Shastri was born on 2 October 1904 at the home of his maternal grandparents in a North-Indian Kayastha Hindu family. Shastri's paternal ancestors were in the service of the See more

State minister
Following India's independence, Shastri was appointed Parliamentary Secretary in his home state, See more

Jawaharlal Nehru died in office on 27 May 1964. Then Congress Party president K. Kamaraj was instrumental in making Shastri prime minister on 9 June. Shastri, though mild-mannered and soft-spoken, was a Nehruvian socialist and thus held appeal to those … See more

Shastri died of a heart attack in Tashkent, Uzbekistan (then in the Soviet Union) on 11 January 1966, one day after signing a peace treaty to end … See more

While his family had no links to the independence movement then taking shape, among his teachers at Harish Chandra High School was an intensely patriotic and highly … See more

Shastri was 5 ft 2 inches tall and always used to wear a dhoti. The only occasion on which he wore pyjamas was a dinner in honor of the Queen of the United Kingdom in 1961 in the Rashtrapati Bhavan. On 16 May 1928, Shastri married Lalita Devi who was from See more

Shastri is now regarded as one of the most respected prime ministers of India. He was a secularist who refused to mix religion with politics. … See more