Lal Bahadur Shastri, born on 2 October 1904, in Mughalsarai, United Provinces of Agra and Oudh, British India, was an Indian politician and statesman who served as the prime minister of India from 1964 to 1966. He previously served as home minister from 1961 to 1963.
Shastri studied in East Central Railway Inter college and Harish Chandra High School, which he left to join the non-cooperation movement. He worked for the betterment of the Harijans at Muzaffarpur and dropped his caste-derived surname of "Srivastava". Influenced by Mahatma Gandhi, he joined the Indian Independence movement in the 1920s. He served as the president of Servants of the People Society, founded by Lala Lajpat Rai and held prominent positions in the Indian National Congress (INC). Following Indian independence in 1947, Shastri led several union ministries under prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru.
As prime minister, Shastri promoted the White revolution (India), a
national campaign to increase the production and supply of milk, by supporting
the Amul milk co-operative and creating the National Dairy Development
Board. Underlining the need to boost India's food production, Shastri also
promoted the Green Revolution in India in 1965. This led to an increase in
food grain production, especially in the states of Punjab, Haryana and
Uttar Pradesh. He led the country during the Indo-Pakistani war of 1965. His
slogan "Jai Jawan, jai Kisan” ("Hail to the soldier; Hail to the
farmer") became very popular during the war. The war formally ended with
the Tashkent Declaration on 10 January 1966; Shastri died the
next day.
