VP Menon, the Secretary in the Department of States, who worked alongside Sardar Patel to achieve this miracle of integration, which has no parallel in the world, recalls in his book Integration of the Indian States that from the earliest times, “spasmodic attempts were made” to bring about India’s  consolidation, first by the Magadha kings in the Sixth Century BC and three centuries later by the Mauryas  and in particular by Asoka, who brought a large portion of India under the sway of one Emperor.

Thereafter, it was Chandragupta and his son Samudragupta who brought a major part of the country under their suzerainty. Harsha in the Seventh Century AD emerged as the undisputed master of North India. Later, Menon says, attempts at political consolidation failed because empires were held together by the personality and might of the Emperor. When the Emperor exited the scene, the edifice crumbled. Also, “mutual jealousies and conflicts made the country an easy prey to any organised invasion”.    

Given this history of disunity for millennia and the sporadic and partially successful attempts made to integrate the country, the achievement of Sardar Patel is nothing short of a miracle. That is why the decision of the Narendra Modi government’s to observe October 31, the birth anniversary of Sardar Vallabhai Patel, as Rashtriya Ekta Diwas (National Unity Day) and to mount a nation-wide campaign to acquaint the country’s 1.3 billion citizens of the extraordinary achievements of this great son of India,  will be hailed by all patriotic citizens.

This is the first major step taken by the Union Government over the last six decades to accord Sardar Patel, who was instrumental in securing the accession of 554 princely states into the Indian Union and for the unification of the country, his rightful place in the pantheon of national leaders.

Apart from being a leading light in the freedom movement, Sardar Vallabhai Patel played a critical role during the most sensitive, nascent phase in independent India’s history.  As the country’s first Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister he had to grapple with the bloody riots and the influx of millions of refugees in the horrendous aftermath of the partition; play a key role in the drafting of the country’s Constitution; and, more importantly, unite a nation, which stood splintered into 554 parts. The last named task – the political and geographical unification of India – was a unique achievement in the history of mankind. Only a man with foresight, determination and true grit could have got a motley group of Maharajahs to surrender their egos and their kingdoms to create one nation. Therefore, but for Sardar Patel’s iron will and doordristi, the India that we know and love would never have existed. Instead, she would have been a truncated nation with many secessionist time bombs ticking away in different regions.

In brief, here is what the Sardar did: Following the departure of the British, all princely states had the option to either accede to India or Pakistan or remain independent. In other words, a united India would emerge only if all the states South of the Pakistan border acceded to India. If any chose to align with Pakistan or remain independent, a united India would be an impossibility. Also, if states deep within the Indian heartland decided to accede to Pakistan (as desired by Hyderabad State in the South), India’s unity and integrity would be in peril and in future these states would have posed a major threat to national security and provided Pakistan multiple bases for cross-border terrorism. Finally, India’s map would have looked jagged with several mini-Pakistans blotting the landscape. The unification of India was therefore paramount and Lord Mountbatten, the Governor-General, concluded that there was just one man – Sardar Patel - who had the courage, tenacity and ingenuity to undertake this responsibility.  Patel was entrusted the task and in a brief time he achieved the ountry’s unification by coaxing, cajoling and at times, bamboozling, some reluctant princes and got 554 of them to sign on the dotted line. This included the State of Hyderabad which was ruled by the Nizam. The Nizam was keen to accede to Hyderabad and Patel made every effort to get him to join India. When the Nizam offered resistance and even encouraged communal violence against his Hindu subjects, the Sardar asked the Indian Army to march in and secure the state. Nehru however wanted Hyderabad to take its own decision and was opposed to forceful integration of this state. But, Sardar Patel was absolutely clear in his mind that Hyderabad State cannot be outside the Indian Union. He is reported to have said that he “did not want an undigested lump in India’s belly”. But, for his foresight, India would have had a Pakistani enclave in her belly. One can well imagine its consequences!

The Sardar also brushed aside Nehru’s objections and flew in troops to Srinagar in the nick of time to save whatever is left of the state of Jammu and Kashmir. But for his firm resolve and quick action, Pakistani troops which were on the outskirts of Srinagar would have overrun the remaining parts of the state. Similarly, his decisiveness enabled the integration of Junagadh (which had announced accession to Pakistan) and a few other such states into the Indian Union. Another fact that is hidden from the public by Nehruvian historians is that of the 554 states that had to be integrated, Nehru gave Patel the responsibility to integrate 553, which Patel accomplished with ruthless precision. Nehru kept the responsibility of integration of one state – Jammu and Kashmir - to himself.  We all know the price that India is paying for Nehru’s decision!     

Menon says that by the time the Constitution came into being in January 1950, all the states had been geographically integrated and “brought within the same constitutional relations with the centre...”.  Following the completion of this stupendous task, Sardar Patel declared that “the great ideal of geographical, political and economic unification of India, an ideal which for centuries remained a distant dream and which appeared as remote and as difficult of attainment as ever, even after the advent of Indian independence” had finally been consummated. But, as Menon puts it, Sardar Patel “was too robust a realist” to adopt an attitude of complacency. He therefore warned his countrymen that “the real task has just begun”. That task, Patel said was “to make up for the loss of centuries, to consolidate the gains we have secured, and to build into them an administrative system at once strong and efficient…”.  

Yet, the man who constructed the India of our dreams and who was literally the builder of the nation, was never accorded the exalted status that he deserved. Starting with the days of Jawaharlal Nehru, no national leader – be it Sardar Patel, Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose or Dr. BR Ambedkar, were given his due. As a result, Patel’s incredible contribution towards the unification of a nation that was literally in tatters after the British made their exit on August 15, 1947 has never been highlighted. This unfortunate attempt to wipe Sardar Patel out of the national consciousness was abetted by historians and media persons who believed that to acknowledge the work of others would amount to bringing Nehru down a few notches in public esteem. Unfortunately, historians of the Nehruvian and Marxist schools, not only hid the truth about Patel’s phenomenal contribution, but also tried to tarnish his secular, democratic image and paint him as a Hindu communalist. 

On the other hand, Nehru was painted as a great democrat, but the truth about his “election” as the first Prime Minister was never told. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s observation last year that India’s history would have been different if Sardar Patel had become India’s first Prime Minister, is not without basis. In 1946, when the Congress Party had to elect the party President cum Prime Minister, 12 of the 15 Pradesh Congress Committees proposed the name of Sardar Patel. The remaining three committees did not nominate anybody. However, Nehru was unwilling to accept the verdict and told Mahatma Gandhi that he would not be number two to anybody. Gandhi then persuaded Sardar Patel to withdraw his nomination and ensure the ‘unanimous’ election of Nehru as Congress President and Prime Minister-in-Waiting! In other words, the Sardar combined magnanimity with toughness.

These are just a few of the reasons why the government’s initiative must be welcomed because although the Sardar is getting the recognition due to him, 60 years too late, it can no longer be said that we are an ungrateful nation at least  in regard to Sardar Patel!

(Author is Distinguished Fellow at the Vivekananda International Foundation, a New Delhi-based Think Tank)