India’s ‘Iron Man’ Remembered On 144th Birth Anniversary
He became independent India’s first Home Minister and Deputy Prime Minister. And Women in Bardoli gave him the title of ‘Sardar’ after his successful leadership of the Bardoli Satyagraha.
Sardar Vallabh Bhai Patel is called India’s Bismarck and Iron Man after playing a central role in the geo-political integration of an India which was divided into disparate princely states after Independence.
Whenever there is a mention of the country’s unity, integrity and secularism, Sardar Patel will be remembered as a strong Congress leader of his time. “We are a secular state. We cannot play the kind of politics that Pakistan is playing. Every Muslim living in India should feel that he is a citizen of India and he has the same rights as all other citizens. If we fail to make any Muslim feel this way, then we have no rights over our inheritance and our country”, he had said. It was the answer given by Patel to those people who were advocating that India should be made a ‘Hindu Rashtra’. As India’s Home Minister, Sardar Patel had banned the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) for ‘its role’ in the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi and for involvement in violence against the minority community. In August 1948, Sardar Patel wrote a letter to Sangh chief Madhavrao Sadashiv Golwalkar, in which he said that the speeches of all Sangh leaders were filled with communal poison, which created an atmosphere in which Gandhiji was killed. In the letter, he stated further that RSS workers expressed jubilation and distributed sweets after the death of Gandhiji. Ultimately, Sardar Patel’s true mettle was in integrating 565 princely states to create in the map of modern India. People from all religions lived in these states. Sardar Patel knew that if India became a ‘Hindu Rashtra’, then it would be difficult to integrate these princely states into India.
Whenever there is a mention of the country’s unity, integrity and secularism, Sardar Patel will be remembered as a strong Congress leader of his time. “We are a secular state. We cannot play the kind of politics that Pakistan is playing. Every Muslim living in India should feel that he is a citizen of India and he has the same rights as all other citizens. If we fail to make any Muslim feel this way, then we have no rights over our inheritance and our country”, he had said. It was the answer given by Patel to those people who were advocating that India should be made a ‘Hindu Rashtra’. As India’s Home Minister, Sardar Patel had banned the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) for ‘its role’ in the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi and for involvement in violence against the minority community. In August 1948, Sardar Patel wrote a letter to Sangh chief Madhavrao Sadashiv Golwalkar, in which he said that the speeches of all Sangh leaders were filled with communal poison, which created an atmosphere in which Gandhiji was killed. In the letter, he stated further that RSS workers expressed jubilation and distributed sweets after the death of Gandhiji. Ultimately, Sardar Patel’s true mettle was in integrating 565 princely states to create in the map of modern India. People from all religions lived in these states. Sardar Patel knew that if India became a ‘Hindu Rashtra’, then it would be difficult to integrate these princely states into India.
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