Book Description

The life of Lal Bahadur Shastri (1904-66), India's second prime minister and successor to Jawaharlal Nehru, is the absorbing saga of a little man who, while suffering the rigours of poverty in early life, rose to political eminence on the strength of moral principle. When Shastri died, he left no house, no land, no money. But he did leave behind an example which is morally inspiring. In an age riddled with political corruption, his career of exemplary integrity possesses a very special relevance for readers in contemporary India as well as abroad. Although Shastri's tenure as prime minister lasted only nineteen months, it was a period of high excitement and drama. Under Shastri's leadership India successfully fought a major war against Pakistan. This came as a tremendous boost to India after the China debacle three years earlier. This Indo-Pak war was followed by successful peace negotiations between the two countries at the famous Tashkent Conference, where, with the ink scarcely dry after all the momentous signatures, Shastri dramatically died of a heart attack. Several social and political issues of national importance and international interest emerged or found successful resolution during the time that Shastri held political power in Nehru's cabinet, as well as when he took over the premiership of India. There was the Kamaraj Plan; the question of Nehru's successor; the English-Hindi national language controversy; the problems of food scarcity and foodgrain imports; the Hazratbal episode of the stolen sacred relic from the shrine in Kashmir; the complicated diplomatic negotiations over Kashmir in the United Nations; the tangled web of tightrope relations with China, the USA, andthe USSR; the controversy and suspicion over the circumstances of Shastri's sudden death; and finally the heroism and acclaim that came to Shastri.