Lalita Shastri (born Lalmani Devi; 11 January 1910 – 13 April 1993) was the wife of Prime Minister of India,

Lal Bahadur Shastri Lal Bahadur Shastri (; 2 October 1904 – 11 January 1966) was an Indian politician and statesman who served as the 2nd Prime Minister of India from 1964 to 1966 and 6th Home Minister of India from 1961 to 1963. He promoted the White Re ...

. Lalita Devi was from

Mirzapur Mirzapur () is a city in Uttar Pradesh, India, 827 km from Delhi and 733 km from Kolkata, almost 91 km from Prayagraj (formally known as Allahabad) and 61 km from Varanasi. It is known for its carpets and brassware industries, and the folk ...

Uttar Pradesh Uttar Pradesh (; , 'Northern Province') is a state in northern India. With over 200 million inhabitants, it is the most populated state in India as well as the most populous country subdivision in the world. It was established in 1950 ...

. She married Lal Bahadur Shastri on 16 May 1928. After marriage, the couple lived for several years in

Allahabad Allahabad (), officially known as Prayagraj, also known as Ilahabad, is a metropolis in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh.The other five cities were: Agra, Kanpur (Cawnpore), Lucknow, Meerut, and Varanasi (Benares). It is the administrat ...

before moving to

Lucknow Lucknow (, ) is the capital and the largest city of the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh and it is also the second largest urban agglomeration in Uttar Pradesh. Lucknow is the administrative headquarters of the eponymous district and division ...

and then to

New Delhi New Delhi (, , ''Naī Dillī'') is the capital of India and a part of the National Capital Territory of Delhi (NCT). New Delhi is the seat of all three branches of the government of India, hosting the Rashtrapati Bhavan, Parliament House ...

. Lal Bahadur Shastri spent nine years of his life in jail. During these spells, Lalita looked after the children and household. The family moved to

in 1952 when Shastri became the railway minister. However they vacated the premises after his death. But in 1968, then Prime Minister

Indira Gandhi Indira Priyadarshini Gandhi (; Given name, ''née'' Nehru; 19 November 1917 – 31 October 1984) was an Indian politician and a central figure of the Indian National Congress. She was elected as third prime minister of India in 1966 ...

allotted the house to Lalita Shastri, the wife of Lal Bahadur Shastri, and she lived there till her death in 1993. Today ''Lal Bhadur Shastri Memorial'' run by Lal Bahadur Shastri National Memorial Trust, is situated next to

10 Janpath 10, Janpath is a public-owned house on Janpath. At the time of Rajiv Gandhi's assassination in 1991, while he was campaigning for a second term as Prime Minister of India, 10, Janpath was his official residence, although he lived at 7, Lok Kalya ...

the official residence of her husband as prime minister, at 1, Motilal Nehru Place, New Delhi. She founded the ''Shastri Sewa Niketan''. Her son Sunil Shastri is its present chairman. Lalita Shastri died in 1993 in New Delhi. Anil Shastri, one of her sons, is a former

Lok Sabha The Lok Sabha, constitutionally the House of the People, is the lower house of India's bicameral Parliament, with the upper house being the Rajya Sabha. Members of the Lok Sabha are elected by an adult universal suffrage and a first-past ...

member. An epic poetry book in

Hindi Hindi (Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been de ...

titled ''Lalita Ke Aansoo'' written by Krant M. L. Verma was published in 1978. In this book the complete story of her husband Lal Bahadur Shastri has been narrated by Lalita Shastri. Lalita herself wrote verse on occasion, and a few songs written by her (such as "भोला भोला रटते रटते") were set to tune by Chitragupta and sung by Lata Mangeshkar.

References

Spouses of prime ministers of India People from Mirzapur 1910 births 1993 deaths {{India-bio-stub