Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel
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Ten essential facts
The Times of India, October 31, 2015
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1.
The Iron Man of India, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, passed Class 10 at the age of 22. Today, at this age most youngsters proceed to colleges for higher studies and some even opt for employment. Patel travelled to attend schools in Nadiad, Petlad and Borsad.
2.
On January 5, 1917 Sardar was elected councillor of the Ahmedabad municipality for the first time. He had contested from Dariyapur seat then, and had won by just one vote. In 1924, Sardar was elected president of Ahmedabad municipality.
3.
India had just two public health laboratories - in Pune and in Karachi in 1921. Sardar felt the need for more such laboratories that could track diseases and keep a check on quality of drinking water supply and food supplies. The third laboratory was set up within Dudheshwar waterworks compound at Shahibaugh.
4.
When corruption charges were pressed against Sardar Patel and 18 other councillors in Ahmedabad municipality, he sought Jinnah's help. In April 28, 1922, a case of 'misrepresentation of funds' worth Rs 1.68 lakh was registered in Ahmedabad District Court (ADC). Sardar successfully defended the case in ADC. But he was dragged to the Bombay High Court in 1923. Jinnah led a panel of lawyers and fought for Sardar Patel, winning the case.
5.
The assembly of the first Gujarati typewriter was commissioned by Sardar in 1924. For this, the Ahmedabad municipality had approached Remington company and paid it Rs 4,000 for putting together the first typewriter in the Gujarati language.
6. Sardar happened to be the first to pitch for removing "sexual disqualification" in the district municipal Act.
By this Act, women were barred from contesting elections as per Section 15(1)(C). A resolution was passed in this regard in the Ahmedabad municipality general board on February 13, 1913. Sardar had argued that keeping women out of the elected body was equivalent to eliminating the representation of half of the urban population. In 1926, Section 15(1)(c) was abolished. 7. After seeking help from nagarsheths Vadilal Sarabhai and Chunilal Chinoy for construction of VS Hospital, Sardar wrote to the provincial government for a grant of Rs 5 lakh to Rs 10 lakh in April 1927. Patel had earlier suggested that the city civil hospital should be under municipal control. But this suggestion was rejected. It was then that Vadilal Sarabhai and Chunilal Chinoy contributed for constructing a new hospital and a 21 acre plot was earmarked for it.
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8. Sardar Patel was against anybody - including his close kin - using his name for profit.
Sardar was so strict about this that he had once told his son, Dahyabhai, to stay away from Delhi if possible, so long as he (Sardar) was in the national capital. "Don't misuse my name. Don't use my name for any favours in Delhi. Till I am in Delhi, stay away from it as far as you can," Sardar had written to his son.
9. In April 1947, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, then a Home member of the interim government, started his tour in Gujarat asking people to maintain calm and communal harmony. There had been a series of skirmishes.
In one meeting in Ahmedabad, Patel expressed his anxiety, "A snake grows a new skin to take place of the worn out one it sheds." Sardar further added, "We may become politically sovereign, but internally we lack the attributes of a free people, such as equality, cohesion and national character." He asked, "Has India organized a new state and society to replace the old order which she wants to discard?"
10. Sardar Patel was completely against building statues and memorials. If he were alive today, he would have opposed the state government's project under which a Rs3,000 crore sculpture of the Iron Man himself is coming up at Kevadiya near the Narmada dam. The 'Statue of Unity' will be the world's tallest structure of this kind when completed.
Milestones in the Sardar’s life
The Times of India, Nov 02 2015
Sardar passes Std 10
This may sound like a horror story for parents today but the iron Man of India, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, passed Class 10 at the age of 22. Today, at this age most youngsters proceed to colleges for higher studies and some even opt for employment. Patel travelled to attend schools in Nadiad, Petlad and Borsad.
Elected councillor
On January 5, 1917 Sardar was elected councillor of the Ahmedabad municipality for the first time. He had contested from Dariyapur seat then, and had won by just one vote. Even in Sardar's first election, he had courted controversy. A candidate MM Narmawalla had petitioned before district judge BC Kennedy to raise objections to Sardar's election. Sardar won the case in the end. In 1924, Sardar was elected president of Ahmedabad municipality.
1918: onions
Statue of Unity has brought global attention to Vallabhbhai Patel. But the Sardar’s nationalistic journey actually started with a vegetable, writes Vikram Doctor
It is hard to get a sense of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel’s personal life.
Mahatma Gandhi freely shared the most intimate details of his life in letters to his many correspondents. Jawaharlal Nehru opened up in letters to his daughter and over the years the many people who worked with him left reminiscences that give a certain sense of the inner man. Patel’s writings are almost never personal, but always focused on the issue at hand. He wrote no revelatory diary or memoir. His associates recorded his occasional dry wit, but little sense of his likes and dislikes comes through.
Gandhi gives one of the few glimpses of Patel outside the political sphere in his writings from Yerawada Jail where Patel and he shared a cell. They befriended a prison cat — or the cat befriended them — and every day Patel would share some of their milk in a saucer.
A rather stronger food memory comes from Reginald Reynolds, Gandhi’s young English follower. In To Live in Mankind, his memoir of Gandhi, he recalled an incident at the Sabarmati Ashram when they were gifted a hamper of vegetables, including onions. “They were still classified by ashramites as ‘stimulating food’, enemies of Brahmacharya and almost too indecent to mention,” he writes.
Gandhi’s other British disciple, Mirabehn, who had the ultra-orthodoxy of a convert, ordered them discarded, but Reynolds protested and was suddenly supported by Patel. “Reginald and I will eat them,” he said firmly and the two sat apart and ate the onions “viewed with some horror by our companions, rather as though we had been cannibals.” (Gandhi would later on become convinced about the health benefits of onions and, even more, garlic).
Patel’s liking for onions should not come as a surprise since they had brought him to Gandhi. This was in 1918 in Kheda in Gujarat in one of Gandhi’s first attempts to use the satyagraha concept he had developed in South Africa in India, and in a specifically rural context.
The British were insisting on collecting land tax despite failure of crops which, in that area, included onions. The local collector, Frederick Pratt (who was the brother of William Pratt, also known as Boris Karloff, the actor who created Frankenstein’s monster in the movies) told Gandhi that land tax was the basis of British revenue in India, which made him realise the power of a campaign to refuse to pay it.
A little earlier in Ahmedabad Gandhi had met Patel, a rising young lawyer, and had been impressed by his abilities. Kheda offered a chance to see if he could put these abilities to use in the field and Gandhi set him to work mobilising the farmers and explaining how they could refuse to pay the tax.
The government retaliated by confiscating cattle and other possessions from the farmers and, in some cases, declaring their fields along with any standing crops forfeited. In some cases, farmers about to harvest a crop of onions were directed to cease work.
Gandhi felt the order was legally faulty, and it was also morally wrong to stop farmers from harvesting a much needed crop. He told them to continue harvesting and, in a vegetable version of the salt gathering he would much later instigate at Dandi, he told them: “We may never bow down to blind authority but, if necessary, remove onions and go to jail a thousand times.”
One of the workers, Mohanlal Pandya, duly defied orders and harvested his onions, leading to his prosecution and conviction. He went to jail in triumph, hailed by Gandhi as “dungli chor” or “Onion Thief ”. But the real hero of this Onion Satyagraha was Patel, who had communicated with the farmers and co-ordinated the resistance and Gandhi paid him a fulsome tribute.
In a speech at Nadiad on June 29, 1918 Gandhi admitted that “the first time I saw him I wondered who that stiff man could be. What could he do! But, as I came in contact with him, I knew that I must have him.” Patel had been doing well as a lawyer but he saw the value of Gandhi’s work and came to join him. Now he had proved his worth in the Onion Satyagraha.
“Had I not chanced on Vallabhbhai, what has been achieved would not have been achieved, so happy has been my experience of him,” declared Gandhi that day. In the years to come, Patel would prove his worth to Gandhi and the nationalist movement many times over, in a career that started with onions.
Sets up India's third public health lab
India had just two public health laboratories in Pune and in Karachi in 1921. Sardar felt the need for more such laboratories that could track diseases and keep a check on quality of drinking water supply and food supplies. The third laboratory was set up within Dudheshwar waterworks compound at Shahibaugh. By 1927, before Sardar left active political life in Ahmedabad municipality, nearly 50 per cent of the city had access to piped drinking water and drainage.
The first Gujarati typewriter
The assembly of the first Gujarati typewriter was commissioned by Sardar in 1924. For this, the Ahmedabad municipality had approached Remington company and paid it Rs 4,000 for putting together the first typewriter in the Gujarati language.
His RTE formula
While today our government grapples with implementation of Right To Education Act in our schools, in 1917 Sardar had convinced the governor, Lord Willingdon, that the government should provide free and compulsory education for children in Bombay presidency. After being elected councillor of Ahmedabad municipality, he ensured passing of Bombay Primary Education Bill in Bombay legislative council.
Founding of VS Hospital
After seeking help from nagarsheths Vadilal Sarabhai and Chunilal Chinoy for construction of VS Hospital, Sardar wrote to the provincial government for a grant of Rs 5 lakh to Rs 10 lakh in April 1927. Patel had earlier suggested that the city civil hospital should be under municipal control. But this suggestion was rejected. It was then that Vadilal Sarabhai and Chunilal Chinoy contributed for constructing a new hospital and a 21 acre plot was earmarked for it.
Contribution
Legal acumen
Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel’s legal acumen turned liquor into water for client
The Times of India Parth Shastri,TNN | Oct 31, 2014
AHMEDABAD: Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel's legendary gift of gab which convinced the rulers of various princely states to accede to India was also equally fruitful in the courts of law where he would secure the release of his client by putting even judges on the back foot.
In one case, Sardar, using his unmatched brilliance and acumen, proved that the liquor inside the two bottles seized from his bootlegger client had 'turned into' water.
Ravji Patel, a freedom fighter and contemporary of Sardar and Mahatma Gandhi, documents the wit of the Iron Man as a lawyer in his book, 'Hind na Sardar', published by Navjivan Press. The author doesn't mince words while stating that Sardar in his early career wanted name and fame and thus fought cases defending accused in criminal cases.
An incident that took place at the Borsad court is especially interesting. Sardar Patel was approached by a bootlegger arrested by the excise department. When the case came up for hearing in the court, Sardar insisted that the seized bottles of liquor be examined by doctors. At the time of the second hearing, to everyone's surprise, the medical report stated that the bottles contained only plain water.
The inspector who arrested the bootlegger was befuddled. After the accused was released, the cop approached Sardar for explanation. The lawyer confided in him that the magistrate was habituated to consuming liquor and was known to often target seized bottles, later replacing the liquor with water. He was thus sure of this turn of events," the book reads.
The architect of Modern India
Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel was one of the great social leaders of India. He played a crucial role during the freedom struggle of Indian and was instrumental in the integration of 565 princely states into the Bharat Union. Immediately after independence he played a vital role in reorganizing administrative structure of India; for he established the two All India levels services namely, the Indian Administrative Service and the Indian Police Service. He was the Chairman of three important committees which recommended for provisions for the Indian Constitution, namely: (a) the Fundamental Rights’ Committee (b) the State Constitution Committee (c) the Committee for Minorities. Partition of undivided India into two nations created serious problems of law and order. Patel took these problems head on and resolved them with amazing felicity. Migration of population and relief and rehabilitation of those who were coming from the parts of newly established nation of Pakistan were the most daunting of challenges facing Sardar Patel. Once the border lines were established, about 14.5 million people crossed over to the nation of their choice.
In brief, the accomplishments made by Sardar Patel in a short period of less than four years have no parallel in the entire Indian history. Perhaps such examples are not available even in world history. Dedication for the nation, sincerity and vision were his hallmarks. Whenever and wherever necessary, he took lightening decisions with great foresight, keeping national interest first and foremost. Hence the opening sentence of this presentation that without Sardar Patel the history of contemporary India would be incomplete.
The most herculean and important task that Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel accomplished was the vast political integration of Bharat, which is unprecedented in the annals of India’s long and chequered history.
Mountbatten announced the independence of the country along with its partition into two –India and Pakistan on June 3, 1947. This partition was slated to be completed by August 15, 1947. The most important and challenging task before India then was the geographical integration of the country. Around 565 odd and scattered princely states consisting of total area of 6, 00, 000 square miles were to be merged into the Union of India in a short period of just 72 days, i.e. by August 15, 1947 and that too in a volatile socio-political situation. There were four major problems that India faced at that point of time:
- Newly created Pakistan’s policy of grabbing as many states as possible by taking advantage of flux situation was a great threat to India’s territorial integrity. Pakistan pined for States of Junagarh and Hyderabad most obtrusively. Jinnah’s move of bargaining with the rulers of states, especially of Jaisalmer and Jodhpur, was also inimical to India’s interests;
- Separatist forces which desired India to be a weak nation had started so-called people’s movements in the name of religion and regional identity. This was most evident from incidents in Punjab and north-eastern parts of the country;
- Most of the officials in the higher echelons of government services were English who had already left for their native place. Therefore, administration was inefficient and phlegmatic at the most critical hours of the nascent freedom; and
- False vanity of some of the rulers of states to maintain their own separate kingdoms, as evident from their moves and misdeeds, was impeding the process of integration.
- In such a situation, seventy-two years old Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, without caring much of his health, took the challenge of a gigantic task with indomitable courage and firm determination. He asserted emphatically, ”Now, when we have arrived at the door of long-awaited freedom, we cannot take any more risk for our nation –cannot compromise for its unity and integrity.”
- He worked day and night and finally accomplished the much-awaited task of political integration of India in a short period, that too largely in an atmosphere of harmony, co-ordination and co-operation. The name of VP Menon is worthy of mention here as member of Patel’s dedicated team of workers. It was undoubtedly a task that has no parallel in the world history.
Even after the division that carved out a new nation Pakistan out of it, India remains largest politically integrated land mass ever in her long history of ups and downs. For this, undoubtedly, the credit goes exclusively to the mature and razor sharp statesmanship of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel.
The State of Junagarh came within the fold of the Indian Union due to Sardar’s able and exemplary non-violence-based diplomacy while the State of Hyderabad became a part of India on sheer strength of his unwavering political will. The State of Jammu and Kashmir became part of India only due Sardar Patel’s policy of implementing political decisions into quick action.
India must be a strong nation and it should be safe internally and externally, both. Each and every citizen should contribute towards unity, integrity and development of the nation. Everyone must get equal opportunity to rise. Along with this, there should be no compromise with nation’s unity and security. All activities related to separatism, segregation and regionalism are dangerous. They should not be allowed. Rather, they should be met with firm and speedy action. All efforts should be made towards this end by overcoming of differences of ideas and perceptions with the spirit of national unity. This was Sardar’s socio-political approach. In his own words, ”No one would be permitted to try to damage the unity, security and integration of India. People and organizations indulging in separatist activities should control themselves and get into the mainstream as soon as possible. If they do not do so then there would be no hesitation in taking hard steps against them.”
On the basis of his nationalist ideas Sardar Patel could integrate India, which would be remembered by his compatriots for long time to come. Moreover, we can learn a lot from his ideas and work-ethos to keep Bharat united and find our due place at international level, and trough this to contribute to peace and prosperity all over the world.
(The authors are a J&k based researcher and practising advocate in J&K high court.)
The Great Unifier
Swaminathan Aiyar’s caveats
Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel was … India’s ‘Iron Man’. As home minister in 1947, he helped weld together over 500 princely states to create a unified India. His birthday is now celebrated as National Unity Day.
Paeans of praise have been heaped on Patel. …He was a great Independence leader. Yet his anniversary is an occasion to remember his failures as well as successes.
When Independence was close in 1946, the Congress and Muslim League jointly formed an interim government. Nehru was Prime Minister, Patel was home minister and Liaquat Ali Khan was finance minister. In this power-sharing experiment, the Congress should have gone all out to accommodate the Muslim League, showing that Hindus and Muslims could work together in a united India, avoiding Partition. This did not happen.
Leonard Mosley’s ‘The Last Days of the British Raj’ relates how Patel, supposedly the second most powerful minister, was infuriated that he could not even appoint a chaprasi without finance ministry sanction, which Liaquat would not easily give. Liaquat’s bureaucratic games made life difficult for all Congress ministers.
The crunch came in 1947. Indian industrialists had made fortunes during World War II because of scarcities. Liaquat presented a supposedly socialist budget with high taxes to claw back inequitable gains made during the war. Gujarat’s textile industrialists, friends and supporters of Patel, castigated this as a Muslim League attack on them, disguised as socialism. This added to Patel’s growing feeling that cohabitation with the Muslim League was not possible.
Actually, the Gujarat industrialists were guilty of Hindu communalism. Parsi and Muslim industrialists were hit by high taxes too. Patel should have shrugged off Liaquat’s budget as a headache inevitable in power sharing. That did not happen.
In February 1947, the Congress party was dead against Partition. Within four months, the party did a U-turn and opted for Partition. The Liaquat budget was not the only reason. Jinnah’s Direct Action Day in 1946 had sparked an orgy of communal killing that spread across India in subsequent months, and some Congress leaders thought that giving Muslims the Pakistan they wanted might create communal peace. Alan Campbell-Johnson’s ‘Mission with Mountbatten’ cites Nehru wryly saying that one way to cure a headache was to cut off the cause of the headache.
Then came the Mountbatten offer to advance the date of Independence from June 1948 to August 1947, provided the Congress and Muslim League could agree on a political package. This proved the clincher. Unable to resist the bait of early independence, all top Congress leaders (including Patel) agreed with the Muslim League on partitioning India.
Thus, Patel was an architect of Partition. Partition was a Great Division. Along with Patel, all top Congress leaders were Great Dividers.
The second great blunder was the decision to go for Partition at breakneck speed. Such a major change required careful consultation and preparation. Patel as home minister should have argued that rapid, unprepared Partition would be a public order disaster, especially when mass murder and migration started. Instead, he, along with leaders of both countries, persisted with a flawed Partition that killed a million people and created 10 million refugees, one of the greatest human disasters in history.
British India had 584 princely states, mostly with Hindu majorities. Patel persuaded over 500 of these to accede to India. For this he is called the Great Unifier. However, Pakistan also succeeded in integrating all Muslim-majority princely states, despite lacking a Patel. The princes acceded because they knew they faced military takeover if they resisted, a fate that befell Kashmir and Hyderabad. Unification of the princely states with India and Pakistan was inevitable, with or without Patel.
Views
Mooted women's representation
Sardar happened to be the first to pitch for removing “sexual disqualification“ in the district municipal Act. By this Act, women were barred from contesting elections as per Section 15(1)(C). A resolution was passed in this regard in the Ahmedabad municipality general board on February 13, 1913. Sardar had argued that keeping women out of the elected body was equivalent to eliminating the representation of half of the urban population. In 1926, Section 15(1)(c) was abolished.
Did not want family to exploit his name
The Times of India, Nov 02 2015
Parth Shastri
Iron will against use of name Sardar opposed
Sardar Patel warned his son, Dahyabhai, never to use his name for personal gains
Sardar Patel was against anybody — including his close kin — using his name for profit. Sardar was so strict about this that he had once told his son, Dahyabhai, to stay away from Delhi if possible, so long as he (Sardar) was in the national capital.
This may sound unbelievable at a time when cast-based reservations are being demanded in his name or when the state government is building his statue to show itself as the legitimate heir of his political legacy.
His grandson, Bipin Patel has written in his memoirs that Sardar Patel had told Dahyabhai in a letter written in the late 1940s, that if he is unable to sustain himself, he could go to him in Delhi.
“Don’t misuse my name. Don’t use my name for any favours in Delhi. Till I am in Delhi, stay away from it as far as you can,” Sardar had written to his son Professor Ramji Savaliya, director of BJ Institute of Learning and Research, said Rajmohan Gandhi, in his biography of Sardar Patel, had also mentioned a similar incident involving Dahyabhai and the Iron Man.
“In 1945, Sardar once asked his son to leave his room when he went to seek the former’s per mission to exchange a Karachi-based company for land left by a Muslim who had and Research, said Rajmohan Gandhi, in his biography of Sardar Patel, had also mentioned a similar incident involving Dahyabhai and the Iron Man.
“In 1945, Sardar once asked his son to leave his room when he went to seek the former's per mission to exchange a Karachi-based company for land left by a Muslim who had gone over to Pakistan,” said Savaliya.
“It was his concern that his position could be exploited by nefarious elements and his family might not be spared. Both his children — Dahyabhai and Maniben — became MPs but they lived by the standard set for himself by Sardar Patel,” said Savaliya. Savaliya said that Sardar had himself set high standards for public servants. “Even today, Sardar’s family has largely stayed out of politics,” said Savaliya. family might not be spared. Both his children -Dahyabhai and Maniben -became MPs but they lived by the standard set for himself by Sardar Patel,“ said Savaliya. Savaliya said that Sardar had himself set high standards for public servants. “Even today , Sardar's family has largely stayed out of politics,“ said Savaliya.
Opposed memorials, statues
The Times of India, Nov 02 2015
Kapil Dave
If Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel were alive today, he would have opposed the state government’s project under which a Rs3,000 croresculpture of the Iron Man himself is coming up at Kevadiya near the Narmada dam. The ‘Statue of Unity’ will be the world’s tallest structure of this kind when completed. Soon after Mahatma Gandhi’s death on January 30, 1948, Sardar Patel wrote a long article on February 22, 1948, in the 'Harijan Bandhu' newspaper on the enthusiasm for constructing temples, statues and mem o r i a l s dedicated to Gandhiji after his death, says city based historian Rizwan Kadri. Quoting Bapu himself, Sardar Patel appealed to people that Gandhiji — who was for ‘rachnatmak karya’ (creative public service) — was against waste of public money on temples, statues and memorials of leaders.
Hence, it would be not appro death on January 30, 1948, Sardar Patel wrote a long article on Febru ary 22, 1948, in the 'Harijan Bandhu' news paper on the en thusiasm for constructing temples, stat ues and me morials dedicated to Gandhiji after his death, says city based his torian Rizwan Kadri. Quoting Bapu himself, Sardar Patel ap pealed to people that Gandhiji wh o w a s f o r `rachnatmak kar ya' (creative public service) -was against waste of public money on temples, lic money on temples, statues and memori als of leaders.
Hence, it would be not appro priate to build such memorials for him, he said.
“I express my displeasure over the ongoing attempts to build temples in the name of Gandhiji and statues for worshiping or a kind of memorial,” Sardar Patel wrote. “I believe Gandhiji would have felt pained at such things. He had expressed his thoughts on this issue in clear words several times. So I appeal to all to stop thinking of building such memorials or anything like that immediately.” Sadar Patel said that that the best memorial to Gandhiji — and one which he would have approved — is to follow his ideals and carry forward his creative public service. “The best way is to keep him alive in the temple of our hearts forever, said Sardar.
Are we really free?
The Times of India, Nov 02 2015
In April 1947, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, then a Home member of the interim government, started his tour in Gujarat asking people to maintain calm and communal harmony. There had been a series of skirmishes. In one meeting in Ahmedabad, Patel expressed his anxiety, “A snake grows a new skin to take place of the worn out one it sheds.“
Sardar further added, “We may become politically sovereign, but internally we lack the attributes of a free people, such as equality, cohesion and national character.“
He asked, “Has India organized a new state and society to replace the old order which she wants to discard?“
Muslim friends
Jinnah fought for Sardar
The Times of India, Nov 02 2015
Sardar Patel and Jinnah may seem as two opposite ends of a spectrum. But and Jinnah may seem as two opposite ends of a spectrum. But there was a time when Sardar had sought Jinnah’s help in city, when corruption charges were pressed against him and 18 other councillors in Ahmedabad municipality. In April 28, 1922, a case of ‘misrepresentation of funds’ worth Rs 1.68 lakh was registered in Ahmedabad District Court (ADC). Sardar successfully defended the case in ADC. But he was dragged to the Bombay High Court in 1923. Jinnah led a panel of lawyers and fought for Sardar Patel. Sardar finally won the case.
See also
Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel
