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Still, under Congress, Indian voters have largely been able so far at least to steer their way between Communist promises of a Marxist Utopia and the reactionary vision of a return to the "golden days" of Hinduism. And last year, when the pro-Peking wing of India's 120,000-strong Communist Party won the most seats in the state of Kerala, Delhi coolly jailed the Reds and appointed its own governor.
Caution & Competence. To these men and to the nation, Shastri serves as mediator, moderator and compromiser. Just such a role has long been the hallmark of Shastri's caste, the Kayasth, which is scorned by many other Hindus because the Kayasthi served India's Moslem rulers during the Mogul period (1526-1707) as clerks and officials. Lai Bahadur Shastri, whose name means "Graduate Brave Jewel" was born in 1904, the son of a minor tax collector in the Uttar Pradesh village of Mughal Sarai, near the sacred city of Banaras. As a schoolboy, he made his commitment to Gandhism, was arrested eight times by the British and spent nine years in jail during the early revolutionary days. A typical infraction: flag raising. In 1932, the British refused to let the Indian nationalists fly their flag on the Allahabad clock tower, but Shastri—disguised as a veiled Moslem woman—swished past the British guards and raised it anyway.
After independence, Shastri served Nehru in a series of positions, beginning as parliamentary secretary in Uttar Pradesh, then vaulting to Delhi as Railways Minister. In 1956, after a series of bloody railroad accidents, he resigned the portfolio voluntarily, taking the moral blame in a fashion that won him admiration from the nation. A year later, as chief strategist for the Congress Party, he masterminded the 1957 elections with great success. Soon he was back in Delhi's hierarchy, this time as Home Minister, second only to Nehru himself. Always unobtrusive, Shastri was nonetheless always present, and with the Pandit's death, the Syndicate naturally turned to him as a cautious but competent choice for the premiership. Shastri's major opponent for the job, Nehru's fiery Finance Minister Morarji Desai, 69, appeared to Kama-raj & Co. to be too uncontrollable. Shastri has not disappointed his backers.
Humble Home Life. Shastri's workday begins at the same time as that of the lowliest Indian farmer: 5:30 a.m. Shunning the splendid Prime Minister's house, Shastri lives with his wife Lalita and 19 other members of his family (including six children, six grandchildren, and his 80-year-old mother) in a humble, white bungalow at No. 1 Janpath (People's Way). Dispensing with his dentures for the first hours of the day, Shastri pads through cozy rooms cluttered with bric-a-brac—Japanese dolls, a Soviet rocket model, a toy atom—to take his breakfast of tea and small talk. His bookcases carry such disparate works as the Bhagavad Gita and Automobile Chassis Design.