When Lal Bahadur Shastri Coined ‘Jai Jawan, Jai Kisan’ Slogan To Make India Self-sufficient Nation

Lal Bahadur Shastri the second Prime Minister of Independent India is known for his generosity and humble attitude. He became PM two weeks after Jawaharlal Nehru passed away on June 9th, 1964. He was born on October 2, 1904, Uttar Pradesh. He established high standards for society through his moral values and principles. And today, we will talk about a story when he gave India the slogan ‘Jai Jawan, Jai Kisan’. It was the time when India was at war with Pakistan, 1965.

During that time India was facing a huge shortage of food. And moreover, US had threatened to cut supplies of wheat if India didn’t stop the war. During that time India used to export wheat. Shastriji wanted a solution for this, and came up with an idea. He asked his family to skip dinner as he wanted to know how would countrymen feel to forgo one meal a day. Next day he addressed countrymen on AIR, he asked people to go without one-time meal once in a week. His request was accepted, and people started following it. After that he gave the slogan ‘Jai Jawan, Jai Kisan’, his aim was to make farmers self-sufficient, for that he build up strategy to increase rural economy and encourage it just like industries.

That’s the reason he promoted White Revolution and Green Revolution. The nationwide movement to propel India’s milk and food production respectively brought a drastic change in the economy of the country. It was a stepping stone towards being a self sufficient nation.

He held many portfolios during Nehru’s regime and did many crucial changes in his time for the society, he was the one to introduce the usage of jet water instead of lathi charge to disperse crowd. Shastri died of a heart attack. In 2004, on his birth centenary, RBI issued Rs 100 coin which has his portrait on it and is available on an order.