He studied in East Central Railway Inter college and Harish Chandra High School, which he left to join the non-cooperation movement.

He served as the president of Servants of the People Society (Lok Sevak Mandal), founded by Lala Lajpat Rai and held prominent positions in the Indian National Congress (INC).

[3][4] In April 1906, when Shastri was hardly 18 months old, his father, who had only recently been promoted to the post of deputy tehsildar, died in an epidemic of bubonic plague.

Ramdulari Devi, then only 23 years old and pregnant with her third child, took her two children and moved from Ramnagar to her father's house in Mughalsarai and settled there for good.

Thereafter, the family was looked after by his brother (Shastri's great-uncle) Darbari Lal, who was the head clerk in the opium regulation department at Ghazipur, and later by his son (Ramdulari Devi's cousin) Bindeshwari Prasad, a school teacher in Mughalsarai.

[9] Bindeshwari Prasad, on the limited salary of a school teacher, with many dependents, nevertheless managed to give a good education to all the children in his care.

Inspired by Mishra's patriotism, Shastri took a deep interest in the freedom struggle, and began to study its history and the works of several of its noted personalities, including those of Swami Vivekananda, Mahatma Gandhi and Annie Besant.

[citation needed] In January 1921, when Shastri was in the 10th standard and three months from sitting the final examinations, he attended a public meeting in Benares hosted by Gandhi and Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya.

[11][12] Shastri's immediate supervisor was a former Benares Hindu University lecturer named J.B. Kripalani, who would become one of the most prominent leaders of the Indian independence movement and one among Gandhi's closest followers.

[15][16] Shastri enrolled himself as a life member of the Servants of the People Society (Lok Sevak Mandal), founded by Lala Lajpat Rai, and began to work for the betterment of the Harijans under Gandhi's direction at Muzaffarpur.

Shastri, though mild-mannered and soft-spoken, was a Nehruvian socialist and thus held appeal to those wishing to prevent the ascent of conservative right-winger Morarji Desai.

In his first broadcast as prime minister, on 11 June 1964, Shastri stated:[34] There comes a time in the life of every nation when it stands at the cross-roads of history and must choose which way to go.

Our way is straight and clear—the building up of a socialist democracy at home with freedom and prosperity for all, and the maintenance of world peace and friendship with all nations.Shastri retained many members of Nehru's Council of Ministers.

[36] To calm the situation, Shastri gave assurances that English would continue to be used as the official language as long the non-Hindi speaking states wanted.

He discussed his wish with Verghese Kurien, then the General Manager of Kaira District Co-operative Milk Producers' Union Ltd (Amul) to replicate this model to other parts of the country for improving the socio-economic conditions of farmers.

In the aftermath of the Sino-Indian War of 1962 and the formation of military ties between China and Pakistan, Shastri's government decided to expand the country's defence budget.

[50] In 1964, Shastri signed an accorresponsibilities of local governments to provide adequate facilities to shelter the repatriates upon disembarkation on Indian soil.

In December 1965, Shastri made an official visit with his family to Rangoon, Burma and re-established cordial relations with the country's military government of General Ne Win.

In his report to the Lok Sabha on the confrontation in Kutch, Shastri stated:[34][2] In the utilization of our limited resources, we have always given primacy to plans and projects for economic development.

It would, therefore, be obvious for anyone who is prepared to look at things objectively that India can have no possible interest in provoking border incidents or in building up an atmosphere of strife...

[17] In October 1964 while returning from the Non Alliance Conference in Cairo, on the invitation of the-then president of Pakistan, Muhammad Ayub Khan, to have lunch with him, Shastri made a stopover at Karachi Airport for a few hours.

After the ceasefire with Pakistan in 1965, Shastri and Ayub Khan attended a summit in Tashkent (former USSR, now in modern Uzbekistan), organized by Alexei Kosygin.

Suman Shastri is the next eldest, whose son, Siddharth Nath Singh is a spokesman of the Bharatiya Janata Party and Minister of Health, Government of Uttar Pradesh.

Upon his death, Gulzarilal Nanda once again assumed the role of acting prime minister, until the Congress Party elected Indira Gandhi over Morarji Desai to officially succeed Shastri.

In a public meeting held at the Ram Lila grounds in Delhi, a few days after the ceasefire, he complained about a BBC report which claimed that Shastri's identity as a Hindu meant that he was ready for a war with Pakistan.

He stated:[65] Kuldip Nayar, Shastri's media advisor from 1960 to 1964, recalls that, during the Quit India Movement, his daughter was ill and he was released on parole from jail.

[67] The foundation stone of Bal Vidya Mandir, a distinguished school of Lucknow, was laid by him during his tenure as the prime minister, on 19 November 1964.

Several educational institutes including Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration (Mussorie, Uttarakhand) bear his name.

[83] A film titled The Tashkent Files (2019), directed by Vivek Agnihotri revolves around the mystery of the death of Lal Bahadur Shastri.

[87] Lal Bahadur Shastri, a 2014 Indian Malayalam-language comedy film by Rejishh Midhila is titled after the prime minister but has no apparent connection with his life.