Fabulous Personalities- 14

-Dr.Sundar ram MBBS., MD

Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel was a senior leader of Indian National Congress and a prominent figure in the Indian Freedom Struggle , who later became India’s first Deputy Prime Minister and first Home Minister. He is popularly known as the IRON MAN OF INDIA and played a vital role in integrating princely states into a newly independent India .

EARLY LIFE

He was born on October 31,1875 in Nadiad,Gujarat. He was born into a self sufficient landowning family. Reared in an atmosphere of traditional Hinduism, he competed his school and married at the age of 16. He passed the district pleader’s examination at the age of 22. As a lawyer, Patel distinguished himself in presenting an unassailable case in a precise manner and in challenging police witnesses and British judges. In 1908 he lost his wife , who had borne him a son and daughter , and thereafter he remained a widower. Determined to enhance his career in the legal profession , Patel travelled to London in 1910 . He studied diligently and passed the final examination with high honours.He was the leading barrister in criminal law at the Ahmedabad bar .

CHANGE OF PATHS

    In 1917, he found the course of his life changed after having been influenced by M.K.Gandhi . He adhered to Gandhi’s sathyagraha (policy of non violence) insofar as it furthered the Indian struggle against the British. However he did not identify himself with Gandhi’s moral convictions and ideals, and he regarded Gandhi’s emphasis on their universal application as irrelevant to India’s immediate political and social problems.

NEHRU AND PATEL

Jawaharlal Nehru and Vallabhbhai
Patel was a rare combination.Post independence,both were instrumental in developing the nation. They complemented each other .Within Congress, Nehru was considered Left-wing(socialism) while Patel’s ideologies were aligned with the Right-wing (capitalism). Nehru was sworn in as the first Prime Minister while Patel held the next essential post of Home Minister . According to the biographer Rajmohan Gandhi,Patel was considered the Hindu face of Indian nationalism while Nehru was the secular and global face of Indian
nationalism.

CONTRIBUTIONS

He was responsible in large measure for shaping India’s constitution.He coordinated 565 princely states and integrated them into the Indian union,thus preventing balkanisation of India .Paying tribute to him, Nehru called Sardar ‘the builder and consolidator of new India’.

He was also instrumental in founding the Indian Administrative Service and Indian Police Service, and for his defence of Indian civil servants from political attacks;he is known as the Patron Saint of India’s
services.

Self reliance was among the chief tenets of Patel’s economic philosophy. He championed investment led growth.His words were, “Spend less, Save more, and invest as much as possible should be the motto of every citizen”.

He worked extensively against alcohol consumption , untouchability and for women emancipation in Gujarat .

He renovated the Somnath temple in 1947 and felt that the story of its resurrection from ruins would be symbolic of the story of the resurgence of India.

LEGACY

Patel was posthumously awarded the Bharat Ratna award in 1991.

In 2014, it was announced that his birthday, October 31,would become an annual celebration known an Rashtriya Ekta Diwas (National Unity Day).

He was ranked third in Outlook India’s poll of the Greatest Indian in 2012.

He is the name sake of many public institutions in India. Sardar Vallabhbhai National Institute of Technology in Surat,Sardar Patel university, International Airport of Ahmedabad and India’s national police training academy is named after him.

Statue of Unity is a monument dedicated to Patel located in Gujarat, for his role in political integration of India,
inaugurated by PM Narendra Modi on October 31,2018.It is the world’s tallest statue measuring 182 meters.

Vallabhbhai Patel was a selfless
leader,who placed the country’s interest above everything else and shaped India’s destiny with single minded devotion. His invaluable contribution in creating a modern and unified Indianneeds to be remembered by every citizen as the country marches ahead as one of the largest economies in the
world.