Chinese hostilities, about which Sardar Patel warned 65 years ago, are still rampant. They remind us of the need for an ‘iron man’ like him. Insurgency by neighbours, supported by China, require a Sardar Patel to counter
The two titles attached with Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel are ‘iron man’ and ‘spirit of unity’. One of the traits common in Sri Aurobindo, Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru and Patel is their education in london which offered them an opportunity to understand dubious and divisive policy of governance of the British which had the sole aim to keep the colonies weak and ignorant.
Patel stayed in london for his higher education for just 22 months when he came to know about the ‘lotus and Daggers’ society which is a outfit by Indian revolutionaries spearheaded by Aurobindo, Shyamji Krishna Varma and others, which Aurobindo later activated at the cost of his Indian Civil Service examination in 1893.
Though Patel never joined this society, as he reached london very late, but this laid the foundation of a fighter in him. He was not influenced by the Mahatma initially due to his mild and liberal approach. It got sharpened only when he met him in 1917.
I will deal here with only one act, Sardar was attached to the vision of ‘China policy against India’. The China policy, which Nehru, out of his pro-Soviet socialistic approach, opted and failed in 1962 — the Indo-China war — continue even today, causing border disputes, supporting terror activities by Pakistan.
Breathtaking indeed was Patel’s vision and grasp of the Chinese intentions and also the foreboding of the frauds, China could — as they indeed did in 1962 — set in.
Nehru, the author of Glimpses of World History, had no glimpses of the Chinese intention. He did not pay heed to Patel’s advice against Chinese imperialism engulfing Tibet, the North-East, Nepal and Myanmar.
Self-convinced as Nehru always was, about the correctness of his stance on international affairs. He could not have taken kindly to Patel’s strong dissenting views and perception about China. Balraj Madhok wrote, “Nehru was spontaneous but not honest as Patel was in China policy”. He quotes NK Seshan, “Nehru addressed a strongly worded letter to Patel, objecting Sardar — advising him on China Tibet policy. But the day this letter was to be delivered to Patel, he died. And with that ended dissent over Nehru’s China policy.”
Nehru completely misjudged the implications of the rise of communist China. Patel wrote to Nehru against the map, “China prepared including ladakh, Nepal. We shall not fail to arm ourselves with requisite Armed Force, whatever it may cost.”
As early as June 1949, Patel wrote to Nehru, “I anticipate that as soon as the communists have established themselves in the rest of China, they will try to destroy Tibet’s autonomy.”
Balraj Madhok in his article on Patel and Nehru wrote, “Nehru always neglected Patel on Foreign affairs, particularly on China”. KM Munshi reminded Nehru about how in the seventh century, Tibetan invaders attacked Kannauj in India. On November 7, 1950, Patel wrote to Nehru.
The Chinese Government has tried to delude us by professions of peaceful intentions. We must beware. The final action of Chinese in my judgment is little short of perfidy. The Chinese do not regard India as its friend. The last telegram to us on Tibet by China is casual and our protest against Chinese forces entering Tibet is unheeded, unfriendly, but a potential enemy.
Again Patel warned Nehru, “Out of China malevolence, it appears, we shall not be able to rescue Tibet and the Dalai lama”.
Recently, when I was attending a conference in london, Praveen Patel, Chairman, Sardar Patel Memorial Society, UK, said that there has not been in global history, a more uncanny assessment of a nascent communist power’s longer-term imperial design than Patel’s.
Patel had written a confidential note on the Chinese intentions. Nehru disregarded the warning of Patel at the cost of national humiliation in 1962.
louis Mountbatten honestly wrote in his memoirs, ‘Great Divide’, “I am glad Nehru has not been put incharge of the new States department, which would have wrecked everything.”
Patel’s creation of United India, consolidating 564 princely States is a global landmark which even Chanakya and Otto von Bismarck could not do. Nikita Khrushchev, the Premier of the Soviet Union exclaimed when he visited India, “How could this be done without liquidating princes”.
later, Nehru also spoke in Parliament on Patel’s demise, “History will record in many pages and call him the builder and consolidator of the new India.”
Chinese hostilities about which Patel warned 65 years ago, are still rampant. It reminds us of the need for an Iron man like Patel. Insurgency by neighbours, supported by
China, require a tough warrior like Patel who acted against Hyderabad and Jammu & Kashmir.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s plan to erect a 182-metre statue of Patel is not enough to immortalise the legacy of Patel. But it will definitely imbibe national character, firm determination, clear vision and transparency of what he was.
(The writer had been a visiting faculty, University of Westminster, london)