Hiralal Shastri: Rajasthan’s First Chief Minister — MCQs with Answers (Set 1)

He joined the Jaipur State Service in 1921 and rose to Secretary in the Home and Foreign Departments. He resigned in 1927.

Hiralal Shastri passed the Sahitya Shastri degree in 1920. That is the source of the name Shastri.

Shastri was imprisoned for six months in 1939, for leading a civil-liberties satyagraha under the Jaipur Praja Mandal’s banner.

In 1929, Shastri founded Jeevan Kutir, a rural-reconstruction centre, at Banasthali, six years before founding Banasthali Vidyapith at the same site.

Shastri reorganised the Jaipur Rajya Praja Mandal in 1937, a movement first started in 1931, and became its president.

Shastri argued that all Constituent Assembly members deserved equal voting rights, regardless of whether they were directly elected or represented a princely state.

Shastri founded Banasthali Vidyapith, an all-women’s institution, in 1935 in memory of his daughter Shantabai.

He led a satyagraha for civil liberties in Jaipur State in 1939 and was imprisoned for six months.

He argued all members deserved equal voting rights, regardless of how they had come to join the assembly.

He became Prime Minister of Jaipur State on 27 March 1948, before Rajasthan’s formation the following year.

He became the first Prime Minister of the United State of Greater Rajasthan on 7 April 1949. His title changed to Chief Minister only after Rajasthan was formally reconstituted on 26 January 1950.