October 31 marks the 150th birth anniversary of Sardar Vallabhbhai Jhaverbhai Patel, fondly remembered as the “Iron Man of India" and “Bismarck of modern Bharat". Though I was born eight years after Patel died on December 15, 1950, after suffering a massive heart attack at Birla House, Bombay, being a student of the freedom struggle and independent Bharat, I say the following with all the humility at my command:

One, the pivotal contribution of Sardar Patel in fostering national and political integration and unity of Bharat has no parallel. But for his vision, deftness, tact and the laser focussed attention, weaving over 560 princely states as part of independent India within a short span of time, the country could have been balkanised at birth.

I will return to the humungous contribution of Patel a bit later.

Two, thanks to the eminent distortians of the modern history of Bharat, the real measure of the contribution of Sardar Patel to nation building is yet to reach masses, particularly Gen-Z. Even I, who am now 67, grew up reading of the greatness of India’s first prime minister Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru. Patel was so comprehensively blanked out from modern Indian history books that I hardly remember any worthwhile contribution of his in the history books that I read in school or early youth. By the time I was writing civil services exams in early 1980s, the country was already in the grip of the tribe of historians of the genre of Romila Thapars, Irfan Habibs, and Bipan Chandras and their distortions of the Indian history.

Unsurprisingly then, over the past decade or so, the country has felt the need to recapitulate and recalibrate the role the Sardar of Bharat played in the making of modern India.

Contributions In Brief

Few of this generation can readily recall that in the night of August 15, 1947, when the country was celebrating its freedom from the British yoke and Pandit Nehru was giving his now famous “India’s Tryst with Destiny" speech from the rampart of Lal Quila, one person was missing from the festivities—Vallabhbhai Patel. Sardar of Bharat that night chose to be in the command room in Delhi, monitoring naval operations to secure Lakshadweep for the country on which Pakistan had its evil designs.

But for that the Lakshadweep, famed for its picturesque silver beaches, crystal-blue waters and coral islands, and which the country has embarked on developing into a massive tourist destination like the Maldives, could not have been part of Bharat.

The dexterity with which Sardar Patel secured the integration of over 560 princely states is part of folklore now. And make no mistake, despite the now famous vacillation of Nehru, it was the foresight, sagacity, and quick action of Patel that brought the following to the mainstream of Bharat:

Jodhpur

Junagadh

Hyderabad

Jammu and Kashmir

For Patel, integrating the above princely states in Bharat did not come easily. Often, he had to argue bitterly with Nehru, resulting in frequent clashes. Patel had to contend with Nehru’s visceral dislike of princes on the one side and his total reluctance to use force to deal with threats to country’s territorial integrity on the other side despite Junagadh’s accession to Pakistan, the tribal invasion of Kashmir, and Hyderabad’s declaration of independence. To secure........

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