Lal Bahadur Shastri, the second Prime Minister of India was posthumously awarded the Bharat Ratna in 1966.
He promoted the White Revolution – a national campaign to increase the production and supply of milk – by supporting the Amul milk co-operative of Anand, Gujarat and creating the National Dairy Development Board.
Underlining the need to boost India's food production, Shastri also promoted the Green Revolution in India in 1965.
He led the country during the Indo-Pakistan War of 1965. His slogan "Jai Jawan, Jai Kisan" ("Hail to the soldier; Hail to the farmer") became very popular during the war. The war formally ended with the Tashkent Agreement on 10 January 1966; he died the following day, still in Tashkent.
He worked for the betterment of the Harijans at Muzaffarpur and dropped his caste-derived surname of "Srivastava". Shastri graduated with a first-class degree in philosophy and ethics from Kashi Vidyapith in 1925. He was given the title Shastri ("scholar").The title was a bachelor's degree awarded by the institution but it stuck as part of his name.
He was a member of Servants of India society (which included Mahatma Gandhi, Lala Lajpat Rai, Gopal Krishna Gokhle) which asked all its members to shun accumulation of private property and remain in public life as servants of the people.
Shastri was 5 ft 2 inches tall and always used to wear dhoti.