Shastri was born in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh to Sharada Prasad and Ramdulari Devi. His father was a clerk in the Revenue Office of Allahbad but died when Shastri was only a year old. He was raised along with his two sisters by his mother.

He studied at the East Central Railway Inter College in Varanasi and later graduated from Kashi Vidyapeeth in 1926. Soon after, he joined the Servants of the People Society which was founded by a prominent nationalist leader of that time - Lala Lajpath Rai.

Shastri became a part of Indian independence movement in 1920s and was driven by the ideas of Mahatma Gandhi. He joined Gandhi’s famous Salt Satyagraha in 1930, for which he was sent to the prison for two and a half years.

That did not deter him from working as the Organizing Secretary of the Parliamentary Board of U.P. in 1937. He was again sent to prison for a year for being a part of the nationalist Satyagraha movement.

He was again imprisoned in 1942 for joining Mahatma Gandhi’s Quit India Movement and instructing freedom fighters from Jawaharlal Nehru’s house. He was imprisoned this time for 4 years.

In 1947, Shastri was appointed as the Police and Transport minister of Uttar Pradesh.

He was made the General Secretary of the All-India Congress Committee in 1951. Later next year, he was elected to Rajya Sabha and was made the Minister of Railways and Transport.

Although the Railways and Transport of India flourished under him but he resigned from the post in 1952, taking responsibility for a railway accident in Tamil Nadu in which approximately 112 people died.

In 1957, he was again elected to the cabinet as the Commerce and Industry minister and within 4 years he was chosen for the prestigious post of Home Minister.

When Jawahar Lal Nehru, the then Prime Minister of India, died in office in 1964, the Congress Party President K. Kamaraj put Shastri’s name forward for the post of the Prime Minister. He was elected the Prime Minister of India the same year.

Under his tenure as the Prime Minister, Shastri lead the country during India-Pakistan war in 1965 and it was during this war that he coined the slogan “Jai Jawan Jai Kishan”. It soon began the national slogan.

After the ceasefire with Pakistan was declared in 1965, he attended a summit in Tashkent with the Pakistani President Muhammad Ayub Khan. Later next year, both the leaders signed the Tashkent Declaration.

Shastri dealt with many basic problems during his tenure in various ministries - food shortage, unemployment and poverty. To overcome the acute food shortage, he devised a long-term strategy - "Green Revolution". Apart from the Green Revolution, he also helped in promoting the White Revolution.

Shastri was the first person to be posthumously awarded India's highest civilian award, Bharat Ratna.

Shastri married Lalita Devi from Mirzapur, Uttar Pradesh in 1928. He had six children with her—Kusum, Hari Krishna, Suman, Anil, Sunil and Ashok. The family lost Ashok when he was only 37 years old.

He died in Tashkent in 1966, the day after signing the Tashkent Declaration, reportedly due to a heart attack, but his death remains a mystery.

The National Dairy Development Board was formed in 1965 during Shastri reign as Prime Minister.

Varanasi International Airport is named after him.