N. Chokkan - Lal Bahadur Shastri

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Lal Bahadur Shastri

Author:

N.Chokkan

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Lal Bahadur Shastri

By

N. Chokkan

Contents

1. Jai Shastri

I ndia Vs Pakistan.

No. This is not a cricket match hyped-up by media. We are talking about war, real war!

This war is nothing new. It started even before the new country "Pakistan" existed, and still continuing for more than 60 years.

In the mid forties, our freedom struggle movement was reaching its peak. At one point, British authorities decided they can't hold us anymore and decided to leave the country. A grand success to generations of freedom fighters!

But, this victory came with an added headache. Our British rulers also decided to split India into two pieces, and create a new country called Pakistan. Means, effectively they were granting freedom to two countries, not one.

Across the globe, whenever a new country was formed, along its borderlines there will be trouble, and most of the times, bloodshed. Both the parties will fight over villages, cities, agricultural land, factories, assets and so on. End of the day, both of them will claim the other party has got much more than what they deserved.

This is exactly what happened in case of Pakistan too. Even after their new country was officially formed on August 14th 1947, they were still not satisfied. According to them, many states that now belonged to Independent India should be theirs. Mainly, Kashmir!

When we say Kashmir, we think of a cool, peaceful tourist destination. In the days of our freedom struggle, many leaders (both Indian and British) used to go to Kashmir for spending their summer days. It was paradise on earth, nothing short of that.

Now, after freedom, India still had access to Kashmir. Pakistan didn't. This made them very angry. They felt geographically and culturally, Kashmir belonged to them.

So, Pakistan attacked. Not directly, but through secret plans. They sent their trained soldiers and other people inside Indian border, to cause trouble. Pakistan hoped this will create a people's revolution and as a result, Kashmir will become part of their country.

During that time, Jawaharlal Nehru was the Indian Prime Minister. He didn't like wars. Personally, he wanted India to have good relationship with all her neighbors, and believed that will make the whole south Asia a peaceful destination.

Hence, Pakistan's Kashmir mischief was troubling Nehru. If he wanted and ordered so, Indian army can crush Pakistan in no time. But he didn't.

After all, Pakistan was not attacking India directly. If India also gets into such backdoor tactics, things will get ugly, and Nehru didn't want it.

The entire world respected Nehru as a leader. So, if Pakistan makes a wrong move, they will be in huge trouble. So they were waiting for a good opportunity to attack India directly.

That happened after Nehru's life time. India now had a new prime minister, Lal Bahadur Shastri. Supposed to be a short, calm person, well respected, but not as huge a personality as Nehru.

So, Pakistan decided to attack India directly. Its president Ayub Khan ordered their army to make explicit advances in Kashmir, across Indian border.

Now, India went into serious dilemma. Should they attack Pakistan? What happens to Nehru's peace projects? Does that mean we give away Kashmir? Everyone looked at Lal Bahadur Shastri for advice.

On May 27, 1965, Prime minister Lal Bahadur Shastri addressed India in a large meeting organized in Delhi Ramlila Ground. In this meeting he made our intentions very clear:

• You all know Pakistan is constantly trying to attack us in our borders. Our soldiers are bravely fighting them and saving our motherland
• We don't want war. But at the same time, when it is pushed on us, our duty is to fight to protect our rights
• For the past many days, Pakistan President Ayub Khan is speaking about war. He seems to be threatening us in every press statement. All Pakistan leaders, ministers and magazines are supporting him in this poisonous agenda. But we are not afraid of this
• We will not tolerate such unlawful behavior, we are ready to face Pakistan's force, if it is required

This inspired the whole nation. Millions of citizens were mentally prepared to fight the war, either in the battlefield directly, or by performing their duties religiously, by collecting money, by supporting the soldiers in various other ways. We were able to fight Pakistan and teach them a good lesson too!

During this war, Lal Bahadur Shastri also coined a term "Jai Jawan! Jai Kisan". Meaning, "Victory to Soldiers, Victory to Farmers". This simple slogan characterized India's respect, for those who protect its borders, and for those who provide food in our plates.

1965 Pakistan war was an important moment for Lal Bahadur Shastri as a leader. The way he treated this war made him very popular and acceptable across the globe. Slowly, people were realizing, India can survive, even without a gigantic leader like Nehru. It was not the leader power, but people's power which was driving India.

This way, Lal Bahadur Shastri became the face of Indian Public. He was a living proof that a simple citizen of India can grow to its top position and lead the country to great heights. Everyone started looking at him with respect!

***

2. Nanhe

M ughalsarai is a small town in Uttar Pradesh. It is located near Varanasi, the famous Hindu pilgrimage city.

In the beginning of 20th century, Mughalsarai's primary school had a kind and gentle teacher named Sharada Prasad. He lived in this small town for many years, and later joined Allahabad Revenue Office as a clerk.

Sharada Prasad's wife Ramdulari Devi was a simple woman. Like many other Indian housewives, she treated her family as the first priority and cared, nurtured her children with affection.

On 1904 October 2 Gandhi Jayanthi day, Ramdulari Devi gave birth to a baby boy. They named him Lal Bahadur.

Only Lal Bahadur? What about 'Shastri'?

That is a funny story. We will talk about that later. As of now, let us call this cute little kid as 'Lal Bahadur', or 'Nanhe'.

In Hindi, 'Nanhe' means small. As the baby Lal Bahadur was not very tall or stout, his parents affectionately called him 'Nanhe', the small one. Pretty soon everyone started using this lovely pet name.

A few weeks before Nanhe's first birthday, there was a huge religious ceremony in their hometown. People from many villages around came to take a holy bath in "Ganga", river Ganges!

Naturally, Sharada Prasad and Ramdulari Devi went to participate in this ceremony. Little Nanhe was sitting in his mothers lap, looking at the world around with his curious eyes.

All of a sudden, there was a big crowd coming in the opposite direction. They were not paying attention to where they were going and someone knocked over Ramdulari Devi. She fell down.

Fortunately, she was not injured. After couple of minutes, she got up, and started shouting. 'Nanhe, Nanhe, Where are you?'

Sharada Prasad ran to her. 'I thought Nanhe was with you.'

'Yes. But when I fell down, he rolled out of my arms' Ramdulari started crying. 'Oh Nanhe, What happened to you?'

Sharada Prasad and Ramdulari Devi started searching everywhere for Nanhe. But the city was so crowded, it was near impossible to find such a small child among all the people.