Early Life and Education of Vallabhbhai Patel
One of the leaders of the Indian National Congress amid the fight for Indian independence was the Indian statesman and barrister Vallabhbhai Patel. He was born in Nadiad, Gujarat, on October 31, 1875, and passed away in Bombay [now Mumbai] on December 15, 1950. He held the positions of deputy prime minister, minister of home affairs, minister of information, and minister of states during the first three years of India’s independence following 1947.
Patel’s Rise to Prominence in Gujarat
Patel, who was born and raised in Gujarat, became one of the most powerful figures in the state after he, as a lawyer, released a number of peasants from Kheda, Bardoli, and Borsad through a nonviolent civil disobedience movement. He went on to support the Quit India Movement and is still regarded as an inspiration today.
Patel was born into a caste of Leva Patidar landowners who were self-sufficient. He was mostly self-taught, however he was raised in a traditional Hindu environment and went to Karamasad for elementary school and Petlad for high school. Patel could practice law after being married at 16, matriculating at 22, and passing the district pleader’s exam. He founded a separate district pleader’s office in Godhra in 1900, and two years later he relocated to Borsad.
Patel built a name for himself as a lawyer by accurately presenting an unerring case and by questioning British judges and police witnesses. After his wife, who had given birth to a son and a daughter, passed away in 1908, Patel was a widower. To further his legal career, Patel went to London in August 1910 to attend the Middle Temple. He studied hard there and received excellent honors on his final exams.
Vallabhbhai Patel: Joining the Freedom Struggle and Role in Satyagraha
He returned to India in February 1913 and resided in Ahmadabad, where he quickly rose to the position of top criminal law barrister. Quiet and polite, he was well-known for his excellent manners, his elegant, English-style attire, and his bridge victory at the upscale Gujarat Club in Ahmadabad. Up to 1917, he showed no interest in Indian political activities. After being impacted by Mohandas K. Gandhi, Patel discovered that his life had altered in 1917.
Insofar as Gandhi’s satyagraha (policy of nonviolence) advanced the Indian cause against the British, Patel supported it. However, he did not identify with Gandhi’s moral beliefs and principles, and he believed that Gandhi’s focus on their universal applicability had nothing to do with India’s current political, economic, and social issues. However, Patel remade his look and gesture after deciding to support and stand by Gandhi. He left the Gujarat Club, ate Indian food, and wore the white garments of the peasantry.
1917–1924 Patel was elected Ahmadabad’s municipal president from 1924 to 1928 and was the city’s first Indian municipal commissioner. Patel first captured the spotlight in 1918 when he organized large-scale protests of Kaira, Gujarat, peasants, farmers, and landowners to protest the Bombay government’s decision to collect the full yearly revenue taxes even with crop failures caused by excessive rains.
Patel was successful in leading the Bardoli landowners’ opposition to higher taxes in 1928. He was referred to as Sardar, or “leader,” for his effective management of the Bardoli campaign, and he was subsequently recognized as a nationalist leader across India. The British viewed him as a dangerous enemy who was pragmatic, resolute, and even brutal.
Political Ideology and Relations with Gandhi and Nehru
But Patel wasn’t a revolutionary. Like Gandhi and Motilal Nehru, but unlike Jawaharlal Nehru and Subhas Chandra Bose, Patel held the view that the Indian National Congress should aim for dominion status within the British Commonwealth rather than independence during the pivotal debate over the party’s goals from 1928 to 1931. Unlike Jawaharlal Nehru, who supported violence during the independence movement, Patel disapproved of military revolution for pragmatic rather than ethical reasons. According to Patel, it would involve extreme restraint and be abortive.
Like Gandhi, Patel believed that a free India would benefit from joining the British Commonwealth in the future, so long as it was accepted as an equal member. In contrast to Gandhi, he did not view Hindu-Muslim harmony as a requirement for independence, although he did stress the importance of promoting Indian independence and self-confidence.
Patel disagreed with Jawaharlal Nehru that coercion was necessary to bring about social and economic reform. Patel, a conservative with roots in traditional Hindu beliefs, dismissed the validity of modifying socialist concepts to fit the social and economic framework of India. Because he supported free enterprise, he won over conservative forces and amassed the money needed to keep the Indian National Congress going.
Leadership in the Indian National Congress
Patel was the Indian National Congress’s second presidential candidate after Gandhi at the 1929 Lahore session. Jawaharlal Nehru was chosen after Gandhi avoided the presidency to stop the resolution of independence from being adopted and pressured Patel to resign, primarily because of Patel’s intransigent stance toward Muslims. Patel was imprisoned for three months during the 1930 Salt Satyagraha, a movement that involved prayer and fasting. Patel chaired the Indian National Congress session at Karachi in March 1931. In January 1932, he was put away.
After being freed in July 1934, he organized the Congress Party for the 1937 elections and was the front-runner for the Congress President from 1937–1938. Jawaharlal Nehru was elected after Patel withdrew once more under pressure from Gandhi. Patel was imprisoned in October 1940, released in August 1941, and then imprisoned again from August 1942 to June 1945, along with other Congress leaders.
Gandhi’s nonviolence in the face of the then-expected Japanese invasion of India was laid off by Patel as impractical during the war. Patel differed with Gandhi on the transfer of power because he believed that it was in India’s best interests to break away from Pakistan after acknowledging that the subcontinent would eventually be divided into Muslim Pakistan and Hindu India.
Gandhi once again came in to help Nehru win the election, even though Patel was the front-runner for the Indian National Congress’s 1945–46 president. The British viceroy encouraged Nehru to create an interim administration when he was the head of the Congress. Patel would have been India’s first prime minister under normal times. Patel served as deputy prime minister, minister of home affairs, minister of information, and minister of states during the first three years of independence. Yet, his lasting fame primarily stems from his successful efforts to bring India’s princely states into the Indian Union peacefully and to unite politically.
Legacy of Vallabhbhai Patel: India’s First Home Minister
Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, India’s first Home Minister after independence, was involved in taking the country together and forming its character. The Indian Princely States were challenged by the British to declare their independence under the Indian Independence Act of 1947. Pakistan was eventually created as a result of this legislation, which established the dominions of India and Pakistan.
It was difficult to handle the complicated problem of the princely states. The princes, who were frequently seen as dissolute and ineffectual, had been lavished with attention by the British and exploited for their political ends. It should come as no surprise that many princes thought the time to declare their independence had come when the British announced their departure. Others were caught in the conflict between Pakistan and India. After all, Patel’s diplomatic efforts resulted in the princely states’ admission, bringing these areas into compliance with the country’s constitution.
Patel’s Vision for a United India and Strengthening the Civil Services
Depending on the circumstances, Patel took different tacks; in Hyderabad, he even utilized force, while on other occasions he convinced monarchs to see reason. He was respected for his practical abilities and political intellect, which were vital in uniting the more than 500 sovereign domains under the Indian Union. Patel was active in strengthening the All India Services, India’s steel framework, in addition to the enormous undertaking of uniting the country. He was known as the Iron Man of India.