Lal Bahadur was born in the year 1904 at Mughalsarai, a railway colony about seven miles from Benares. His father, Sharda Prasad Srivastava, was a poor school teacher who subsequently became a clerk in the Revenue Office at Allahabad. It was a lower middle-class Kayastha family of slender means. Lal Bahadur's father died when he was only one and a half years old. His widowed mother returned to her parents. He stayed at his grandfather's house till the age of ten.

Lal Bahadur was married in the year 1927 to Lalita Devi of Mirzapur. As dowry, he refused to accept anything more than a spinning wheel and a little yarn.

For his education, Lal Bahadur came to Benares at the age of ten and stayed with his maternal uncle. He studied at Harishchandra High School, Benares. He showed promise in English and History but not in Arithmetic. In 1921, Lal Bahadur responded to Gandhiji's call for non-cooperation and gave up his studies. Afterwards, he resumed his studies at the Kashi Vidyapeeth. He secured a first class degree (Shastri) in Philosophy in the year 1926.

Many factors helped to shape the mind and personality of Lal Bahadur Shastri. His early childhood and youth were spent in the holy cities of Benares and Allahabad, which conditioned him for a life of orthodox devotion and moral purity. The early death of his father and the influence of his maternal uncle, Raghunath Prasad, fostered in him the qualities of humility, self-reliance and earnest endevour. Lal Bahadur must owe to his uncle his devotion to nishkaam karma.

His teacher Nishkameshwar Misra narrated to him the exploits of heroes and patriots like Rana Pratap and Shivaji. Dr. Bhagwandas, the Principal of the Vidyapeeth, inclucated in his mind, through his personal example, the Samanvayavada approach to life, showing how a person could achieve moral and spiritual greatness by simple living and high thinking. The deep influence of Gandhiji created in him the desire, as he himself said, "to rise purely on merit and good work." Gandhiji became a model for him to emulate. The principles of Truth and Non-Violence appealed to him most. Books on religion, philosophy and politics influenced him most. While in jail he read Kant, Hegel, Laski, Bertrand Russel, Huxley, Marx and Lenin, besides many works of biography.

His interest in science is shown by his translation of the biography of Madame Curie in Hindi. Among his early associates, Tribhuvan Narayan Singh and Jawaharlal Nehru deserve special mention. Singh was his classfellow at school and the Vidyapeeth, and like him, gave up his studies for some time to take part in the non-cooperation movement launched by Gandhiji in 1921. His association with Jawaharlal Nehru in the Congress organisation work and the Government was a long one. As early as 1929, the young Lal Bahadur had watched Nehru unfurling the flag of Independence on the banks of the Ravi, Earlier, as a schoolboy, he had read the speeches of Talik, Bipin Chandra Pal, Lajpat Rai and Gokhale.

After completing his education in 1926, Lal Bahadur Shastri enrolled himself as a life member of the Servants of the People Society and began Harijan uplift work at Muzaffarpur. In the thirties he served on the Allahabad Municipal Board for seven years. He acted as the General Secretary of the Allahabad District Congress Committee in 1930 (becoming later its President) and as the General Secretary of the U. P. Provincial Congress Committee from 1935 to 1937. In 1936 he was made Convener of a Committee appointed to study the question of land reforms in U. P. and he produced a masterly report within three years.

In 1937 Shastri was returned to the U. P. Legislative Assembly. Thereafter he became the Secretary of the U. P. Parliamentary Board and organised the elections most efficiently. By the year 1946, Pandit Pant had recognised his ability. He became the Chief Minsiter's Parliamentary Secretary. Next year

he was appointed Minister of Police and Transport. He carried out substantial reforms in both these fields.

From the early fifties, Lal Bahadur Shastri began to function from Delhi. In 1951 he was made the General Secretary of the A. I. C. C., with Jawaharlal as the President. From 1951 to 1956 he functioned as Minister of Railways and Transport in the Central Cabinet. He accepted constitutional responsibility for the Aliyalur railway accident in 1956 and resigned.

From 1957 to 1961 he was again in the Central Cabinet and held several portfolios successively as Minister of Transport and Communications, Minister of Commerce and Industry and Home Minister. In the three parliamentary elections of 1952, 1957 and 1962 Lal Bahadur Shastri played a pivotal role in selecting the Congress candidates and organizing the Party campaign.

In the year 1964, on the death of Jawaharlal Nehru, Shastri became the Prime Minister of India. He provided inspiring leadership to the nation during the Indo-Park War of 1965. He died at Tashkent in January 1966 after negotiating a settlement with Pakistan.

On assuming the office of the Prime Minister of India, Lal Bahadur Shastri expressed his views on political, social and economic problems with perfect clarity. He wanted freedom and prosperity for all. He believed in a constant search for areas of agreement in the working of democracy. Pragmatism rather than dogma appeared to be the guiding principle of the Cabinet under his leadership as Prime Minister but one objective was constantly kept in mind. As he himself put it: "Socialism is our objective."

He was always conscious of the problems of poverty and unemployment. He laid strees on strengthening the defence of the country and in honouring the man behind the plough. He did not want to take national unity and solidarity for granted, or be complacent about this sensitive issue.

Lal Bahadur Shastri was utterly simple and unassuming in his behavior, kind and gentle in his dealings and devout in character. He instinctively kept out of factional politics and remained uninvolved throughout. He listened to every point of view and made his own decisions firmly. He was methodical in his work and rarely lost his temper. He had a passion for Urdu poetry. He was a vegetarian and did not smoke or drink.

His wife was an intensely religious-minded lady who spent her time in prayers, fasting and looking after her household duties. Lal Bahadur Shastri disliked the idea of women neglecting their homes for social work outside. He was so modest and lovable that he came to be looked upon by the masses as one of them . In his approach to any problem he was frank, clear and direct. He had a logical mind and inspired confidence in all. His genial and sympathetic nature won him friends all around.

Lal Bahadur Shastri was one of those few leaders, who, born in poverty, won recognition by their talents and sacrifice. He gave of his best to the service of his country and did not desire publicity. Rising from the rank of an unknown worker, churning out cyclostyled copies of political leaflets at Anand Bhavan, to the position of highest power as Prime Minister of India, Lal Bahadur continued to represent the poor and to symbolise the have-nots.

Through him the politics of the country acquired honour, integrity and dynamism. From nine years in prison to a spell of nineteen months and two days as Prime Minister, it is an unblemished record of personal and public honesty, of ceaseless striving for national welfare. Under his leadership the masses acquired a sense of full and vibrant nationhood.

He had a burning desire to do social service. Lalita Shastri confirmed that he often used to say that he did not want to remain in politics for long. In fact he had no intention to stand for the next election. If he had not been removed by the cruel hand of death in 1966, he would have taken up active social service.