Shree Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel
The Iron Man of India.

Vallabhbhai Patel was born on October 31, 1875, in Nadiad, Gujarat, India. His father’s name is Zaverbhai and his mother name is Ladbai. His father was a farmer while his mother was a very spiritual woman. Vallabhbhai Patel Started his academic career in a Gujarati medium school, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel later shifted to an English medium school. In 1897, Vallabhbhai accepted his high school and started preparing for law examination. He went to get a degree in law and traveled to England in 1910. He finished his law degree in 1913 from Inns of Court and return to India to start his law practice in Godhra, Gujarat. For his legal proficiency, Vallabhbhai was offered many profitable posts by the British Government but he rejected all. He was a reliable challenger of the British government and its laws and therefore decided not to work for the British.

In 1891 he married Zaverbai and the couple had two children 1 daughter and 1 son named Maniben Patel, Dahyabhai Patel. Patel shifted his practice to Ahmedabad. He became a member of the Gujarat Club where he attended a lecture by Mahatma Gandhi. Gandhi’s words deeply affected Vallabhbai and he soon adopted Gandhian principles to become a staunch follower of the charismatic leader.

Vallabhbhai come into light during the Bardoli movement where he fights for farmers against the British government, In 1925 Bardoli in Gujarat suffered very badly by famine and floods, due to this the farmers are facing problems of causing crop production due to this the farmers are facing great financial problems, the British government had raised the tax rate of 30% that years farmer request the government to roll back the tax raise but British Government refused to cancel the rise in tax. The government started seizing property and cattle of the farmers. Here Vallabhbhai Patel runs the movement against the British Government for the benefits of farmers.

The Government agreed to return the seized lands and properties, as well as cancel revenue payment not only for the year but cancel the 30% raise until after the succeeding year. After the successful movement of Bardoli, the Vallabhbhai Patel get the reward of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel.

After Independence of India, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel was the first Deputy Prime Minister and first Home Minister of India. It was his skill where he consolidation of more than 565 semi-autonomous princely states to form a united India. He organized relief camps for refugees in Delhi and Punjab for people. Patel has very closely attached with Mahatma Gandhi, After the death of Mahatma Gandhi, Sardar Patel’s health started weakening, he suffered a major heart attack within the few months of Gandhi’s death. He died on 15th December 1950. He was a man with high courage and determination due to this quality people called him the “Iron Man of India”.

Life of Sardar

Sardar Patel was born on 31st October 1875 at Karamsad, a village in Gujarat. From an early age, he could brook no indiscipline or injustice. Once he found a teacher is making a profit by selling textbooks and pencils. He warns his teacher to stop profit-making by selling textbooks and pencils the
teacher not stop. he piloted a six-day strike in the school. The vile practices of the teacher were fully exposed and there was an end of it.
Read More

Patel has taken primary education at karamsad and moved to petlad for high school and passed the pleaders examination and starting practice at Godhra. Then he went to England to study Barrister and passed his exam within a limited period and return India started practice in Borsad. Within a short period, he becomes a famous lawyer. As a lawyer he excelled in cross-examination soon he became the president of the bar association.
Read More

The year 1916 was a landmark in the history of the Congress and a turning point in the career of Sardar Patel. He placed his services at the disposal of the Mahatma and soon became one of his trusted lieutenants. He entered the Ahmedabad Municipality the first step to his public career. It took him little time to make his mark soon he became chairman of Sanitary Committee. He leads the Bardoli Campaign against the British where the government raises the taxes of the farmer and fought against the British government and force them to roll back the raise of taxes where people give him “Sardar” reward on the success of Bardoli movement.
Read More

The foundations for the future constitution of free India were laid by the Sardar when he was elected President of the Karachi session of the Congress in 1931, held under gloomy shadows. His Presidential address was. short and business-like. His interest lay in helping the clown-trodden to rise
in level with the tallest in the land. He showed that mass satyagraha was no longer the idle dream of a visionary but a concrete idea rich in potentialities
Read More

The Sardar has throughout been a leader by merit. He never craved for power for its own sake. It was always thrust into his hands. Until the last moment for the choice comes, he keeps himself in the background. But his is the last word before the battle of which he is made the General. His arguments go straight to the people and he makes every struggle sharp and swift. The “Quit India” movement launched in 1942 showed the man of action that he was. His fiery, speeches had a tremendous effect on men and women all over the country. Even the conservative British and American press were perturbed.
Read More

THE MAKER OF UNITED INDIA

The ‘Nawab of Junagadh to be dispensed with, without firing a single shot. He. held out the example of the Nizam who had become a slave of his own Frankenstein. The Orissa state chiefs were the next trouble-makers: The- Sardar was there again on the spot, to deal with them in a manner he alone was capable of. He impressed on them in no uncertain terry as that they could be rulers only if the people recognized them as such. The days of democracy had dawned in India and everyone had to move with the times. He fostered mutual respect and understanding between the rulers and the people whom he exhorted to maintain and preserve the dignity of the institution of Princes, which had long traditions in India.
Read More

It was a tragic hour for the whole nation when on the morning of the 15th December 1950 the life of the Iron Man of India was slowly ebbing away. The Birla’s can rightly feel proud that both Gandhiji and Sardar Patel spent their last moments in their houses, one in Delhi. The other in Bombay. As Sardar’s body lay in state millions of people swarmed Birla House. An ocean of human heads bowed in sorrow bore testimony to the love and affection the people had for the departed leader. The last journey was a mammoth procession; headed by a cross-section of the country’s leadership, a surging mass of humanity chanting Gandhiji’s favorite hymn “Raghupati Raghava Rajaram” wended their way to cremate the mortal remains of the unflinching freedom fighter and the architect of united India.
Read More

Work of Sardar

During 1932-33 we were in different jails. In 1934, on release, we came closer to each other. During the Assembly elections, I first declined his suggestion to stand for the Assembly. But when at the last-minute Shri Nariman withdrew, he again asked me to stand for the seat. The prestige of the Congress was at stake, he said. I agreed. This laid the foundation of our friendship. Then came the elections of 1936. I then saw him arranging elections, fixing up candidates, setting up ministries, controlling them, giving to diverse centrifugal forces a harmonious direction.
Read More

The impressions I formed at my first meeting were those of a man of strong purpose and iron will. Later on, I was to see something of the human side of him; and in the last few years of his life, while. Great distances still divided us. I was privileged to enjoy his friendship. The more 1 saw of him, the more I came to admire the qualities which had earned him the unique position he occupied in the leadership of the country Sardar Vallabhbhai’s stature seemed to grow even bigger after the long-drawn struggle was over and Independence was attained.
Read More

The savior of refugees, weak and marginalized

The City of Ahmedabad was afflicted by the epidemic of plague in the year 1917. Many had fled the City for self-protection. Vallabhbhai refused to leave the City. He organized an anti-plague campaign and gave succor to those who stood in need of it. The high spirit of social service which he exhibited
on that occasion won for him the blessings of the poor of Ahmedabad. In subsequent tragedies to which his native province, Gujarat, was a prey, people looked to him with confidence to organize the relief measures. No single man in our big country organized and with unfailing success as many and as extensive rebel measures in natural calamities as he had done. He fought for the abolition forced labor which was then in vogue and got it removed. He organized large-scale relief measures ill the influenza epidemic of 1918.
Read More

However, it was with the proclamation of Indian Independence in August 1947 that a new phase in Sardar’s epoch-making services to the country began. His outstanding contribution to India’s unity lies in the integration of 500 and the odd Princely States within the Indian Union. With far-seeing statesmanship tempered by a sense of realism, he worked out a bloodless revolution and re-drew the map of India, which may be regarded as his lasting claim to greatness and to the gratitude of his countrymen. He befriended the farmers and the workers and in times of distress and natural calamities, he carried succour and relief to the stricken humanity.
Read More

He lacks Nehru’s world reputation and world outlook, and he has deliberately confined himself to the tasks that involve surveillance of domestic politics. Here his powers and responsibilities are as wide as they well can be; they include control over all Government Information, Internal Security, the Police and, last but not least, the vital problem of relations with the Indian States. The completion of his Accession the policy should bring into the Indian Dominion more citizens than will be lost to it through the creation of Pakistan, for (excluding the twenty-millions in Hyderabad and Kashmir) there are some ninety million States’ subjects involved which is considerably more than the population of Pakistan: he also holds in his hands nearly all Congress patronage. This is a formidable concentration of personal power under any regime. In spite of all these pre-occupations, Patel has a shrewd grasp of India’s strategic position in the world at large.
Read More

Speaches of Sardar

The ‘Sardar’ of Indian satyagraha in absence of Gandhiji

Bardoli Satyagraha was a protest against the Government’s decision to impose new taxes without consulting public opinion. Sardar Patel was not very eager to lead the people until he found that they were adamant and prepared to meet the storm. During this campaign he delivered innumerable speeches appreciating, encouraging criticizing and guiding the activities of the people who had chosen him as their leader. No wonder that with a realist and a man of action like him at the helm of affairs success met their efforts. Bardoli will always remain a landmark in the history of India’s fight for freedom.
Read More

Though there have been aberrations, it is a fact beyond challenge that India has given a singular proof to the world that mass non-violence is no longer the idle dream of a visionary or a mere human longing. It is a solid fact capable of infinite possibilities for humanity, which is groaning for want of faith, beneath the weight of violence of which it has almost made a fetish. The greatest proof that our movement was non-violent lies in the fact that the peasants falsified the fears of our worst sceptics. They were described as very difficult to organize for non-violent action and it is they who stood the test with bravery and endurance that was beyond all expectation. Women and children too contributed their great share in the fight. They responded to the call by instinct and played a part which we are too near the even adequately to measure. Looked at in the light of non-violence our struggle is a world struggle and it is a matter of great satisfaction that the nations of the earth, especially the United States of America, have heartened us by their sympathy.
Read More

It should be obvious to everyone, however, that even democracy and democratic institutions can function efficiently only where the unit to which these are applied can subsist in a fairly autonomous existence. Where, on account of the smallness of its size, isolation of its situation, the inseparable link with a neighboring autonomous territory, be it a Province or a bigger State, in practically all economic
matters of everyday life, the inadequacy of resources to open up its economic potentialities, the backwardness of its people and the sheer incapacity to shoulder a self-contained administration, a State is unable to afford a modern system of Government, both democratization and integration are clearly and unmistakably indicated.
Read More

People Opinion

Gandhiji’s concept of peaceful, non-violent agitation through Satyagraha particularly appealed to him and he chose to stake his entire life on it.
Read More

The Achievements of Sardar Patel will be written in letters of gold and will occupy an immortal place in the history of India
Read More

After independence, the part played by Sardar Patel was equally notable. When the transfer of power took place in 1947, there were many critics who thought that the country would be disintegrated and it would not be possible for us to maintain a stable administration in the country. The action of Sardar Patel confounded all such critics.
Read More

A friend and colleague and comrade on whom one could invariably rely, as a tower of strength which revived wavering hearts when we were in trouble.
Read More