Lal Bahadur Shastri  Lal Bahadur Shastri.Camera Press/Globe
Photos  Lal Bahadur Shastri,  (born Oct. 2, 1904, Mughalsarai,
India—died Jan. 11, 1966Tashkent, Uzbekistan, U.S.S.R.), Indian
statesman, prime minister of India (1964–66) after Jawaharlal
Nehru.  A member of Mahatma Gandhi’s noncooperation movement
against British government in India, he was imprisoned for a
short time (1921). Upon release he studied in the Kashi
Vidyapitha, a nationalist university, where he graduated with
the title of shastri (“learned in the scriptures”). He then
returned to politics as a follower of Gandhi, was imprisoned
several more times, and attained influential positions in the
Congress Party of the state of the United Provinces, now Uttar
Pradesh state.  Shastri was elected to the legislature of the
United Provinces in 1937 and 1946. After Indian independence,
Shastri gained experience as minister for home affairs and
transport in Uttar Pradesh. He was elected to the central Indian
legislature in 1952 and became union mini