It is a strange coincidence that October 31 is historic for two big reasons: the lesser one is very popularly known and remembered, the much greater one hardly in news or public discourse.
In 1875, on this day one of the greatest sons of India, Sardar Patel, was born in an ordinary business family. What all he did for the country is glaring in history. If Patel had not strived like mad, the Union of India would have remained a tiny country today.
The other reason for this day being important is former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi’s most unfortunate assassination in 1984 by her own security guards by way of revenge for her stern decision to have killed Khalistan-crazy terrorists in the holiest Amritsar temple. Even today, Indira Gandhi is more remembered than Sardar Patel. Ironically, Indira ruled a great country unified singlehandedly by Patel.
Maniben Patel, the Sardar’s elder child, also a freedom fighter who never married and set up own home and was a woman of tremendous human virtues. She died in 1990 at the age of 87. She had once told Verges Kurien of the ‘Amul’ fame that when Sardar Patel passed way, she picked up a book and a bag that belonged to him and went to meet Jawaharlal Nehru in Delhi. She handed them to Nehru, telling him that her father had instructed her that when he died she should give these items to Nehru and no one else. The bag contained Rs 35 lakh that belonged to the Congress party and the book was the party’s book of accounts. Nehru took them and thanked her routinely. Though she waited expectantly, hoping Nehru would seek to know if the Patel family needed any help, nothing of the sort happened. Shocked and confused, she got up and left never again to get in touch with the Prime Minister. Later, because of her popularity as a freedom fighter and a Gandhian, she was chosen to become a Member of the Indian Parliament between 1952 and 1977 never losing one election. Maniben had her education in Bombay and adopted the teachings of Mahatma Gandhi. In1918, she became an inmate of Gandhi’s ashram in Ahmedabad. In her last years when her eyesight weakened, she would walk unaided down the streets of Ahmedabad, often stumble and fall until some passerby helped her up. When she was dying, Chief Minister of Gujarat Chimanbhai Patel came to her bedside with a photographer. He stood behind her bed and instructed him to take a picture. The photograph was published in all the newspapers next day. With a little effort, they could so easily have made her last years comfortable.
Maniben’s younger brother Dahyabhai Patel, who died at the age of 66 in 1973, never showed up as his illustrious father’s son anywhere. He set up a small business firm for a simple, dignified living in Bombay, where he took care of his great father until his death in 1950. Educated in Bombay, Dahyabhai worked for an insurance company. His first wife Yashoda died, leaving him his son Bipin. He married again and had another son, Gautam. None of these guys are known today. Dahyabhai too had participated in the Quit India movement and was imprisoned from 1942 to 1944. People made him an MP in 1962. But today, his name exists virtually nowhere unless one digs it out with efforts. Incidentally, Sardar Patels’ wife had died early at the age of 29 when the daughter was only five and son three.
Patel put India together after the British left in 1947 with an independent Indian dominion and 565 princely states free to choose between merger with India or Pakistan or carry on as independent kingdoms. The princely states constituted the bulk of the landmass, though scattered across the country. Jammu & Kashmir was probably the biggest kingdom around that time though the Punjab, the biggest in history, had disintegrated into smaller states after emperor Ranjit Singh’s demise. Patel was so popular among the masses and the newly graduated politicians that he was projected as the obvious choice for Prime Minister.
The monarchs of most princely states were as oppressive, exploitative and despotic as the British rulers. So, people across India were rising in revolt against their kings to have a republic in place. Sardar Patel spent sleepless nights in devising strategies to have the princely states as part of independent India. With the aid of super-brain bureaucrat VP Menon, whom even the British top brass respected for ingenuity and problem-solving abilities, Patel tamed in good time almost all the princes by employing a camouflaged ‘carrot and the stick’ method. Whoever agreed was welcome with a red carpet rolled out. The difficult ones like the Nizam and Junagarh were trounced first. Others fell one after the other.
An anecdote be told here to prove Sardar Patel was truly an ‘Iron Man’. In June 1947, with the transfer of power and the partition of India looming on the horizon, Maharaja Hanvant Singh ascended the throne of Jodhpur. But the new king was young and inexperienced. Seeing things only from Jodhpur’s point of view and forgetting the larger picture, he began to falter in his commitment to the new Union of India being forged by Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel and VP Menon. The maharaja looked for a bargain deal from Jinnah, who instantly offered him the moon: free access to the Karachi port, jurisdiction over a railway line stretching from Jodhpur to Sindh, arms manufacturing and importing, and a large supply of grain to be sent to Jodhpur in case of famine. Jinnah is reported to have given the maharaja a signed blank sheet of paper to list all his demands. The excited maharaja tried to convince Jaisalmer and Udaipur to merge with Pakistan as well. Udaipur declared that it would not leave India because the kKingdom was essentially Indian. KM Pannikar, the Dewan of Bikaner, sensed the brewing danger and alerted Patel immediately. The Sardar knew Jodhpur was a border state and the third-largest in India. Its merger might entice smaller ones like Jaisalmer and Bikaner to follow suit. Patel met Hanvant Singh and assured him that importing arms would be allowed. Further, India would take responsibility for supplying grain if needed. Plans for linking Jodhpur to Kathiawar by rail were also assured. And only now did the young prince of Jodhpur realise India was home. Thus, Jinnah’s blank cheque was turned down. On August 11, merely four days prior to Independence, Jodhpur signed the Instrument of Accession. Even on that fateful day, there was drama: the Maharaja pulled out his revolver and threatened to shoot VP Menon. Fortunately, he calmed down. After this, Maharaja Hanvant Singh became a vocal supporter of Patel and aided in the peaceful merger of many other Rajput States.
Sardar Patel is one of the greatest statesmen of modern India who sacrificed every personal interest to ensure the nation was built big and healthy. He never ever looked his family way.
The son and daughter shone because of their own merit. No wonder, once gone, they have been obliterated from history. That has been the Sardar culture!
The Statue of Unity is colossal. But the grand history of Patel’s sacrifice and contribution is not adequately chronicled or discussed publicly. He rightfully deserves to figure in students’ history books at all levels. A million salutes to the Sardar on his 144thbirthday!
