In 1991, Rajmohan Gandhi published Patel: A Life. In the Preface to the book, dated April 1990, Rajmohan writes: “The establishment of independent India derived legitimacy and power, broadly speaking, from the exertions of three men, Gandhi, Nehru and Patel. But while its acknowledgements are fulsome in the case of Nehru and dutiful in the case of Gandhi, they are niggardly in the case of Patel.”

This Preface was written shortly after the Nehru Centenary was celebrated with pomp and splendour by a government led by Nehru’s grandson, Rajiv Gandhi. Before Rajiv, his mother, Indira, had served a decade-and-a-half as prime minister, in which time too much effort was expended on burnishing Nehru’s posthumous image. That was the context in which Rajmohan’s book on Vallabhbhai Patel was first published.

His book has now appeared in a new edition, 35 years later, at a time when the political climate is all too different. For ever since Narendra Modi became prime minister in May 2014, his government has done all it can to glorify and elevate Patel on the one hand and to vilify and demonise Nehru on the other.

Prime Minister @narendramodi pays floral tribute to Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel at the Statue of Unity in Ekta Nagar on his 151st birth anniversaryWatch: 📽️#NationalUnityDay #RashtriyaEktaDiwas #RashtriyaEktaDiwas2026 pic.twitter.com/O63UbHVOld— PIB India (@PIB_India) October 31, 2026

Prime Minister @narendramodi pays floral tribute to Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel at the Statue of Unity in Ekta Nagar on his 151st birth anniversaryWatch: 📽️#NationalUnityDay #RashtriyaEktaDiwas #RashtriyaEktaDiwas2026 pic.twitter.com/O63UbHVOld

I first read Rajmohan Gandhi’s book in the early 2000s. I have now read it for a second time. In both readings, I found the research deeply impressive, with Rajmohan drawing on Vallabhbhai Patel’s correspondence, the diaries of his daughter, Manibehn, the private papers of his contemporaries and colleagues, government documents, memoirs, old newspapers, and his own interviews with people who knew or worked with Patel.

He provides a richly-rounded portrait of the man, with his early years, his delayed education, his family life, his successful practice as a lawyer, his participation in the freedom struggle, his extended spells in prison, and, of course, his work as home minister in bringing the princely........

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