Lal Bahadur Shastri: The Prime Minister who took khadi cloth and a spinning wheel for dowry

Lal Bahadur Shashtri gave away his formal education to actively participate in the freedom movement. He was arrested in 1921 for participating in the non-cooperation movement. (Photo | EPS)

Lal Bahadur Shastri’s original name was Lal Bahadur Srivastava. At the young age of 12, he decided to take out ‘Srivastava’ from his name since it denoted caste. In Pic: Lal Bahadur Shastri garlanding the then President S Radha Krishnan on his birthday.(Photo | EPS)

After passing out from the East Central Railway Inter College at Varanasi, he joined Kashi Vidyapeeth for graduation. He was awarded the 'Shastri' bachelor degree by the Peeth following his graduation in 1926. In Pic: Vice President Dr Zakir Hussain and Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri before leaving on a 4-day State visit to Yugoslavia in 1965. (Photo | EPS)

Shastri was a big promoter of the White Revolution and Green Revolution in the country to boost India's food production. In Pic: Shastri with then Pakistan President Muhammad Ayub Khan in Uzbekistan. (Photo | PTI)

On the occasion of his wedding, Shastri took a khadi cloth and a spinning wheel as part of dowry. (Photo | EPS)

Shastri resigned as the Minister for Railways in 1956, taking moral responsibility for the Ariyalur rail accident that claimed more than 140 dead. Accepting his resignation, Prime Minister Nehru appreciated his integrity in a speech in Parliament, said that he was accepting the resignation not because Shastri was in blame, but to set an example.(Photo | EPS)

Lal Bahadur Shastri was also the 1st person who was awarded the Bharat Ratna, India’s highest citizen award, posthumously. In Pic: Lal Bahadur Shastri and Dr S Radhakrishnan with King Mahendra of Nepal. (Photo | EPS)

Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri passed away on 11 January 1966 in the Uzbekistan capital of Tashkent due to a heart attack. Many conspiracy theories followed his demise in the foreign soil, and even CIA was accused of assassinating him. However, no evidence was ever found to prove any of the theories right. In Pic: Lal Bahadur Shastri and his wife with Yugoslavia communist leader Josip Broz Tito and his better half at Brioni in July 1965. (Photo | EPS)

On the occasion of his birth centenary in 2004, the RBI issued a non-circulating Rs100 coin with his portrait to honour one of the most soft-spoken Prime Ministers the country ever had. In Pic: Shastri, who was the Union Home Minister in 1962, addressing media persons in Chennai during an official Tamil Nadu visit. (Photo | EPS)