The following paragraph is a fine Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel essay which gives SardarVallabhbhai Patel information in plenty. Read this Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel biography and be familiar with the great personality.
Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel: An Iconic Leader
Vallabhbhai Jhaverbhai Patel was born on 31 October 1875 in a small village of Gujarat. As Patel’s father was a farmer by profession, Patel grew up in a simple environment devoid of luxuries. He helped his father in the fields and studied at the NK High School, Petlad. Throughout school, he was a very wise and intelligent student. In spite of poor financial conditions, his father wanted to send him to college but Vallabhbhai refused. For about three years he stayed at home, worked hard and prepared for the District Leader’s examination, hence passing with very good percentage.
Patel hated to work for anyone, especially the Britishers. He was a person of independent nature. Soon he started his own practice of law in a place called Godhara which flourished in no time. He saved money and made financial arrangement for the entire family. After gaining self-sufficiency and financial stability, Patel took his childhood bride with him to start his married life. In 1904, he got a baby daughter Maniben, and in 1905, his son Dahya was born.
He sent his elder brother to England for higher studies in law. In 1908, Vitthalbhai (Patel’s elder brother) returned as a barrister and started practising in Bombay. In 1909, Patel’s wife became seriously ill and was taken to Bombay for treatment.
Vallabhbhai had to go for the hearing of an urgent case and his wife died. He was stunned. He admitted his children in St Mary’s school, Bombay and left for England. He became a barrister and returned to India in 1913.
Around 1915, he came across Mahatma Gandhi when the Swadeshi Movement was at its peak. Gandhiji gave a lecture at a place in Ahmedabad where Patel heard him and was very impressed and started actively participating in the freedom movement. The British government’s atrocities increased. The government declared to confiscate all the lands of farmers. It was Patel who forced the British Government to amend the rules. He brought together the farmers and encouraged them to fight the move of the British and hence acquired the title of `Sardar’.
The British Government considered him a threat and his lectures were considered as anti-government and he was imprisoned several times. In 1942, he took part in the Quit India Movement under the leadership of Mahatma Gandhi and was arrested along with other leaders.
At the time of independence, when India was to be divided into two nations, it was Sardar Patel who successfully obtained accession from the ‘Nawabs’ of Hyderabad and Junagadh respectively, who wanted to join Pakistan. Hence, Patel played an instrumental role in integrating present-day India using frank diplomacy and military action.
As the first Home Minister and Deputy Prime Minister of India. Patel organised relief for refugees in Punjab and Delhi and led efforts to restore peace across the nation. Hailed as the Iron Man of India, he is also remembered as the ‘Patron Saint’ of India’s civil servants for establishing modern all-India services. Patel was also one of the earliest proponents of property rights and free enterprise in India.
Patel’s leadership enabled the accession of almost every princely state. Sardar Patel vehemently opposed Nehru’ move of taking Kashmir issue to the United Nations and advised him against it.
Patel’s health began declining rapidly in the 1950’s when the personalised medical staff was arranged to attend to him daily. His daughter, Maniben, in response to his worsening medical conditions, restricted his official meetings and engagements.
After suffering a massive heart attack, Sardar Patel left the world on 15 December 1950 at Birla House in Bombay. In an unprecedented and unrepeated gesture, on the day after his death, more than 1,500 officers of India’s civil and police services congregated to mourn at Patel’s residence in Delhi and pledged “complete loyalty and unremitting zeal” in India’s service.
Undoubtedly, Sardar Patel was an iconic leader whose service towards unifying the country was immense. He can aptly be described as the architect of present-day India.
On the 139th birth anniversary of the legendary leader, that is, 31st October 2014, the ‘Run for Unity’ programme was organised as a tribute to Sardar. Also, the government announced the erection of Statue of Unity-a 182 metre-tall (597 ft) monument of Vallabhbhai Patel facing the Narmada Dam, 3.2 km away on the river island called Sadhu Bet near Vadodara in Gujarat.
This statue is planned to be spread over 20000 square meters of the project area. It will also be surrounded with a man-made lake spread across 12 km of area. It would be the world’s tallest statue. This was done to acknowledge the contribution of a leader who was long marginalised and forgotten by the people.
