Vallabhbhai Jhaverbhai Patel (1875 - 1950)

Born 31 Oct 1875 in Nadiād, Bombay Presidency, British India

Ancestors

Husband of Jhaverba ઝવેરબા (Unknown) Patel — married 1891 in India

Descendants

Died 15 Dec 1950 at age 75 in Bombay, Bombay State, India

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Biography

Sardar Patel is Notable.

Sardar Patel was born in India

Vallabhbhai Patel, commonly known as Sardar, was an influential Indian lawyer and who served as the first Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister of India from 1947 to 1950. He was also a barrister and a senior leader of the Indian National Congress, who played a leading role in the country's struggle for independence, guiding its integration into a united, independent nation.

Birth and Youth

Vallabhbhai was born in Nadiād in what was the Bombay Presidency, British India, and was raised in the countryside of the state of Gujarat. He was one of the six children of Jhaverbhai and Ladba Patel. He belonged to the Leva Patel community subcaste of Gurjar. His birthdate was never officially recorded, but he entered it as 31 Oct 1875, on his matriculation examination papers.

Vallabhbhai followed Vaishnavism and belonged to Pushtimarg sect of Mahaprabhu Vallabhacharya. Hetook the diksha from the descendant of Vallabhacharya.

When Vallabhbhai passed his matriculation at the relatively late age of 22, he set out to become a lawyer. He spent years away from his family, studying on his own with books borrowed from other lawyers, passing his examinations within two years.

Marriage and Family

Vallabhbhai's wife was named, Jhaverba. She had remained with her parents while he completed his law studies, after which the couple set up home in Godhra. The couple had a daughter, Maniben, in 1903 and a son, Dahyabhai, in 1905. In 1909, Jhaverba was hospitalized in Bombay to undergo a major cancer surgery. Her health suddenly worsened and, despite successful emergency surgery, she died in the hospital. Vallabhbhai decided against marrying again. He raised his children with the help of his family and sent them to English-language schools in Bombay.

Career

At age 36, having practiced law in Godhra, Borsad, and Anand for many years, Vallabhbhai journeyed to England and enrolled at the Middle Temple Inn in London. Completing a 36-month course in 30 months, Patel finished at the top of his class despite having had no previous college background. Returning to India, Vallabhbhai settled in Ahmedabad where he became one of the city's most successful barristers.

In September 1917, Vallabhbhai delivered a speech in Borsad, encouraging Indians nationwide to sign Mahatma Gandhi's petition demanding self-rule from Britain. A month later, he met Gandhi for the first time at the Gujarat Political Conference in Godhra. On Gandhi's encouragement, Vallabhbhai accepted a position as secretary of the Gujarat Sabha, a public body that would eventually become the Gujarati arm of the Indian National Congress. In that role he fought against the forced servitude of Indians to Europeans and organized relief efforts in the wake of plague and famine in Kheda. In time, as one of Gandhi's earliest political lieutenants, he become one of the most influential leaders in Gujarat.

In 1920 he was elected president of the newly formed Gujarat Pradesh Congress Committee through which he supported Gandhi's non-cooperation movement, touring the state to recruit more than 300,000 members. In Ahmedabad he helped organize protest bonfires in which British goods were burned. Vallabhbhai threw in all his English-style clothes and from then on, he and his children switched completely to wearing khadi, the locally produced cotton clothing. In Gujarat, he worked extensively in the following years against alcoholism, untouchability, and caste discrimination, as well as for the empowerment of women.

In 1922, 1924 and 1927, Vallabhbhai was elected Ahmedabad's municipal president. During his terms, he oversaw improvements in infrastructure: the supply of electricity was increased, and drainage and sanitation systems were extended throughout the city. The school system also underwent major reforms. He established refugee centers across the district, mobilized volunteers, and arranged for supplies of food, medicines, and clothing, as well as emergency funds from the government and the public.

In April 1928 Vallabhbhai returned to the independence struggle from his municipal duties in Ahmedabad. Shortly thereafter, Bardoli suffered from a serious double predicament of a famine and a steep tax hike. Vallabhbhai organized volunteers, camps, and an information network across affected areas. Despite arrests and seizures of property and land, the struggle intensified. The situation came to a head in August, when, through sympathetic intermediaries, Vallabhbhai negotiated a settlement that included repealing the tax hike, reinstating village officials who had resigned in protest, and returning seized property and land. It was by the women of Bardoli that Patel first began to be referred to as Sardar (or chief).

In 1930, as Gandhi embarked on the Dandi Salt March, Sardar was arrested in the village of Ras and was put on trial without witnesses and with no lawyer or journalists allowed to attend. With Gandhi's subsequent arrest, districts across Gujarat launched an anti-tax rebellion until and unless Sardar and Gandhi were released.

In 1931, Sardar was elected president of Congress, using his position to organize the return of confiscated land to farmers in Gujarat. Sardar and Gandhi were again arrested in January 1932 and were imprisoned in the Yeravda Central Jail. During this term of imprisonment, the two developed a close bond of affection, trust, and frankness. In prison, the two discussed national and social issues, read Hindu epics, and cracked jokes. Gandhi taught Sardar Sanskrit. When Gandhi embarked on a fast-unto-death, protesting the separate electorates allocated for untouchables, Sardar looked after Gandhi closely and himself refrained from partaking of food. After being moved to a jail in Nasik, Sardar was finally released in July 1934.

In 1934, Sardar was appointed as the 49th President of Indian National Congress. He played a leading role in selecting and financing candidates for the 1934 elections to the Central Legislative Assembly in New Delhi and for the provincial elections of 1936. He also determined the Congress's stance on issues and opponents. In 1938 he organized rank and file opposition to the attempts of then-Congress president Subhas Chandra Bose to move away from Gandhi's principles of non-violent resistance and led senior Congress leaders in a protest that resulted in Bose's resignation.

On the outbreak of World War II, Sardar supported Nehru's decision to withdraw the Congress from central and provincial legislatures, contrary to Gandhi's advice, as well as an initiative by senior leader Chakravarthi Rajagopalachari to offer Congress's full support to Britain if it promised Indian independence at the end of the war and installed a democratic government right away. Gandhi had refused to support Britain on the grounds of his moral opposition to war, while Subhash Chandra Bose was in militant opposition to the British. The British government rejected Rajagopalachari's initiative, and embraced Gandhi's leadership again. He participated in Gandhi's call for individual disobedience, and was arrested once again in 1940 and was imprisoned for nine months.

While Nehru, Rajagopalachari, and Maulana Azad initially criticized Gandhi's proposal for an all-out campaign of civil disobedience to force the British to grant Indian independence, Sardar was his most fervent supporter. Arguing that the British would retreat from India as they had from Singapore and Burma, Sardar urged that the campaign start without any delay. Though feeling that the British would not leave immediately, he favored an all-out rebellion that would galvanize the Indian people, who had been divided in their response to the war. In Sardar's view, such a rebellion would force the British to concede that continuation of colonial rule had no support in India, and thus speed the transfer of power to Indians. An all-out campaign of civil disobedience, known as the Quit India movement, was approved on 7 Aug 1942. Sardar was arrested on 9 August and was imprisoned with the entire Congress Working Committee from 1942 to 1945 at the fort in Ahmednagar. Meanwhile, strikes, protests, and other revolutionary activities broke out across India.

By the time Sardar was released on 15 Jun 1945, it was clear that the British government was preparing proposals to transfer power to India. On 16 May 1946 the British proposed the formation of a loose federation with extensive provincial autonomy, partitioning India on religious lines (Muslim vs Hindu), with over 565 princely states free to choose between independence or accession to either dominion. The Muslim League approved both plans while the Indian National Congress flatly rejected the proposal. Gandhi considered the proposal as being inherently divisive, but Sardar realized that rejecting the proposal would mean that only the League would be invited to form a government and thus lobbied the Congress to give its assent. In time, he converted Nehru, Prasad, and Rajagopalachari to accept the plan. When the League subsequently retracted its approval, the viceroy Lord Wavell invited the Congress to form the new government. Rajendra Prasad became India's first President, Chakravarti Rajagopalachari was named Governor General, and Jawaharlal Nehru was named Prime Minister. Sardar was named India's first Deputy Prime Minister and was given charge of the departments of Home Affairs and Information and Broadcasting. He moved into a government house on Aurangzeb Road in Delhi, which would be his home until his death in 1950.

As Deputy Prime Minister, Sardar is remembered for having organized relief efforts for partition refugees who were fleeing from Pakistan to Punjab and Delhi. He also led the task of forging a united India, successfully integrating into the newly independent nation those British colonial provinces that had formed the Dominion of India, as well as the approximately 565 self-governing princely states which had been released from British suzerainty by the Indian Independence Act of 1947. He is also remembered as the "patron saint of India's civil servants" for having established the modern All India Services system.

Death

Patel's health declined rapidly through the summer of 1949. Eventually, he began losing consciousness and was confined to his bed. On 12 December he was flown to Bombay where large crowds gathered at Santacruz Airport to greet him. He was taken to Birla House, where he suffered a massive heart attack. He died on 15 Dec 1950, at Birla House in Bombay. In homage to Patel, Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru declared a week of national mourning. His cremation in Sonapur in Bombay was attended by a crowd of one million including Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, Rajagopalachari and President Rajendra Prasad.

Legacy

The world's tallest statue, The Statue of Unity, erected by the Indian government in the state of Gujarat, was dedicated to Patel on 31 October 2018.

Sources

• Wikipedia entry for Vallabhbhai Patel

Acknowledgements

• This profile has been contributed to by the members of the WikiTree 15 Nations Global Tour of 2023