Shastri, Lal Bahadur (1904-1966), became prime minister of India in June 1964, after the death of Jawaharlal Nehru. Shastri won a reputation as a mild-mannered, efficient political moderate, and as a man skilled at compromise.
Shastri was born on Oct. 2, 1904, in the Banaras district of eastern India. He graduated from Kashi Vidyapith, which is a Hindu nationalist university. He entered politics and joined the Indian National Congress in the 1920’s. Shastri took an active part in Mahatma Gandhi‘s movement for Indian independence and was arrested several times in the 1930’s and 1940’s.
After India gained independence in 1947, Shastri became minister for police and transport of the state of Uttar Pradesh. In 1951, he became general secretary of the Indian National Congress. He directed the national ministries of transport and railways, communication, commerce and industry, and home affairs before becoming prime minister of India. Shastri died in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, in the Soviet Union, on Jan. 11, 1966, just a few hours after signing a nonaggression pact with Pakistan.
