Lal Bahadur Shastri - Early Life and Career (1904-47)

Early Life and Career (1904-47)

Shastri was born in Ramnagar in the varanasi district of the United Provinces, British India in British ruled India. His father, Shri Sharada Srivastava Prasad, was a school teacher, who later became a clerk in the Revenue Office at Allahabad. Shastri's father died when he was only an year old. His mother, Ramdulari Devi, took him and his two sisters to her father's house and settled down there.

Shastri ji was educated at East Central Railway Inter college in Mughalsarai and Varanasi. He graduated with a first-class degree from the Kashi Vidyapeeth in 1926. He was given the title Shastri ("Scholar"). The title was a bachelor's degree awarded by the Vidya Peeth, but it stuck as part of his name. Shastri was influenced by major Indian nationalist leaders including Gandhi and Tilak. Later he was greatly influenced by the socialism of Jawaharlal Nehru, whose left-wing faction in the Congress party he would eventually join.

On 16 May 1928, Shastri married Lalita Devi of Mirzapur. He had five children, including Hari Krishna Shashtri, Anil Shastri and Sunil Shashtri, who were all Congress politicians. His son Anil Shastri is still a senior leader of the Congress party.