Indian History

 
Integration of Princely States After Independence
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• 21 Aug 2019
 

• 14 min read
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• GS Paper - 1
• Post-independence Consolidation of India
Introduction
• The Indian Independence Act of 1947 gave princely states an option to
accede to the newly born dominions India or Pakistan or continue as an
independent sovereign state.
• At that time more than 500 princely states have covered 48 percent of the
area of pre Independent India and constituted 28% of its population.
• These kingdoms were not legally part of British India, but in reality, they
were completely subordinate to the British Crown.
• For the British these states were the necessary allies, to keep in check the
rise of other colonial powers and nationalist tendencies in India.
• Accordingly, the princes were given autonomy over their territories, but the
British acquired for themselves the right to appoint ministers and get military
support as and when required.
• Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel (India’s first deputy prime minister and the home
minister) with the assistance of V.P menon (the secretary of the Ministry of the
States) was given the formidable task of integrating the princely states.
• From invoking the patriotism of the princes to remind them of the possibility
of anarchy on event of their refusal to join, Patel kept trying to convince them
to join India.
• He also introduced the concept of “privy purses”— a payment to be made to
royal families for their agreement to merge with India.
• Bikaner, Baroda and few other states from Rajasthan were the first ones to join
the union.
• There were several other states that were adamant to not join India. Some of
them thought this to be the best moment to acquire independent
statehood, while there were others who wanted to become a part of
Pakistan.
Travancore
• The southern Indian maritime state was strategically placed for maritime
trade and was rich in both human and mineral resources.
• It was one of the first princely states to refuse accession to the Indian union and
question the Congress’ leadership of the nation.
• By 1946, the Dewan of Travancore, Sir C.P. Ramamswamy Aiyar declared his
intention of forming an independent state of Travancore that would be open to
the idea of signing a treaty with the Indian union.
• Sir C.P. Aiyar is also said to have had secret ties with the UK
government who were in support of an independent Travancore in the hope
that they would get exclusive access to a mineral called monazite that the area
was rich in, and would give an edge to Britain in the nuclear arms race.
• He stuck to his position till as late as July 1947. He changed his mind soon after
he survived an assassination attempt by a member of the Kerala Socialist
Party.
• On July 30 1947, Travancore joined India.
Jodhpur
• The Rajput princely state despite having a Hindu king and a large Hindu
population, strangely had a tilt towards Pakistan.
• Young and inexperienced, Jodhpur prince, Hanvant Singh reckoned that he
may get a better “deal” from Pakistan since his state was contiguous with the
country.
• Jinnah reported to have given the Maharaja a signed blank sheet of paper to
list all his demands.
• He also offered him free access to the Karachi port to arms manufacturing and
importing along with military and agrarian support.
• Seeing the risks in the border state acceding to Pakistan, Patel immediately
contacted the prince and offered him sufficient benefits.
• Patel assured him that importing arms would be allowed, Jodhpur would be
connected to Kathiawar by rail and that India would supply grain to it during
famines.
• On 11th August 1947, Maharaja Hanvant Singh, King of Jodhpur signed
the Instrument of Accession and the State of Jodhpur was integrated into the
Indian Dominion.
Bhopal
• It was another state that wished to declare independence.
• Here a Muslim Nawab, Hamidullah Khan, was ruling over a majority Hindu
population.
• He was a close friend of the Muslim League and staunchly opposed the
Congress rule.
• He had made clear his decision to attain independence to Mountbatten.
• However, the latter wrote back to him stating that “no ruler could run away
 from the dominion closest to him”.
• By July 1947, the Prince became aware of the large number of princes who had
acceded to India and decided to join India.
Hyderabad
• It was the largest and richest of all princely states, covered a large portion of
the Deccan plateau.
• Nizam Mir Usman Ali was presiding over a largely Hindu population in the
princely state.
• He was very clear on his demand for an independent state and blatantly
refused to join the Indian dominion.
• He drew support from Jinnah and the tussle over Hyderabad grew stronger
over time.
• Both requests and threats from Patel and other mediators failed to change the
mind of the Nizam, who kept expanding his army by importing arms from
Europe.
• Things took a turn for the worse when armed fanatics (called
Razakars) unleashed violence targeted at Hyderabad’s Hindu residents.
• The Congress government decided to make a more decisive turn after the Lord
Mountbatten resignation in June 1948.
• On September 13, 1948, Indian troops were sent to Hyderabad
under ‘Operation Polo’.
• In an armed encounter that lasted for about four days, the Indian army
gained full control of the state and Hyderabad became the integral part of
India.
• Later, in an attempt to reward the Nizam for his submission, he was made the
governor of the state of Hyderabad.
Junagadh
• The princely state, situated on the southwestern end of Gujarat, also did not
accede to the Indian union by August 15, 1947.
• It was the most important among the group of Kathiawar states and contained
a large Hindu population ruled by the Nawab, Muhammad Mahabat Khanji
III.
• On September 15, 1947, Nawab Mahabat Khanji chose to accede to Pakistan
ignoring Mountbatten’s views, arguing that Junagadh adjoined Pakistan by sea.
• The rulers of two states that were subject to the suzerainty of Junagadh
— Mangrol and Babariawad — reacted by declaring their independence from
Junagadh and acceding to India.
• In response, the nawab of Junagadh militarily occupied the two states. Rulers
of the other neighbouring states reacted angrily, sending troops to the
Junagadh frontier, and appealed to the Government of India for assistance.
• India believed that if Junagadh was permitted to accede to
 Pakistan, communal tension already simmering in Gujarat would
worsen, and refused to accept the Nawab’s choice of accession.
• The government pointed out that the state was 80% Hindu, and called for
a plebiscite to decide the question of accession.
• India cut off supplies of fuel and coal to Junagadh, severed air and postal
links, sent troops to the frontier, and occupied the principalities of Mangrol and
Babariawad that had acceded to India.
• Pakistan agreed to discuss a plebiscite, subject to the withdrawal of Indian
troops, a condition India rejected.
• On 26 October, the Nawab and his family fled to Pakistan following clashes with
Indian troops. Before leaving, the Nawab had emptied the state treasury of its
cash and securities.
• On November 7,1947 Junagadh’s court, facing collapse, invited the
Government of India to take over the State’s administration.
• The Dewan of Junagadh, Sir Shah Nawaz Bhutto, the father of the more
famous Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, decided to invite the Government of India to
intervene.
• The government of India accepted the invitation of the Dewan to intervene.
• A plebiscite was conducted in February 1948, which went almost unanimously
in favour of accession to India.
• Junagadh became a part of the Indian state of Saurashtra until November 1,
1956, when Saurashtra became part of Bombay state.
• In 1960, Bombay state was split into the linguistic states of Maharashtra and
Gujarat, in which Junagadh was located and since then Junagadh is part of
Gujarat.
Kashmir
• It was a princely state with a Hindu king ruling over a predominant Muslim
population which had remained reluctant to join either of the two dominions.
• The case of this strategically located kingdom was not just very different but
also one of the toughest as it had important international boundaries.
• The ruler of Kashmir Maharaja Hari Singh had offered a proposal of
standstill agreement to both India and Pakistan, pending a final decision on
the state’s accession.
• Pakistan entered into the standstill agreement but it invaded the
Kashmir from north with an army of soldiers and tribesmen carrying weapons.
In the early hours of 24th October, 1947, thousands of tribal pathan swept into
Kashmir.
• The Maharaja of Jammu and Kashmir appealed to India for help. He sent his
representative Sheikh Abdullah to Delhi to ask for India’s help.
• On 26th October 1947, Maharaja Hari Singh fled from Srinagar and arrived in
Jammu where he signed an 'Instrument of Accession' of J&K state.
• According to the terms of the document, the Indian jurisdiction would extend
 to external affairs, communications and defence. After the document was
signed, Indian troops were airlifted into the state and fought alongside the
Kashmiris.
• On 5th March, 1948, Maharaja Hari Singh announced the formation of an interim
popular government with Sheikh Mohammed Abdullah as the Prime
Minister.
• In 1951, the state constituent assembly was elected. It met for the first time in
Srinagar on 31st October 1951.
• In 1952, the Delhi Agreement was signed between Prime Ministers of India
and Jammu & Kashmir giving special position to the state under Indian
Constitutional framework.
• On 6th february 1954, the J&K constituent assembly ratified the accession of
the state to the Union of India.
• The President subsequently issued the constitution order under Article 370 of
the Constitution extending the Union Constitution to the state with some
exceptions and modifications.
• As per Section 3 of the J&K constitution, Jammu & Kashmir is and shall be an
integral part of the Union of India.
• On 5th of August 2019, the President of India promulgated the Constitution
(Application to Jammu and Kashmir) Order, 2019.
• The order effectively abrogates the special status accorded to Jammu and
Kashmir under the provision of Article 370 - whereby provisions of the
Constitution which were applicable to other states were not applicable to
Jammu and Kashmir (J&K).

Known as the ‘Ironman’ of India, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel was instrumental in

India’s independence struggle, and then for the integration of over 500 princely
states into the Union of India.
“History will call him the builder and consolidator of new India.” - Pandit
Jawaharlal Nehru

Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Role in Integrating Indian

States!
Sardar Patel handled effectively the integration of the princely states
with his diplomatic skills and foresightedness. The problem of
amalgamating 562 independent states with a democratic self-
governing India was difficult and delicate. But it was essential to
save India from balkanization, once the Paramountcy of British
crown would lapse.

Image Courtesy : cosminpana.files.wordpress.com/2013/02/management.jpg

ADVERTISEMENTS:

Sardar Patel took charge of the states department in July 1947. He

sensed the urgent and imperative need of the integration of princely
states. He followed an iron handed policy. He made it clear that he
did not recognize the right of any state to remain independent and
in isolation, within India.

Patel also appealed to the patriotic and national sentiments of the

Princes and invited them to join the forming of a democratic
constitution in the national interest. He persuaded them to
surrender defence, foreign affairs and communication to the
government of India.

He, by his tactics, broke the union of separatist princes. By August

15, 1947 all except Hyderabad, Junagarh and Kashmir acceded to
India. He thereafter carried three fold process of assimilation,
centralization and unification of states. The states were
amalgamated to form a union and that union was merged with the
Union of India.

ADVERTISEMENTS:
He handled the Junagarh and Hyderabad crisis as a seasoned
statesman. Nawab of Junagarh wanted to accede to Pakistan. When
the people revolted, Patel intervened. Indian Government took over
the administration. Patel merged it with India by holding a
plebiscite.

Patel with an iron fisted hand subdued the Nizam. When the Nizam
boasted anti-India feelings and let loose a blood both by the
Razakars, Patel decided upon police action. He ordered the army to
March into Hyderabad. The Nizam surrendered and Hyderabad was
acceded to India.

Thus Sardar Patel ensured, by his calculated methods, the

absorption of a multitude of princely states into the Indian Union.
Without a civil war, he secured the solidarity of the nation.

Sardar Patel played key role in integration of

princely states: Jai Ram Thakur
“This statue was not only a true tribute to Bharat Rattan Sardar Patel  but would also
emerge as a major tourist destination of the country,” he added.
Statesman News Service | Shimla | October 31, 2018 7:18 pm
    

He said that it was the strong will power and administrative acumen of Sardar Patel
that the princely states of India agreed to come under one flag. (Photo:
Twitter/@PMOIndia)
The contribution of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel in the integration of princely states was
immense and it was due to his farsightedness and visionary leadership that India
became a sovereign nation.

This was stated by Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur while addressing a gathering at
the Ridge, Shimla, on Wednesday on the occasion of Rashtriya Ekta Diwas, also
known as National Unity Day, to commemorate the 143rd birth anniversary of Sardar
Vallabhbhai Patel, the Iron Man of India.
The CM said that as the first Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister of India,
Sardar Patel played a key role in the integration of the more than 562 princely states
into the Indian federation. He persuaded the princes of 562 states to integrate with
the Indian republic.

SARDAR VALLABHBHAI PATEL

VALLABHBHAI JHAVERBHAI PATEL, ONE OF THE SIX CHILDREN OF
JHAVERBHAI PATEL AND LADBA, WAS BORN IN NADIAD, GUJARAT. THERE IS
NO RECORD OF HIS DATE OF BIRTH. THE GENERALLY ACCEPTED DATE,
OCTOBER 31, 1875, OF WHICH THE SOURCE IS HIS MATRICULATION
CERTIFICATE, WAS CHOSEN BY VALLABHBHAI HIMSELF WHILE FILLING IN A
FORM.
Vallabhbhai Jhaverbhai Patel, one of the six children of Jhaverbhai Patel and Ladba, was
born in Nadiad, Gujarat. There is no record of his date of birth. The generally accepted
date, October 31, 1875, of which the source is his Matriculation certificate, was chosen by
Vallabhbhai himself while filling in a form.
The family was an agriculturist one of the Lewa Patidar Community, and could in terms of
economic status be described as lower middle-class. It was poor and had no tradition of
education.
Vallabhbhai’s childhood was spent away from books, in the ancestral fields at Karamsad. He was
already in his late teens when he passed out from the Middle School at Karamsad and went to the
High School at Nadiad, from where he matriculated in 1897.
Even as a young boy Vallabhbhai displayed qualities of organization and leadership that marked
him out for his future role. Once as a sixth-form boy he organized a successful strike of his
classmates that lasted for three days to teach a lesson to one of the teachers who was unduly fond
of the rod.
Vallabhbhai must have inherited these attributes from his father who, it is said, had fought in the
Mutiny under the Rani of Jhansi and was subsequently taken prisoner by Malhar Rao Holkar.
Early Career
Vallabhbhai was a mature young man of twenty-two when he matriculated. Owing to the
impecunious circumstances of the family, higher education was not within his reach. The next
best thing was to take a course in law and set up as a country lawyer. This he did and established
a small practice at Godhra.
But an attack of plague, which he contracted while nursing a friend, made him leave the town
and after spending some time in Nadiad, he moved on to Borsad in 1902, a town in the Kheda
district where at that time the largest number of criminal cases in Gujarat were recorded.
Vallabhbhai became quite popular here as a defence lawyer. Vallabhbhai now wanted to go to
England and qualify as a Barrister. From his practice at Borsad he had earned enough for his
expenses there but owing to certain circumstances he was not able to make the trip at once.
His brother Vithalbhai expressed his desire to complete his education in an English firm and
Vallabhbhai readily acquiesced to this and even paid for his stay. His wife, Zaverbai, died early
in 1909 after an operation for some abdominal malady. When news of the bereavement reached
Vallabhbhai, he was cross-examining a witness in a murder case at Anand.
With an impregnable composure for which he became known later, he did not show grief but
went on with the cross-examination in hand. He finally sailed for England in 1910 and joined the
Middle Temple. Here he worked so hard and conscientiously that he topped in Roman Law,
securing a prize, and was called to the Bar at the end of two years instead of the usual period of
three years.
On his return to India in 1913, he set up practice in Ahmedabad and made a great success of it.
He had ready wit, a fund of common sense and a deep sympathy for those who were the objects
of the British officials' wrath and were caught in the clutches of the law, which was not
uncommon in the Kheda district. He came to enjoy a respected position in public life due to his
eminence as a Barrister.
Early Political Career
He accepted Mahatma Gandhi's leadership, having been tremendously impressed by the fearless
lead that Mahatma Gandhi gave to right public wrongs. In 1917 he was elected for the first time
as the Sanitation Commissioner of Ahmedabad.
From 1924 to 1928 he was Chairman of the Municipal Committee. The years of his association
with the Municipal administration were marked by much meaningful work for the improvement
of civic life. Work was done to improve water supply, sanitation and town planning and the
Municipality was transformed, from being a mere adjunct to the British rule, into a popular body
with a will of its own.
There were also calamities like plague in 1917 and famine in 1918, and on both occasions
Vallabhbhai did important work to relieve distress. In 1917 he was elected Secretary of the
Gujarat Sabha, a political body which was of great assistance to Gandhiji in his campaigns.
The association with Mahatma Gandhi became closer during the Kheda Satyagraha in 1918,
which was launched to secure exemption from payment of the land revenue assessment since the
crops had failed. It took three months of intense campaigning that was marked by arrests,
seizures of goods, chattels, livestock and much official brutality before relief was secured from
an unwilling Colonial Government.
Gandhiji said that if it were not for Vallabhbhai's assistance "this campaign would not have been
carried through so successfully". The five years from 1917 to 1922 were years of popular
agitation in India. The end of the war was followed by the Rowlatt Act and still further
curtailment of individual freedom.
And then followed the Khilafat movement with massacres and terror in the Punjab. Gandhiji and
the Congress decided on non-cooperation. Vallabhbhai left his practice for good and gave
himself up wholly to political and constructive work, touring villages, addressing meetings,
organizing picketing of foreign cloth shops and liquor shops.
Then came the Bardoli Satyagraha. The occasion for the Satyagraha was the Government's
decision to increase the assessment of land revenue from Bardoli taluka by 22 per cent and in
some villages by as much as 50 to 60 per cent.
Having failed to secure redress by other means, the agriculturists of the taluka decided at a
Conference on February 12, 1928, to withhold payment of land revenue under the leadership of
Vallabhbhai Patel.
The struggle was grim and bitter. There were seizures of property and livestock to such an extent
that for days on end, people kept themselves and their buffaloes locked in. Arrests followed and
then brutalities of the police and the hired Pathans.
The struggle drew the attention of the whole country to it. Patels and Talatis resigned their jobs.
Government revenues remained unrealized. The Government had to ultimately bow before
popular resolve and an inquiry was instituted to find out to what extent the increase was justified
and the realization of the increased revenue was postponed.
It was a triumph not only of the 80,000 peasants of Bardoli but more particularly of Vallabhbhai
personally; he was given the title of "Sardar" by the nation.
Role in Indian National Movement
About this time the political situation in the country was approaching a crisis. The Congress had
accepted its goal of Purna Swaraj for the country, while the British Government through their
policy of pitting one interest against another and through constitutional tricks, were trying to
stifle the voice of freedom and doing everything they could to reinforce their rule.
The boycott of the Simon Commission was followed by the launching of the famous Salt
Satyagraha by Gandhiji. Vallabhbhai Patel, though he had not committed any breach of the Salt
Law, was the first of the national leaders to be arrested. He was in fact arrested on March 7, 1930
- some days before Gandhiji set out on the march to Dandi. He was released in June.
By then Gandhiji, Jawaharlal Nehru and other leaders were in jail and the tempo of the struggle
in the country was rising. In a few months Vallabhbhai was back in prison.
In March 1931 Vallabhbhai presided over the 46th session of the Indian National Congress which
was called upon to ratify the Gandhi-lrwin Pact, which had just then been concluded.
The task was not an easy one, for Bhagat Singh and a few others had been executed on the very
day the Congress session opened and delegates, particularly the younger sections, were in an
angry mood, while Jawaharlal Nehru and Subhas Chandra Bose were not happy with the terms of
the Pact.
But the Congress finally put its seal on the Pact with one voice. Civil Disobedience was
suspended, political prisoners were released and the Congress agreed to participate in the Round
Table Conference.
The Round Table Conference failed. Gandhiji and other top leaders were arrested and a policy of
repression followed. Vallabhbhai Patel was lodged with Gandhiji in Yeravada Jail and they were
together there for sixteen months-from January 1932 to May 1933.
Vallabhbhai then spent another year in the Nasik Jail. When the Government of India Act 1935
came, the Congress, though generally critical of the Act, decided to try out those of its
constitutional provisions that seemed to grant to Indians a measure of self-government and to
take part in the elections for Provincial legislatures that were envisaged under it.
In seven of the eleven Provinces, Congress majorities were returned and Congress Ministries
were formed. Vallabhbhai Patel, as Chairman of the Congress Parliamentary Sub-Committee,
guided and controlled the activities of these Ministries.
Not for very long, however, for, on September 3, 1939 when Britain declared war on Germany,
the Viceroy without consulting either the Central or the Provincial Legislatures, proclaimed India
as having entered the war as an ally of Britain.
The Congress could not accept this position and the Congress Ministries resigned. Gandhiji
launched Individual Civil Disobedience opposing India's participation in the war, and the
Congress leaders began to court arrest. Vallabhbhai Patel was arrested on November 17, 1940.
He was released on August 20, 1941 on grounds of health.
Then the All India Congress Committee passed the famous Quit India resolution in Bombay on
August 8, 1942, and Vallabhbhai, along with the other members of the Working Committee, was
arrested on August 9, 1942 and detained in the Ahmednagar Fort while Gandhiji, Kasturba and
Mahadev Desai were detained in the Aga Khan's Palace.
The Sardar was in jail for about three years this time. When, at the end of the war, the Congress
leaders were freed and the British Government decided to find a peaceful constitutional solution
to the problem of India's Independence, Vallabhbhai Patel was one of the chief negotiators of the
Congress.
Contributions in Post Independence India
When India attained Independence he became the Deputy Prime Minister and was responsible
for the Home, States and the Information and Broadcasting portfolios.
It was in this capacity that he was called upon to tackle the most intricate and baffling problem of
the States' integration into the Union of India. And it is here that his tact, his powers of
persuasion and his statesmanship came into full play.
He handled the question as only he could have handled it, managing, in less than a year's time, to
reduce the Princely States from 562 to 26 administrative units and bringing democracy to nearly
80 million people of India, comprising almost 27 per cent of the country's population. The
integration of the States could certainly be termed as the crowning achievement of Vallabhbhai
Patel's life. But for him, this may not have been achieved easily and quickly.
As Minister of Home Affairs, he presided over efforts to bring back order and peace to a country
ravaged by communal strife unprecedented in its history. He accomplished this task with the
ruthless efficiency of a great administrator.
Role After Partition
He sorted out the problems of partition, restored law and order and dealt with the rehabilitation
of thousands of refugees with great courage and foresight. He reorganised our Services which
had become depleted with the departure of the British and formed a new Indian Administrative
Service, to provide a stable administrative base to our new democracy.
Contribution to Congress Party
While Gandhiji gave to the Congress a programme for a broad-based action, it was Vallabhbhai
who built up the Party machinery so as to carry out that programme. No one before him had
given adequate thought to the need of having an effective organisation, but Vallabhbhai realised
this need during his campaigns and devoted his organisational talents and energy to building up
the strength of the Party which could now fight in an organised and effective manner.
His grip over the Party organisation was complete. Vallabhbhai Patel was thus one of the chief
architects and guardians of India's freedom and his contribution towards consolidating the
freedom of the country remains unrivalled.
Death
He died on December 15, 1950, leaving behind a son, Dahyabhai Patel, and a daughter, Maniben
Patel.
Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel: Iron man who unified India
This iconic figure of India’s freedom movement is often referred to as the Iron Man
and the Unifier of India, for playing a pivotal role in the integration of more than 500
princely states to form a new and united India post independence.
Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel became the first Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister after India’s
independence.(Illustration: Rushikesh Tulshiram Gophane)

HT SCHOOL
Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel: Iron man who unified India
This iconic figure of India’s freedom movement is often referred to as the Iron Man and the
Unifier of India, for playing a pivotal role in the integration of more than 500 princely states
to form a new and united India post independence.
Hindustan Times, New Delhi | By HT Correspondent

UPDATED ON OCT 31, 2019 04:21 PM IST

Born in Gujarat’s Nadiad city on October 31, 1875, to Jhaverbhai and Ladba, Valabhbhai
Patel attended a school at Petlad. When he was in Class 10, Patel was regarded as an average
student. He began to concentrate more on studies and stayed away from his family to prepare
for studying law abroad. For that purpose, he saved money, collected books from friends and
finally went to England in 1910. After becoming a lawyer, in 1913, Patel returned to India
and began his practice in Godhra, Gujarat.
Making of a Sardar (leader)
In 1917, Patel won an election for the post of sanitation commissioner of Ahmedabad. He
delivered a speech in Borsad town to motivate people about Mohandas Karamchand
Gandhi’s Swaraj (self-rule) movement. Patel soon became the secretary of the Gujarat
chapter of the India National Congress (INC). He began to work on a grassroots campaign to
make farmers aware of the atrocities of British government and appealed to them to refuse
the payment of taxes in Kheda, Gujarat. During Gandhi’s Non-Cooperation movement, Patel
took to wearing only khadi clothes and condemned the British way of life. He also collected
large sums of money for the Satyagraha movement. In 1922, 1924 and 1927, he was elected
as the municipal president of Ahmedabad. In 1928, when the people of Bardoli town reeled
under the dual burdens of a hefty tax and famine, Patel organised a massive movement and
participated in negotiations with the British government, leading some British officials to
tender their resignations.Therefore the people of Bardoli conferred on him the title of Sardar
(leader).
Gandhi’s strong ally
In 1930, during Gandhi’s Dandi Salt March, Patel was arrested but the government’s action
only further intensified the protests. After being released from jail along with Gandhi, Patel
was elevated to the post of the INC interim president. In 1932, after the failed Round Table
Conference in London, Gandhi and Patel were again arrested and lodged at the Yeravda
Central Jail in Pune. By that time, they had struck a strong camaraderie. During the Quit
India Movement in 1942, Patel, unlike other Congress leaders, supported Gandhi’s all-out
campaign of civil disobedience and delivered speeches across the country, seeking people’s
support for the campaign by urging them not to pay taxes and to desist from joining
government service. Patel was imprisoned at Ahmednagar fort in Gujarat till 1945.
Helped integrate princely states
After India’s independence, Patel became the first Deputy Prime Minister and Home
Minister, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru became the first Prime Minister. Patel was assigned a task
to integrate the 562 princely states under the Indian Dominion. He began the process of
integration on August 6, 1947 and successfully completed it by the dint of his political
maturity and persuasive skills. States like Jammu and Kashmir, Junagarh and Hyderabad
were initially hesitant but Patel’s efforts overcame all resistance. He is also credited with
having created an All-India bureaucratic service as he observed that a systematic hierarchy or
framework is required to fulfil India’s development goals.
INTERESTING FACTS
1. Sardar Valabhbhai Patel completed his 36- month long law course in just 30 months at the
Middle Temple, Inns of Court, in England and became one of the most successful lawyers of
his time.
2. In 1932, after the unsuccessful Round Table Conference in London Patel was jailed
Yeravda Jail in Pune with Gandhi. He learnt Sanskrit from Gandhi and discussed strategies to
fight the British .
3. In 1946, during the process of appointing the president of the INC, Patel was named by 12
out of 15 committees but Gandhi recommended Jawaharlal Nehru and Patel did not
challenge it.
4. The Statue of Unity is a monument to honour Patel. It was completed in 2018 and is
located in Gujarat, facing the Narmada Dam. At the height of 597 feet, it is the world’s tallest
statue.
5. In 2014, the Union government declared Patel’s birth anniversary, October 31, as Rashtiya
Ekta Diwas (National Unity Day) in recognition of Patel’s role as the Unifier of modern
India.
POLITICAL CAREER
He accepted Mahatma Gandhi's leadership, having been tremendously impressed by the
fearless lead that Mahatma Gandhi gave to right public wrongs. In 1917 he was elected for
the first time as the Sanitation Commissioner of Ahmedabad.

From 1924 to 1928 he was Chairman of the Municipal Committee. The years of his
association with the Municipal administration were marked by much meaningful work for
the improvement of civic life. Work was done to improve water supply, sanitation and town
planning and the Municipality was transformed, from being a mere adjunct to the British
rule, into a popular body with a will of its own.

There were also calamities like plague in 1917 and famine in 1918, and on both occasions
Vallabhbhai did important work to relieve distress. In 1917 he was elected Secretary of the
Gujarat Sabha, a political body which was of great assistance to Gandhiji in his campaigns.

The association with Mahatma Gandhi became closer during the Kheda Satyagraha in 1918,
which was launched to secure exemption from payment of the land revenue assessment since
the crops had failed. It took three months of intense campaigning that was marked by arrests,
seizures of goods, chattels, livestock and much official brutality before relief was secured
from an unwilling Colonial Government.

Gandhiji said that if it were not for Vallabhbhai's assistance "this campaign would not have
been carried through so successfully". The five years from 1917 to 1922 were years of
popular agitation in India. The end of the war was followed by the Rowlatt Act and still
further curtailment of individual freedom.

And then followed the Khilafat movement with massacres and terror in the Punjab. Gandhiji
and the Congress decided on non-cooperation. Vallabhbhai left his practice for good and
gave himself up wholly to political and constructive work, touring villages, addressing
meetings, organizing picketing of foreign cloth shops and liquor shops.

Then came the Bardoli Satyagraha. The occasion for the Satyagraha was the Government's
decision to increase the assessment of land revenue from Bardoli taluka by 22 per cent and in
some villages by as much as 50 to 60 per cent.

Having failed to secure redress by other means, the agriculturists of the taluka decided at a
Conference on February 12, 1928, to withhold payment of land revenue under the leadership
of Vallabhbhai Patel.

The struggle was grim and bitter. There were seizures of property and livestock to such an
extent that for days on end, people kept themselves and their buffaloes locked in. Arrests
followed and then brutalities of the police and the hired Pathans.

The struggle drew the attention of the whole country to it. Patels and Talatis resigned their
jobs. Government revenues remained unrealized. The Government had to ultimately bow
before popular resolve and an inquiry was instituted to find out to what extent the increase
was justified and the realization of the increased revenue was postponed.

It was a triumph not only of the 80,000 peasants of Bardoli but more particularly of
Vallabhbhai personally; he was given the title of "Sardar" by the nation.

Role in Indian National Movement

About this time the political situation in the country was approaching a crisis. The Congress
had accepted its goal of Purna Swaraj for the country, while the British Government through
their policy of pitting one interest against another and through constitutional tricks, were
trying to stifle the voice of freedom and doing everything they could to reinforce their rule.

The boycott of the Simon Commission was followed by the launching of the famous Salt
Satyagraha by Gandhiji. Vallabhbhai Patel, though he had not committed any breach of the
Salt Law, was the first of the national leaders to be arrested. He was in fact arrested on March
7, 1930 - some days before Gandhiji set out on the march to Dandi. He was released in June.

By then Gandhiji, Jawaharlal Nehru and other leaders were in jail and the tempo of the
struggle in the country was rising. In a few months Vallabhbhai was back in prison.

In March 1931 Vallabhbhai presided over the 46th session of the Indian National Congress
which was called upon to ratify the Gandhi-lrwin Pact, which had just then been concluded.

The task was not an easy one, for Bhagat Singh and a few others had been executed on the
very day the Congress session opened and delegates, particularly the younger sections, were
in an angry mood, while Jawaharlal Nehru and Subhas Chandra Bose were not happy with
the terms of the Pact.

But the Congress finally put its seal on the Pact with one voice. Civil Disobedience was
suspended, political prisoners were released and the Congress agreed to participate in the
Round Table Conference.

The Round Table Conference failed. Gandhiji and other top leaders were arrested and a
policy of repression followed. Vallabhbhai Patel was lodged with Gandhiji in Yeravada Jail
and they were together there for sixteen months-from January 1932 to May 1933.

Vallabhbhai then spent another year in the Nasik Jail. When the Government of India Act
1935 came, the Congress, though generally critical of the Act, decided to try out those of its
constitutional provisions that seemed to grant to Indians a measure of self-government and to
take part in the elections for Provincial legislatures that were envisaged under it.

In seven of the eleven Provinces, Congress majorities were returned and Congress Ministries
were formed. Vallabhbhai Patel, as Chairman of the Congress Parliamentary Sub-Committee,
guided and controlled the activities of these Ministries.

Not for very long, however, for, on September 3, 1939 when Britain declared war on
Germany, the Viceroy without consulting either the Central or the Provincial Legislatures,
proclaimed India as having entered the war as an ally of Britain.

The Congress could not accept this position and the Congress Ministries resigned. Gandhiji
launched Individual Civil Disobedience opposing India's participation in the war, and the
Congress leaders began to court arrest. Vallabhbhai Patel was arrested on November 17,
1940. He was released on August 20, 1941 on grounds of health.

Then the All India Congress Committee passed the famous Quit India resolution in Bombay
on August 8, 1942, and Vallabhbhai, along with the other members of the Working
Committee, was arrested on August 9, 1942 and detained in the Ahmednagar Fort while
Gandhiji, Kasturba and Mahadev Desai were detained in the Aga Khan's Palace.

The Sardar was in jail for about three years this time. When, at the end of the war, the
Congress leaders were freed and the British Government decided to find a peaceful
constitutional solution to the problem of India's Independence, Vallabhbhai Patel was one of
the chief negotiators of the Congress.