Rajnikant Puranik - Sardar Patel: The Iron Man who should have been Indias First PM

Rajnikant Puranik

While I usually came back from meeting Gandhiji elated and inspired but always a bit sceptical, and from talks with Jawaharlal fired with emotional zeal but often confused and unconvinced, meetings with Vallabhbhai were a joy from which I returned with renewed confidence in the future of our country. I have often thought that if fate had decreed that he [Sardar Patel], instead of Jawaharlal, would be younger of the two, India would have followed a very different path and would be in better economic shape than it is today.

JRD Tata {BK2/v} {Lala/174}

Here was a man [Sardar Patel] with a crystal-clear mind who could see to the core of the problem within the shortest possible time

Frank Anthony {BK2/248}

the Iron Man
who should have been

INDIAS FIRST PM

by

Rajnikant Puranik

Patel possessed the organising ability of Bismarck, the astute statesmanship of Chanakya, and the single-minded devotion to the cause of national unity of Abraham Lincoln.

VV Giri, ex-President of India {BK/433}

Categories: Non-fiction, History, Biography

Copyright 2018 Rajnikant Puranik

This Print: June 2018

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To the fond memory of my late parents

Shrimati Shakuntala and

Shri Laxminarayan Puranik

___________________

Thanks to

Devbala Puranik, Manasi and Manini

for encouragement and support

A Note on Citations & Bibliography

Citations are given as super-scripts in the text, such as {Azad/128}.

Citation Syntax & Examples

{Source-Abbreviation/Page-Number}

e.g. {Azad/128} = Azad, Page 128

{Source-Abbreviation/Volume-Number/Page-Number}

e.g. {CWMG/V-58/221} = CWMG, Volume-58, Page 221

{Source-Abbreviation} for URLs (articles on the web), and for digital books (including Kindle-Books), that are searchable, where location or page-number may not be given.

e.g. {VPM2} , {URL15}

{Source-Abbreviation/Location-Number} for Kindle Books

e.g. {VPM2} , {VPM2/L-2901}

Example from Bibliography Table at the end of this Book

The second column above gives the nature of the source : B=paper Book, D=Digital Book/eBook other than Kindle, K=Kindle eBook, U=URL of Document/Article on Web, W=Website, Y=YouTube.

Preface

The problem of the [Princely] states is so difficult
that only you can solve it.

Gandhi to Sardar Patel . {RG/406}

Sir Stafford Cripps had estimated it would take India 10 to 15 years or more, to merge the States with India. It was a surprise to all, and a tribute to the Sardars abilities, that he took, not 10 to 15 years, but less than 10 to 15 months to merge all the 548 Princely States with India, extending Indias geographical area by a whopping 40%.

__________________________________

It is not fully appreciated, but if one studies the unfolding pre-independence and the post-independence scenario between 1945 and 1950, and takes stock of the crucial period and the critical decisions taken, one has to acknowledge that it was not Gandhi or Nehru or any other leader but Sardar Patel who played an indispensably wise, critical, mature, decisive, responsible, steering leadership role. This book highlights that role. Sardar Patel boldly took upon himself the demanding and thankless task of critical and risky decision making that others were either too timid, or too uncertain, or too confused, or too cautious to take. It was he who took the lead in devising winning strategies and tactics post 1945.

Much earlier, at the beginning of his political career, he was the first leader who translated the Gandhian theory of non-violent, non-cooperation satyagraha into practice in the rural setting by successfully planning and leading the Bardoli Satyagraha of 1928.

It is not so well known that Sardar had excelled in academics. He completed the 36-month, 9-terms law course at the Middle Temple (one of the Inns of Court, as Londons law colleges were called then) in about two years obtaining first class with honours, getting first rank, and winning a prize of 50 pounds!

What is more he had self-financed his education in England through his law-practice in India, as his father was not in a position to support him. Through the dint of his labour and competence, he established a roaring law-practice upon return from England, which he gladly gave up upon a call from Gandhi. This was in sharp contrast to Nehru who with all the financial resources and facilities provided by his father had just scraped through in lower second division in England; and rather than being able to earn as a lawyer, despite his fathers established practice in Allahabad, had to remain financially dependent upon his father for himself and for his family.

India of today is what was British India after partition, plus additional 40% geographical area on account of the integration of 548 Princely States into it (out of 562, 14 went to Pakistan), which Britain had declared to be independent upon lapse of their paramountcy. The credit for expanding Indias area by a massive 40% goes to Sardar Patel. This book provides interesting details on that integration.

But for Sardar Patel Hyderabad would have been either another Pakistan or Kashmir. J&K would not have been a perennial problem as it has become, bleeding India profusely in terms of men, money and materials through the decades, and Kashmiri Pandits would not have seen the terrible days that they have, had Nehru allowed Sardar to handle J&K too, like he [Sardar] had successfully handled the integration of all the other Princely States. This book brings out all the critical details on both Hyderabad and Kashmir.