staying in Allahabad, his proximity with Nehruji grew.

After this, Shastri's stature continued to grow, and after one successive climbing stairs, he went to the chief minister's post of Nehruji's cabinet. After the appointment of the Home Minister's effective post in 1961, he got a reputation as a skilled intermediary. After three years of Jawaharlal Nehru's illness, he was appointed a minister without any department and after Nehru's death, in June 1964, he became the Prime Minister of India. 

In his first press conference, he had said that his first priority was to prevent food prices from rising and he was successful in doing so. His  activities were not entirely theoretical and consistent with the practical and public needs. To be seen fairly, Shastri's rule was very difficult. Shastriji was also criticized for not being effectively handled by India's financial problems, but he was highly appreciated for his firmness in the war in 1965 with neighboring Pakistan on the disputed province of Jammu and Kashmir.

On January 11, 1966, after the signing of the Tashkent Declaration of non-warfare with Pakistan President Ayub Khan in Tashkent, this great man died of heart failure. He was also honored with Bharat Ratna in post-war year 1966. Even today Shastri remembers the entire India for his simplicity, patriotism and honesty.

The End