Shastri, Lal Bahadur

Shastri, Lal Bahadur (1904-1966), prime minister of India (1964-1966), born near Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh. A follower of Mohandas K. Gandhi, he was imprisoned several times by the British for nationalist activities. When India achieved independence (1947), he became a minister in the state government of Uttar Pradesh, and he later served in the federal Cabinet as minister of transport (1952-1956), industry (1957-1961), and home affairs (1961-1963). Shastri became prime minister on the death of Jawaharlal Nehru in 1964. The principal event of his tenure was the undeclared war with Pakistan over the Rann of Kachchh that began in April 1965 and subsequently spread to Kashmir. He died immediately after signing a Soviet-mediated “no-war” agreement with Pakistan in Tashkent in the then Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), in January 1966.