Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel

Vallabhbhai Jhaverbhai Patel
Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel in his office at the Home Ministry, circa 1947
Place of birth:	Nadiad, Gujarat, British India
Place of death:	Mumbai, Maharashtra, India
Movement:	Indian independence movement

Vallabhbhai Patel (October 31, 1875 - December 15, 1950), a political and social leader of India, played a major role in the country's struggle for independence and guided its integration into a united, independent nation. In India and across the world, people often addressed him as Sardar (Gujarati: સરદાર Sardār), which means Chief in many languages of India.

Patel faced challenges that would, from an objective point of view, thwart the creation of a modern republic in India. Shaking off the century and a half of British colonial rule, Patel guided India in partnership with Ghandi and Nehru to establish a parliamentary democracy among regional leaders accustomed to having sovereign rule. He navigated the treacherous water of interreligious strife between Hindu, Muslim, Buddhist, Jain, and Christian to create a vibrant independent nation. That required supporting the creation of an independent Islamic nation, Pakistan, which led to the most severe criticism of his leadership.

Overview

Raised in the countryside of Gujarat and largely self-educated, Vallabhbhai Patel worked in a successful law practice he first became inspired by the work and philosophy of Mahatma Gandhi. Patel subsequently organised the peasants of Kheda, Borsad, and Bardoli in Gujarat in non-violent civil disobedience against oppressive policies imposed by the British Raj; in that role, he became one of the most influential leaders in Gujarat. He rose to the leadership of the Indian National Congress and stood at the forefront of rebellions and political events, organising the party for elections in 1934 and 1937, and promoting the Quit India movement.

As the first Home Minister and Deputy Prime Minister of India, Patel organised relief for refugees in Punjab and Delhi, and led efforts to restore peace across the nation. Patel took charge of the task to forge a united India from the 565 semi-autonomous princely states and British-era colonial provinces. Using frank diplomacy backed with the option (and the use) of military action, Patel's leadership enabled the accession of almost every princely state. Hailed as the Iron Man of India, citizens also remember him as the "patron saint" of India's civil servants for establishing modern all-India services. Patel emerged as one of the earliest proponents of property rights and free enterprise in India.

Early life

Vallabhbhai Jhaverbhai Patel, born at his maternal uncle's house in Nadiad, Gujarat, his actual date of birth never officially recorded—Patel entered October 31, as his date of birth on his matriculation examination papers. The fourth son of Jhaverbhai and his wife Ladba Patel, his family lived in the village of Karamsad, in the Kheda district where Jhaverbhai owned a homestead. He lived with his older brothers, Somabhai, Narsibhai and Vithalbhai Patel (also a future political leader). He had a younger brother, Kashibhai and a sister, Dahiba. As a young boy, Patel helped his father in the fields and bimonthly kept a day-long fast, abstaining from food and water—a cultural observance that enabled him to develop physical toughness. When seventeen years old, Patel's parents arranged his marriage with Jhaverba, a young girl of twelve or thirteen years from a nearby village. As per custom, the young bride would continue to reside with her parents until her husband started earning and could establish their household.

Patel travelled to attend schools in Nadiad, Petlad and Borsad, living self-sufficiently with other boys. He reputedly cultivated a stoic character — a popular anecdote recounts how he lanced his own painful boil without hesitation, even as the barber supposed to do it trembled. Patel passed his matriculation at the late age of 22; at this point, his elders generally regarded him as an unambitious man destined for a commonplace job. But Patel himself harboured a plan—he would study to become a lawyer, work and save funds, travel to England and study to become a barrister. Patel spent years away from his family, studying on his own with books borrowed from other lawyers and passed examinations within two years. Fetching Jhaverba from her parents' home, Patel set up his household in Godhra and enrolled at the bar. During the many years it took him to save money, Vallabhbhai—now a pleader—earned a reputation as a fierce and skilled lawyer. His wife bore him a daughter, Manibehn, in 1904 and later a son, Dahyabhai, in 1906. Patel also cared for a friend suffering from Bubonic plague when it swept across Gujarat. When Patel himself came down with the disease, he immediately sent his family to safety, left his home and moved into an isolated house in Nadiad (by other accounts, Patel spent that time in a dilapidated temple); there, he recovered slowly. Patel practiced law in Godhra, Borsad and Anand while taking on the financial burdens of his homestead in Karamsad. When he had saved enough for England and applied for a pass and a ticket, they arrived in the name of "V. J. Patel," at Vithalbhai's home, who bore the same initials. Having harboured his own plans to study in England, Vithalbhai remonstrated to his younger brother that it would be disreputable for an older brother to follow his younger brother. In keeping with concerns for his family's honour, Patel allowed Vithalbhai to go in his place. He also financed his brother's stay and began saving again for his own goals.

In 1909, Jhaverba, Patel's wife underwent a major surgical operation for cancer in Mumbai (then Bombay). Her health suddenly worsened and despite successful emergency surgery, she died in the hospital. Patel received a note informing him of his wife's demise as he cross-examined a witness in court. As per others who witnessed, Patel read the note, pocketed it and continued to intensely cross-examine the witness and won the case. He broke the news to others only after the proceedings had ended. Patel himself decided against marrying again. He raised his children with the help of his family and sent them to English-medium schools in Mumbai. At the age of 36, he journeyed to England and enrolled at the Middle Temple Inn in London. Finishing a 36-month course in 30 months, Patel topped his class despite having no previous college background. Returning to India, Patel settled in the city of Ahmedabad and became one of the city's most successful barristers. Wearing European-style clothes and urbane mannerisms, he also became a skilled bridge player. Patel nurtured ambitions to expand his practice and accumulate great wealth and to provide his children with modern education. He had also made a pact with his brother Vithalbhai to support his entry into politics in the Bombay Presidency, while Patel himself would remain in Ahmedabad and provide for the family.

Fighting for independence

At the urging of his friends, Patel won an election to become the sanitation commissioner of Ahmedabad in 1917. While often clashing with British officials on civic issues, he lacked interest in politics. Upon hearing of Mohandas Gandhi, he joked to Mavlankar that Gandhi would "ask you if you know how to sift pebbles from wheat. And that is supposed to bring independence." But Gandhi's defience of the British in Champaran for the sake of the area's oppressed farmers deeply impressed him. Against the grain of Indian politicians of the time, Gandhi wore Indian-style clothes and emphasised the use of one's mother tongue or any Indian language as opposed to English—the lingua franca of India's intellectuals. Patel felt particularly attracted to Gandhi's inclination to action—apart from a resolution condemning the arrest of political leader Annie Besant, Gandhi proposed that volunteers march peacefully demanding to meet her.

Patel gave a speech in Borsad in September 1917, encouraging Indians nationwide to sign Gandhi's petition demanding Swaraj—independence — from the British. Meeting Gandhi a month later at the Gujarat Political Conference in Godhra, Patel became the secretary of the Gujarat Sabha—a public body which would become the Gujarati arm of the Indian National Congress—at Gandhi's encouragement. Patel now energetically fought against veth—the forced servitude of Indians to Europeans—and organized relief efforts in wake of plague and famine in Kheda. The Kheda peasants' plea for exemption from taxation had been turned down by British authorities. Gandhi endorsed waging a struggle there, but could not lead it himself due to his activities in Champaran. When Gandhi asked for a Gujarati activist to devote himself completely to the assignment and Patel volunteered, much to Gandhi's personal delight. Though he made his decision made on the spot, Patel later said that his desire and commitment came after intensive personal contemplation, as he realised he would have to abandon his career and material ambitions.

Satyagraha in Gujarat

Supported by Congress volunteers Narhari Parikh, Mohanlal Pandya and Abbas Tyabji, Vallabhbhai Patel began a village-to-village tour in the Kheda district, documenting grievances and asking villagers for their support for a statewide revolt by refusing the payment of taxes. Patel emphasized potential hardships with the need for complete unity and non-violence despite any provocation. He received enthusiastic responses from virtually every village. When they launched the revolt, refusing revenue, the government sent police and intimidation squads to seize property, including confiscating barn animals and whole farms. Patel organized a network of volunteers to work with individual villages—helping them hide valuables and protect themselves during raids. The police arrested thousands of activists and farmers, but left Patel untouched. The revolt began evoking sympathy and admiration across India, including with pro-British Indian politicians. The government agreed to negotiate with Patel and decided to suspend the payment of revenue for the year, even scaling back the rate. Patel emerged as a hero to Gujaratis and admired across India. In 1920, he won an election as the president of the newly formed Gujarat Pradesh Congress Committee—serving as its president till 1945.

Patel supported Gandhi's Non-cooperation movement and toured the state to recruit more than 300,000 members and raise over Rs. 1.5 million in funds. Helping organize bonfires of British goods in Ahmedabad, Patel threw in all his English-style clothes. With his daughter Mani and son Dahya, he switched completely to wearing khadi. Patel also supported Gandhi's controversial suspension of resistance in wake of the Chauri Chaura incident. He worked extensively in the following years in Gujarat against alcoholism, untouchability and caste discrimination, as well as for the empowerment of women. In the Congress, resolutely supported Gandhi against his Swarajist critics. Patel won election as Ahmedabad's municipal president in 1922, 1924, and 1927—during his terms, Ahmedabad received a major supply of electricity and the school system underwent major reforms. Construction of drainage and sanitation systems expanded over all the city. He fought for the recognition and payment of teachers employed in schools established by nationalists (out of British control) and even took on sensitive Hindu-Muslim Issues. Sardar Patel personally led relief efforts in the aftermath of the intense torrential rainfall in 1927, which had caused major floods in the city and in the Kheda district and great destruction of life and property. He established refuge centres across the district, raised volunteers, arranged for supply of food, medicines and clothing, as well as emergency funds from the government and public.

When Gandhi stayed in prison, Congressmen asked Sardar Patel to lead the satyagraha in Nagpur in 1923 against a law banning the raising of the Indian flag. He organized thousands of volunteers from all over the country in processions hoisting the flag. Patel negotiated a settlement that obtained the release of all prisoners and allowed nationalists to hoist the flag in public. Later that year, Patel and his allies uncovered evidence suggesting that the police had been in league with local dacoits in the Borsad taluka even as the government prepared to levy a major tax for fighting dacoits in the area. More than 6,000 villagers assembled to hear Patel speak and supported the proposed agitation against the tax, deemed immoral and unnecessary. He organized hundreds of Congressmen, sent instructions and received information from across the district. Every village in the taluka resisted payment of the tax, and through cohesion, also prevented the seizure of property and lands. After a protracted struggle, the government withdrew the tax. Historians consider Patel's building of cohesion and trust amongst the different castes and communities, divided on socio-economic lines, one of his key achievements .

In April 1928, Sardar Patel returned to the freedom struggle from his municipal duties in Ahmedabad when Bardoli suffered from a serious predicament of a famine and steep tax hike. a Even though the famine covered a large portion of Gujarat, the revenue hike had been steeper than in Khed. After cross-examining and talking to village representatives, emphasizing the potential hardship and need for non-violence and cohesion, Patel initiated the struggle — complete denial of taxes. Sardar Patel organized volunteers, camps and an information network across affected areas. The people supported the revenue refusal even more strongly than in Kheda and many sympathy satyagrahas formed across Gujarat. Despite arrests, seizures of property and lands, the struggle intensified. The situation reached a head in August, when through sympathetic intermediaries, he negotiated a settlement repealing the tax hike, reinstating village officials who had resigned in protest and the return of seized property and lands. During the struggle and after the victory in Bardoli, his colleagues and followers increasingly addressed Patelas Sardar.

Leading the Congress

Maulana Azad, Sardar Patel (third from left, in the foreground), and other Congressmen at Wardha

As Gandhi embarked on the Dandi Salt March, police arrested Patel in the village of Ras, the government trying him without witnesses, and with no lawyer or pressman allowed to attend. Patel's arrest and Gandhi's subsequent arrest caused the Salt Satyagraha to greatly intensify in Gujarat — districts across Gujarat launched an anti-tax rebellion until they released Patel and Gandhi. Once released, Patel served as interim Congress president until re-arrested while leading a procession in Mumbai. After the signing of the Gandhi-Irwin Pact, Patel won election as Congress president for its 1931 session in Karachi—here the Congress ratified the pact, committed itself to the defence of fundamental rights and human freedoms, and a vision of a secular nation, minimum wage and the abolition of untouchability and serfdom. Patel used his position as Congress president in organising the return of confiscated lands to farmers in Gujarat. Upon the failure of the Round Table Conference in London, the government arrested Gandhi and Patel in January 1932 when the struggle re-opened, and imprisoned in the Yeravda Central Jail. During that term of imprisonment, Patel and Gandhi grew close to each other, and the two developed a close bond of affection, trust, and frankness. Their mutual relationship could be described as that of an elder brother—Gandhi—and his younger brother—Patel. Despite having arguments with Gandhi, Patel respected his instincts and leadership. During imprisonment, the two would discuss national and social issues, read Hindu epics and crack jokes. Gandhi also taught Patel Sanskrit language. Gandhi's secretary Mahadev Desai kept detailed records of conversations between Gandhi and Patel. When Gandhi embarked on a fast-unto-death protesting the separate electorates allocated for untouchables, Patel looked after Gandhi closely and himself refrained from partaking of food. Authorities later moved Patel to a jail in Nasik. He refused a British offer for a brief release to attend the cremation of his brother Vithalbhai, who had died in 1934, finally winning release in July of the same year.

Patel headed Congress's all-India election campaign in 1934 and 1937 — he would collect funds, select candidates, determine the Congress stance on issues and opponents. Deciding against contesting a seat for himself, Patel nevertheless guided Congressmen elected in the provinces and at the national level. In 1935, Patel underwent surgery for hemorrhoids, yet guided efforts against plague in Bardoli and again when a drought struck Gujarat in 1939. Patel would guide the Congress ministries that had won power across India with the aim of preserving party discipline—Patel feared that the British would use opportunities to create conflicts among elected Congressmen; he wanted to keep his party focused on the goal of complete independence. Patel clashed with Nehru, opposing declarations of the adoption of socialism at the 1936 Congress session, which he considered a diversion from the main goal of achieving independence. In 1938, Patel organized rank and file opposition to the attempts of then-Congress president Subhash Bose to move away from Gandhi's principles of non-violent resistance. Patel considered Bose authoritarian and desirous of more power over the party. He led senior Congress leaders in a protest, which resulted in Bose's resignation. But criticism arose from Bose's supporters, socialists and other Congressmen that Patel himself acted in an authoritarian manner in his defense of Gandhi's authority.

Quit India

When World War II broke out, Patel supported Nehru's decision to withdraw the Congress from central and provincial legislatures, contrary to Gandhi's advice, as well as an initiative by senior leader Chakravarthi Rajagopalachari to offer Congress's full support to Britain if it promised Indian independence at the end of the war and install a democratic government right away. Gandhi had refused to support Britain on the grounds of his moral opposition to war, while Subhash Bose militantly opposed the British. The British rejected Rajagopalachari's initiative, and Patel embraced Gandhi's leadership again. Participating in Gandhi's call for individual disobedience, the government arrested Patel in 1940, imprisoning him for nine months. He also opposed the proposals of the Cripps' mission in 1942. Patel lost more than twenty pounds during his period in jail.

While Nehru, Rajagopalachari and Maulana Azad initially criticized Gandhi's proposal for an all-out campaign of civil disobedience to force the British to Quit India, Patel stood its most fervent supporter. Arguing that the British would retreat from India as they had from Singapore and Burma, Patel stressed that the campaign start without any delay. Though feeling that the British would persist for a lime, Patel favored an all-out rebellion which would galvanize Indian people, who had been divided in their response to the war, In Patel's view, an all-out rebellion would force the British to concede that continuation of colonial rule lacked support in India, and thus speed power transfer to Indians. Believing strongly in the need for revolt, Patel stated his intention to resign from the Congress if they rejected the revolt. Gandhi strongly pressured the All India Congress Committee to approve of an all-out campaign of civil disobedience, and the AICC approved the campaign on 7 August 1942. Though Patel's health had suffered during his stint in jail, Patel gave emotional speeches to large crowds across India, asking people to refuse paying taxes and participate in civil disobedience, mass protests and a shutdown of all civil services. He raised funds and prepared a second-tier of command as a precaution against the arrest of national leaders. Patel made a climactic speech to more than 100,000 people gathered at Gowalia Tank in Bombay (Mumbai) on August 7:

The Governor of Burma boasts in London that they left Burma only after reducing everything to dust. So you promise the same thing to India? … You refer in your radio broadcasts and newspapers to the government established in Burma by Japan as a puppet government? What sort of government do you have in Delhi now? …When France fell before the Nazi onslaught, in the midst of total war, Mr. Churchill offered union with England to the French. That was indeed a stroke of inspired statesmanship. But when it comes to India? Oh no! Constitutional changes in the midst of a war? Absolutely unthinkable… The object this time is to free India before the Japanese can come and be ready to fight them if they come. They will round up the leaders, round up all. Then it will be the duty of every Indian to put forth his utmost effort—within non-violence. No source is to be left untapped; no weapon untried. This is going to be the opportunity of a lifetime.

Historians believe that Patel's speech instrumental in electrifying nationalists, who had been skeptical of the proposed rebellion. Historians credit Patel's organising work in that period for ensuring the success of the rebellion across India. Patel, arrested again on 9 August, endured imprisonment with the entire Congress Working Committee from 1942 to 1945 at the fort in Ahmednagar. Here he spun cloth, played bridge, read a large number of books, took long walks, practiced gardening. He also provided emotional support to his colleagues while awaiting news and developments of the outside. Patel felt deeply pained at the news of the deaths of Mahadev Desai and Kasturba Gandhi later in the year. But Patel wrote in a letter to his daughter that he and his colleagues experienced "fullest peace" for having done "their duty." Even though other political parties had opposed the struggle and the British had employed ruthless means of suppression, the Quit India movement proved "by far the most serious rebellion since that of 1857," as the viceroy cabled to Winston Churchill. More than one hundred thousand people had been arrested and thousands killed in police firings. Strikes, protests and other revolutionary activities had broken out across India. Patel, released on 15 June 1945, realised that the British prepared proposals to transfer power to Indian hands.

Independence, integration, and role of Gandhi

In the 1946 election for the Congress presidency, Patel stepped down in favor of Nehru at the request of Gandhi. The election's importance lay in the elected President leading free India's first Government. Gandhi asked all sixteen states representatives and Congress to elect the right person, thirteen states representatives out of sixteen proposed Sardar Patel's name, but Patel respected Gandhi's request to decline the opportunity to become the first prime minister. As a Home Minister, Patel merged all parts of India under federal control but Nehru led to leaving out Jammu and Kashmir.

After the election of Nehru as the party's president, Patel began directing the Congress campaign for the general elections of the Constituent Assembly of India. In the elections, the Congress won a large majority of the elected seats, dominating the Hindu electorate. But the Muslim League led by Muhammad Ali Jinnah won a large majority of Muslim electorate seats. The League had resolved in 1940 to demand Pakistan—an independent state for Muslims—and standing as a fierce critic of the Congress. The Congress formed governments in all provinces save Sindh, Punjab and Bengal, where it entered into coalitions with other parties.

Cabinet mission and partition

When the British mission proposed two plans for transfer of power, Congress seethed with considerable opposition to both. The plan of May 16, 1946 proposed a loose federation with extensive provincial autonomy, and the "grouping" of provinces based on religious-majority. The plan of June 16, 1946 proposed the partition of India on religious lines, with over 600 princely states free to choose between independence or accession to either dominion. The League approved both plans, while the Congress flatly rejected the June 16 proposal. Gandhi criticised the May 16 proposal as being inherently divisive, but Patel, realizing that rejecting the proposal would mean that only the League would be invited to form a government, lobbied the Congress Working Committee hard to give its assent to the May 16 proposal. Patel engaged the British envoys Sir Stafford Cripps and Lord Pethick-Lawrence and obtained an assurance that the "grouping" clause would lack practical force, Patel converted Nehru, Rajendra Prasad and Rajagopalachari to accept the plan. When the League retracted its approval of the May 16 plan, the viceroy Lord Wavell invited the Congress to form the government. Under Nehru, called the "Vice President of the Viceroy's Executive Council," Patel took charge of the departments of home affairs and information and broadcasting. He moved into a government house on 1, Aurangzeb Road in Delhi — that served as his residence till his death in 1950.

Vallabhbhai Patel represented one of the first Congress leaders to accept the partition of India as a solution to the rising Muslim separatist movement led by Muhammad Ali Jinnah. He had been outraged by Jinnah's Direct Action campaign, which had provoked communal violence across India and by the viceroy's vetoes of his home department's plans to stop the violence on the grounds of constitutionality. Patel severely criticised the viceroy's induction of League ministers into the government, and the revalidation of the grouping scheme by the British without Congress approval. Although further outraged at the League's boycott of the assembly and non-acceptance of the plan of May 16 despite entering government, he knew that Jinnah enjoyed popular support amongst Muslims, and that an open conflict between him and the nationalists could degenerate into a Hindu-Muslim civil war of disastrous consequences. The continuation of a divided and weak central government would in Patel's mind, result in the wider fragmentation of India by encouraging more than 600 princely states towards independence. Between the months of December 1946 and January 1947, Patel worked with civil servant V. P. Menon on the latter's suggestion for a separate dominion of Pakistan created out of Muslim-majority provinces. Communal violence in Bengal and Punjab in January and March of 1947 further convinced Patel of the soundness of partition. Patel, a fierce critic of Jinnah's demand that the Hindu-majority areas of Punjab and Bengal be included in a Muslim state, obtained the partition of those provinces, thus blocking any possibility of their inclusion in Pakistan. Patel's decisiveness on the partition of Punjab and Bengal had won him many supporters and admirers amongst the Indian public, which had tired of the League's tactics, but Gandhi, Nehru, secular Muslims and socialists criticised him for a perceived eagerness to do so. When Lord Louis Mountbatten formally proposed the plan on June 3, 1947, Patel gave his approval and lobbied Nehru and other Congress leaders to accept the proposal. Knowing Gandhi's deep anguish regarding proposals of partition, Patel engaged him in frank discussion in private meetings over the perceived practical unworkability of any Congress-League coalition, the rising violence and the threat of civil war. At the All India Congress Committee meeting called to vote on the proposal, Patel said:

“

I fully appreciate the fears of our brothers from [the Muslim-majority areas]. Nobody likes the division of India and my heart is heavy. But the choice is between one division and many divisions. We must face facts. We cannot give way to emotionalism and sentimentality. The Working Committee has not acted out of fear. But I am afraid of one thing, that all our toil and hard work of these many years might go waste or prove unfruitful. My nine months in office has completely disillusioned me regarding the supposed merits of the Cabinet Mission Plan. Except for a few honourable exceptions, Muslim officials from the top down to the chaprasis (peons or servants) are working for the League. The communal veto given to the League in the Mission Plan would have blocked India's progress at every stage. Whether we like it or not, de facto Pakistan already exists in the Punjab and Bengal. Under the circumstances I would prefer a de jure Pakistan, which may make the League more responsible. Freedom is coming. We have 75 to 80 percent of India, which we can make strong with our own genius. The League can develop the rest of the country.

”

Following Gandhi's and Congress' approval of the plan, Patel represented India on the Partition Council, where he oversaw the division of public assets, and selected the Indian council of ministers with Nehru. Neither he nor any other Indian leader, had foreseen the intense violence and population transfer that would take place with partition. Patel would take the lead in organising relief and emergency supplies, establishing refugee camps and visiting the border areas with Pakistani leaders to encourage peace. Despite those efforts, estimates on the death toll vary from around two hundred thousand, to over a million people. The estimated number of refugees in both countries exceeds fifteen million. Understanding that Delhi and Punjab policemen, accused of organising attacks on Muslims, experienced personally loss during the tragedy of partition, Patel called out the Indian Army with South Indian regiments to restore order, imposing strict curfews and shoot-at-sight orders. Visiting the Nizamuddin Auliya Dargah area in Delhi, where thousands of Delhi Muslims feared attacks, he prayed at the shrine, visited the people and reinforced the presence of police. He suppressed from the press reports of atrocities in Pakistan against Hindus and Sikhs to prevent retaliatory violence. Establishing the Delhi Emergency Committee to restore order and organising relief efforts for refugees in the capital, Patel publicly warned officials against partiality and neglect. When reports reached Patel that large groups of Sikhs prepared to attack Muslim convoys heading for Pakistan, Patel hurried to Amritsar and met Sikh and Hindu leaders. Arguing that attacking helpless people constituted a cowardly and dishonourable approach, Patel emphasised that Sikh actions would result in further attacks against Hindus and Sikhs in Pakistan. He assured the community leaders that if they worked to establish peace and order and guarantee the safety of Muslims, the Indian government would react forcefully to any failures of Pakistan to do the same. Additionally, Patel addressed a massive crowd of an estimated 200,000 refugees who had surrounded his car after the meetings:

Here, in this same city, the blood of Hindus, Sikhs and Muslims mingled in the bloodbath of Jallianwala Bagh. I am grieved to think that things have come to such a pass that no Muslim can go about in Amritsar and no Hindu or Sikh can even think of living in Lahore. The butchery of innocent and defenceless men, women and children does not behove brave men... I am quite certain that India's interest lies in getting all her men and women across the border and sending out all Muslims from East Punjab. I have come to you with a specific appeal. Pledge the safety of Muslim refugees crossing the city. Any obstacles or hindrances will only worsen the plight of our refugees who are already performing prodigious feats of endurance. If we have to fight, we must fight clean. Such a fight must await an appropriate time and conditions and you must be watchful in choosing your ground. To fight against the refugees is no fight at all. No laws of humanity or war among honourable men permit the murder of people who have sought shelter and protection. Let there be truce for three months in which both sides can exchange their refugees. This sort of truce is permitted even by laws of war. Let us take the initiative in breaking this vicious circle of attacks and counter-attacks. Hold your hands for a week and see what happens. Make way for the refugees with your own force of volunteers and let them deliver the refugees safely at our frontier.

Following his dialogue with community leaders and his speech, no further attacks occurred against Muslim refugees, and a wider peace and order re-established soon over the entire area. Nehru, secular Muslims and Gandhi criticized Patel over his alleged wish to see Muslims from other parts of India depart. While Patel vehemently denied such allegations, the acrimony with Maulana Azad and other secular Muslim leaders increased when Patel refused to dismiss Delhi's Sikh police commissioner on charges of discrimination. Hindu and Sikh leaders also accused Patel and other leaders for failing to take Pakistan sufficiently to task over the attacks on their communities there, and Muslim leaders further criticised him for allegedly neglecting the needs of Muslims leaving for Pakistan, and concentrating resources for incoming Hindu and Sikh refugees. Patel clashed with Nehru and Azad over the allocation of houses in Delhi vacated by Muslims leaving for Pakistan—Nehru and Azad desired to allocate them for displaced Muslims, while Patel argued that no government professing secularism must make such exclusions. Gandhi publicly defended Patel, who received widespread admiration and support for speaking frankly on communal issues and acting decisively and resourcefully to quell disorder and violence.

Political integration of India

Under the June 3 plan, more than 600 princely states received the option of joining either India or Pakistan, or choosing independence. Indian nationalists and large segments of the public feared that if those states refused to accede, a vast majority of the people and territory would be fragmented. The Congress as well as senior British officials considered Patel the best man for the task of achieving unification of the princely states with the Indian dominion. Gandhi had said to Patel, "the problem of the States is so difficult that you alone can solve it." Considered a statesman of integrity with the practical acumen and resolve to accomplish a monumental task, Patel accepted the task. He asked V. P. Menon, a senior civil servant with whom he had worked over the partition of India, to become his right-hand as chief secretary of the States Ministry. On May 6, 1947, Patel began lobbying the princes, attempting to make them receptive towards dialogue with the future Government and trying to forestall potential conflicts. Patel used social meetings and unofficial surroundings to engage most monarchs, inviting them to lunch and tea at his home in Delhi. At those meetings, Patel stated that tranquility existed between the Congress and the princely order. He stressed that the princes would need to accede to India in good faith by August 15, 1947. Patel invoked the patriotism of India's monarchs, asking them to join in the freedom of their nation and act as responsible rulers who cared about the future of their people. He persuaded the princes of 565 states of the impossibility of independence from the Indian republic, especially in the presence of growing opposition from their subjects. He proposed favourable terms for the merger, including creation of privy purses for the descendants of the rulers. While encouraging the rulers to act with patriotism, Patel kept the force option open, setting a deadline of August 15, 1947 for them to sign the instrument of accession document. All but three of the states willingly merged into the Indian union—only Jammu and Kashmir, Junagadh, and Hyderabad fell out of his basket.

Hyderabad state in 1909. Its area stretches over the present Indian states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Maharashtra.

Junagadh, in his home state of Gujarat, had special importance to Patel. The Nawab had under pressure from Sir Shah Nawaz Bhutto acceded to Pakistan although quite far from Pakistan while 80 percent of its population declared themselves Hindu. Patel combined diplomacy with force, demanding that Pakistan annul the accession, and that the Nawab accede to India. He sent the Army to occupy three principalities of Junagadh to show his resolve. Following widespread protests and the formation of a civil government, or Aarzi Hukumat, both Bhutto and the Nawab fled to Karachi, and under Patel's orders, Indian Army and police units marched into the state. A plebiscite later organised produced a 99.5% vote for merger with India. In a speech at the Bahauddin College in Junagadh following the latter's take-over, Patel emphasized his feeling of urgency on Hyderabad, which he felt more vital to India than Kashmir:

If Hyderabad does not see the writing on the wall, it goes the way Junagadh has gone. Pakistan attempted to set off Kashmir against Junagadh. When we raised the question of settlement in a democratic way, they (Pakistan) at once told us that they would consider it if we applied that policy to Kashmir. Our reply was that we would agree to Kashmir if they agreed to Hyderabad.

Hyderabad, the largest of the princely states, included parts of present-day Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, and Maharashtra states. The Nizam Osman Ali Khan, a Muslim, served as ruler, although over 80% of its people practiced Hinduism. The Nizam sought independence or accession with Pakistan. Muslim forces loyal to Nizam, called the Razakars, under Qasim Razvi pressed the Nizam to hold out against India, while organising attacks with militant Communists on people on Indian soil. Even though signing a Standstill Agreement, arranged through the desperate efforts of Lord Mountbatten to avoid a war, the Nizam rejected deals and changed his positions. In September 1948, Patel emphasised in Cabinet meetings that India's patience had come to an end, reconciling Nehru and the Governor-General, Chakravarti Rajgopalachari to military action. Following preparations, Patel ordered the Indian Army to integrate Hyderabad (in his capacity as Acting Prime Minister) while Nehru toured Europe. Termed Operation Polo, the action comfortably secured into the Indian Union although thousands of Razakar forces had been killed. Preventing an outbreak of Hindu-Muslim violence had been the main aim of Mountbatten and Nehru in avoiding a forced annexation. Patel insisted that if Hyderabad continued with its antics unopposed, the prestige of the Government would fall and then neither Hindus nor Muslims would feel secure in its realm. After defeating Nizam, Patel retained him as the ceremonial chief of state, and held talks with him.

Leading India

Governor General Chakravarti Rajagopalachari, Nehru and Patel formed the triumvirate which ruled India from 1948 to 1950. Prime Minister Nehru retained intense popularity with the masses, but Patel enjoyed the loyalty and faith of rank and file Congressmen, state leaders and India's civil services. Patel stood as a senior leader in the Constituent Assembly of India, responsible in a large measure for shaping India's constitution. Patel constituted a key force behind the appointment of Dr. Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar as the chairman of the drafting committee, and the inclusion of leaders from a diverse political spectrum in the process of writing the constitution.

Patel sat as the chairman of the committees responsible for minorities, tribal and excluded areas, fundamental rights and provincial constitutions. He piloted a model constitution for the provinces in the Assembly, which contained limited powers for the state governor, who would defer to the President — he clarified his opposition to permitting the governor exercise power which could impede an elected government. He worked closely with Muslim leaders to end separate electorates and the more potent demand for reservation of seats for minorities. Patel held personal dialogues with leaders of other minorities on the question, birthing the measure that allows the President to appoint Anglo-Indians to Parliament. His intervention proved key to the passage of two articles that protected civil servants from political involvement and guaranteed their terms and privileges. He played a key role in the founding the Indian Administrative Service and the Indian Police Service, and for his defence of Indian civil servants from political attack, he earned the name "patron saint" of India's services. When a delegation of Gujarati farmers came to him citing their inability to send their milk production to the markets without being fleeced by middlemen, Patel exhorted them to organise the processing and sale of milk by themselves, and guided them to create the Kaira District Co-operative Milk Producers' Union Limited, which preceded the Amul milk products brand. Patel also pledged the reconstruction of the ancient but dilapidated Somnath Temple in Saurashtra — he oversaw the creation of a public trust and restoration work, and pledged to dedicate the temple upon the completion of work (the work completed after Patel's death, the first President of India, Dr. Rajendra Prasad inaugurated the temple).

When the Pakistani invasion of Kashmir began in September 1947, Patel immediately wanted to send troops into Kashmir. But agreeing with Nehru and Mountbatten, he waited till Kashmir's monarch had acceded to India. Patel then oversaw India's military operations to secure Srinagar, the Baramulla Pass and the forces retrieved vast territory from the invaders. Patel, along with Defence Minister Baldev Singh administered the entire military effort, arranged for troops from different parts of India to be rushed to Kashmir and for a major military road connecting Srinagar to Pathankot be built in 6 months. Patel strongly advised Nehru against going for arbitration to the United Nations, insisting that Pakistan had been wrong to support the invasion, promoting the accession to India as valid. He wanted to avoid foreign interference in a bilateral affair. Patel opposed the release of Rs. 55 crores to the Government of Pakistan, convinced that the money would go to finance the war against India in Kashmir. The Cabinet had approved his point, but reversed when Gandhi, who feared an intensifying rivalry and further communal violence, went on a fast-unto-death to obtain the release. Patel, though not estranged from Gandhi, felt deeply hurt at the rejection of his counsel and a Cabinet decision.

In 1949, a crisis arose when the number of Hindu refugees entering West Bengal, Assam and Tripura from East Pakistan climbed over 800,000. In many cases Pakistani authorities forcibly evicted the refugees who suffered as victims of intimidation and violence. Nehru invited Liaquat Ali Khan, Prime Minister of Pakistan to find a peaceful solution. Despite his aversion, Patel reluctantly met Khan and discussed the matters. Patel strongly criticised Nehru's intention to sign a pact that would create minority commissions in both countries and pledge both India and Pakistan to a commitment to protect each other's minorities. Syama Prasad Mookerjee and K.C. Neogy, two Bengali ministers resigned and people intensely criticised Nehru in West Bengal for allegedly appeasing Pakistan. The pact immediately fell into jeopardy. Patel publicly came out to Nehru's aid. He gave emotional speeches to members of Parliament, and the people of West Bengal, and spoke with scores of delegations of Congressmen, Hindus, Muslims and other public interest groups, persuading them to give peace a final effort. Parliament approved the pact within a year, most of the Hindu refugees had returned to East Pakistan.

Gandhi's death and relations with Nehru

Patel displayed intense loyalty to Gandhi and both he and Nehru looked to him to arbitrate disputes. Nehru and Patel sparred over national issues. When Nehru asserted control over Kashmir policy, Patel objected to Nehru's sidelining his home ministry's officials. Nehru took offence at Patel's decision-making regarding the states' integration, having neither consulted him nor the cabinet. Patel asked Gandhi to relieve him of his obligation to serve, knowing that he lacked Nehru's youth and popularity. He believed that an open political battle would hurt India. After much personal deliberation and contrary to Patel's prediction, Gandhi on January 30, 1948, told Patel to remain in the government. A free India, according to Gandhi, needed both Patel and Nehru. A few minutes after leaving his private meeting with Patel, an assassin's bullet killed Ghandi. At Gandhi's wake, Nehru and Patel embraced each other and addressed the nation together. Patel gave solace to many associates and friends and immediately moved to forestall any possible violence. Within two months of Gandhi's death, Patel suffered a major heart attack; the timely action of his daughter, his secretary, and nurse saved Patel's life. Speaking later, Patel attributed the attack to the "grief bottled up" due to Gandhi's death.

Criticism arose from the media and other politicians that Patel's home ministry had failed to protect Gandhi. Emotionally exhausted, Patel tendered a letter of resignation, offering to leave the government. Patel's secretary convinced him to withhold the letter, seeing it as fodder for Patel's political enemies and political conflict in India. Nehru sent Patel a letter dismissing any question of personal differences and his desire for Patel's ouster. He reminded Patel of their 30-year partnership in the freedom struggle and asserted that after Gandhi's death, quarreling smacked of disrespect. Nehru, Rajagopalachari and other Congressmen publicly defended Patel. Moved, Patel publicly endorsed Nehru's leadership and refuted any suggestion of discord. Patel publicly dispelled any notion that he sought to be prime minister. Though the two committed themselves to joint leadership and non-interference in Congress party affairs, they criticised each other in matters of policy, clashing on the issues of Hyderabad's integration and UN mediation in Kashmir. Nehru declined Patel's counsel on sending assistance to Tibet after its 1950 invasion by the People's Republic of China and ejecting the Portuguese from Goa by military force.

When Nehru pressured Dr. Rajendra Prasad to decline a nomination to become the first President of India in 1950 in favour of Rajagopalachari, he thus angered the party. Nehru sought Patel's help in winning the party over, but Patel declined and Prasad duly won the election. Nehru opposed the 1950 Congress presidential candidate Purushottam Das Tandon, a conservative Hindu leader, endorsing Jivatram Kripalani instead and threatening to resign if Tandon won the election. Patel rejected Nehru's views and endorsed Tandon in Gujarat, where Kripalani failed to receive one vote despite hailing from that state himself. Patel believed his mission to convince Nehru that congress made the laws, not Nehru, but he personally discouraged Nehru from resigning after the latter felt that the party had no confidence in him.

Death

On 29 March 1949, authorities lost radio contact with a plane carrying Patel, his daughter Manibehn and the Maharaja of Patiala. Engine failure caused the pilot to make an emergency landing in a desert area in Rajasthan. With all passengers safe, Patel and others tracked down to a nearby village and local officials. When Patel returned to Delhi, thousands of Congressmen gave him a resounding welcome. In Parliament, MPs gave a long, standing ovation to Patel, stopping proceedings for half an hour. In his twilight years, members of Parliament honoured Patel him, and the Punjab University and Osmania University awarded him honorary doctorates of law.

Patel's health declined rapidly through the summer of 1950. He later began coughing blood, whereupon Manibehn began limiting his meetings and working hours and arranged for a personalised medical staff to begin attending to Patel. The Chief Minister of West Bengal and doctor Bidhan Roy heard Patel make jokes about his impending end, and in a private meeting Patel frankly admitted to his ministerial colleague N. V. Gadgil that he would die soon. Patel's health worsened after 2 November, when he began losing consciousness frequently, confined by doctors to his bed. Flown to Mumbai on 12 December to recuperate at his son Dahyabhai's flat — his condition turned critical. Nehru and Rajagopalachari came to the airport to see him off. After suffering a massive heart attack (his second), he died on 15 December 1950. In an unprecedented and unrepeated gesture, on the day after his death more than 1,500 officers of India's civil and police services congregated to mourn at Patel's residence in Delhi and pledged "complete loyalty and unremitting zeal" in India's service. Large crowds, Nehru, Rajagopalachari, President Prasad, and many Congressmen and freedom fighters attended his cremation in Sonapur, Mumbai.

Criticism and legacy

The coat of Sardar Patel, on display at the Sardar Patel National Memorial, Ahmedabad

During his lifetime, Vallabhbhai Patel received criticism of an alleged bias against Muslims during the time of partition. Nationalist Muslims such as Maulana Azad as well as Hindu nationalists criticised him for readily plumping for partition. Supporters of Subhash Bose criticised Patelby for acting coercively to put down politicians not supportive of Gandhi. Socialist politicians such as Jaya Prakash Narayan and Asoka Mehta criticised him for his personal proximity to Indian industrialists such as the Birla and Sarabhai families. Some historians have criticised Patel's actions on the integration of princely states as undermining the right of self-determination for those states.

Patel has received credit for almost single-handedly unifying India on the eve of independence. He won the admiration of many Indians for speaking frankly on the issues of Hindu-Muslim relations and bravely using military force to integrate India. British statesmen — his opponents in the freedom struggle — such as Lord Wavell, Cripps, Pethick-Lawrence and Mountbatten hailed his skills of leadership and practical judgement. Some historians and admirers of Patel such as Rajendra Prasad and industrialist J.R.D. Tata have expressed opinions that Patel would have made a better prime minister for India than Nehru. Nehru's critics and Patel's admirers cite Nehru's belated embrace of Patel's advice regarding the UN and Kashmir and the integration of Goa by military action. Proponents of free enterprise cite the failings of Nehru's socialist policies as opposed to Patel's defence of property rights and his mentorship of the Amul co-operative project.

Among Patel's surviving family, Manibehn Patel lived in a flat in Mumbai for the rest of her life following her father's death; she often led the work of the Sardar Patel Memorial Trust — which organises the prestigious annual Sardar Patel Memorial Lectures — and other charitable organisations. Dahyabhai Patel, a businessman eventually won a seat in the Lok Sabha (the lower house of the Indian Parliament) as an MP in the 1960s.

The central hall of the Sardar Patel National Memorial

For many decades after his death, supporters noted a lack of effort from the Government of India, the national media and the Congress party regarding the commemoration of Patel's life and work. In Gujarat, citizens lionize Patel as a hero, preserving his family home in Karamsad in his memory. Patel received the Bharat Ratna award, India's highest civilian honour, posthumously in 1991. India celebrates 31 October, Patel's birthday, nationally as Sardar Jayanti. The Sardar Patel National Memorial opened in 1980 at the Moti Shahi Mahal in Ahmedabad, composed of a museum, a gallery of portraits and historical pictures and a library, which stores important documents and books associated with Patel and his life. Many of Patel's personal effects and relics from various periods of his personal and political life number among the exhibits.

Patel has become the namesake of many public institutions in India. Among them a major initiative to build dams, canals and hydroelectric power plants on the Narmada river valley to provide a tri-state area with drinking water, electricity and increase agricultural production received christening as the Sardar Sarovar. The Sardar Vallabhbhai National Institute of Technology, the Sardar Patel University and the Sardar Patel Vidyalaya, numbering among the nation's premier institutions, have become Patel's namesake. In Richard Attenborough's Gandhi (1982), actor Saeed Jaffrey portrayed Patel. In 1993, Ketan Mehta produced and directed the biopic Sardar, featuring noted Indian actor Paresh Rawal as Patel; it focused on Patel's leadership in the years leading up to independence, the partition of India, India's political integration and Patel's relationship with Gandhi and Nehru.

References

ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

• Campbell-Johnson, A. 1953. Mission With Mountbatten. Dutton. OCLC 1302764.
• Gandhi, R. 1990. Patel: A Life. Navajivan, Ahmedabad. OCLC 25788696.
• Hodson, H.V. 1997. Great Divide; Britain, India, Pakistan. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0195778219/
• Mahadev Desai. 1933. Vir Vallabhbhai.
• Menon, V.P. 1985. Integration of Indian States. Sangam Books Ltd. ISBN 0861314654.
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• Menon, V. P. 1957. The Transfer of Power in India. Princeton University Press. OCLC 4352298.
• Nandurkar, G. M. 1981. Sardar's Letters, Mostly Unknown. Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Smarak Bhavan. OCLC 10423422.
• Nayar, Pyarelal. 1958. Mahatma Gandhi: The Last Phase. Navajivan Pub. House. OCLC 1652068
• Panjabi, K. L. 1969. The Indomitable Sardar, 3rd ed. Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan. OCLC 1207231.
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• Shankar, Vidya. 1975. My Reminiscences of Sardar Patel. New Delhi: Macmillan. OCLC 2119134.

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