Lal Bahadur Shastri who succeeded Nehru as the Prime Minister,
was quite the opposite of his predecessor. Born to a poor family in a
railway colony in Muhgalsarai, Uttar Pradesh, Lal Bahadur learnt to
live a life of simplicity. When he was 17 years old, he quit his studies
and joined Mahatma Gandhi in the non-cooperation struggle. He
later acquired a first class degree (Shastri) in philosophy in 1926.
Deeply influenced by Gandhi, Shastri also read with keen interest
the works of Kant, Hegel, Laski and Marx and Engels and translated
the biography of Madame Curie into Hindi. He maintained his
association with the Congress from a very young age, rising from the
position of general secretary of the Allahabad district Congress
committee to that of the general secretary of the AICC, with Nehru as
the president. He also held various cabinet posts and organised the
poll campaigns for the Congress in three general elections. As the
PM, Shastri carried on Nehru's objective of socialism. He also
coined the slogan Jai Jawan Jai Kisan to give the farmers and
soldiers their due. During his tenure, Shastri faced the crisis of a war
with Pakistan in 1965, and led the country admirably through it.
Throughout his career in politics, Shastri kept himself above
factionalism and corruption, leading a Spartan life even after he
became PM. He died in the Russian in town of Tashkent where he
had gone to negotiate a settlement with Pakistan in January 1966.