Gandhiji’s Vision of an Unified & Secular India and Sardar Patel’s Role in it.

For the first time in the history of our independence the Government of India took a momentous decision to celebrate 31st October, the birthday Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, as the National Unity Day.  He was one of the towering figures of our freedom struggle and along with Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru he played an epoch making role in fighting for our independence, unifying our country and above all setting an example of a leader who was acclaimed for probity, integrity and administrative ability.  It was Mahatma Gandhi who reposed faith on Sardar Patel for merging the princely States with India.  As early as 1938 Gandhiji wrote a letter to him stating that, "The problem of the states is to difficult that you alone can solve it."  Sardar Patel did solve the problem which otherwise would have caused division of India into three parts, Hindustan, Pakistan and what Churchill called Princesstan.  If today we have India as one country without getting Balkanized the entire credit would go to Sardar Patel.    

Patel banned communal organisations and provided special safeguards for minorities

While he was incessantly busy in integrating princely states with Indian Union the communal forces were striking at the very root of India's unity.  Therefore, after assassination of Mahatma Gandhi he took measures to put a check on communal outfits which created a poisonous atmosphere  that resulted in the tragic assassination of Gandhiji. He banned Rashtriya Swayam Sevak Sangh  for upholding the cause of social harmony and national unity. He went to the extent of writing that a fanatical wing of Hindu Mahasabha was responsible for the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi.

It is because of Sardar Patel we have today in our Constitution special safeguards for minorities. He was the Chairman of the Committee of the Constituent Assembly which had the mandate to look into the rights of minorities. He authored that report of the Committee which recommended the special safeguards for the minorities of India and those special safeguards were accepted by the Constituent Assembly and eventually incorporated in the Constitution of  India.

Sardar Patel traced the partition of India to oil security of western world

India was partitioned and very unfairly Muslims of our country were and are being blamed for it. I was educated from one of Sardar’s  letters to G.D.Birla in which  he wrote that  petrol situation in the world played a role in the partition of India. We have created a myth that Muslims were responsible for partition of India. That letter is there in a book entitled “Immortal Icons” which contain correspondence of G.D.Birla with leaders of our freedom struggle.  Late Shri K.R.Narayanan as President of India wrote an illuminating foreword to it.

In 1999 the London Archives released classified papers concerning partition of India. Those papers revealed the real purpose behind the division of our country. It was found in those papers that India was divided to ensure unhindered  access of western powers to oil resources in the Gulf region . The western powers wanted to create a country by diving India and that to just next to Afghanistan so that it could be used to checkmate the erstwhile Soviet Union which had a strategy to occupy Afghanistan and use it as a base to extend its influence to the Gulf region and stop oil supply to the western powers whose economies were critically dependent on Gulf oil. That strategy of the Soviet Union was part and parcel of the grand ideological worldview of that country to defeat the capitalist block. So what was revealed by the classified papers released by the London Archives in 1999 was known to Patel in 1940s. 

Sardar Patel and temple construction including Somnath Temple

He was the Chairman of a Municipality in Gujarat. He wrote to Mahatma Gandhi that he intended to allocate some money to a temple for its repair. Gandhiji wrote back by stating that if he wanted to allocate some money to a temple then he should also allocate some amount to repair a dilapidated Mosque. Sardar abandoned the plan.

          Even as he wanted to rebuild Somnath Temple he  paid heed to the suggestion of Mahatma Gandhi that State funds should not be used to restore and rebuild it, rather a trust  should be established  to appeal to the people to voluntarily contribute to the project. Accordingly Sardar took the initiative to establish the trust which mobilised the resources from the citizens of India to rebuild the temple. Even in that action of Sardar Patel his secular credentials were amply demonstrated.   All such pronouncements of Sardar Patel combined with his action to keep the State away from religion proved beyond doubt his commitment to secularism can be cited to  validate and vindicate the incorporation of the word "secularism" in the Constitution of India by late Shrimati Indira Gandhi in 1978. 

Sardar's frequent invocation  of the word Secularism in Constituent Assembly

          When his birth day is celebrated as national unity day we need to be mindful of the all embracing  idea of unity which he espoused till the very end of his life. He never reduced it to single denomination or any single factor. Of course it   connotes the  territorial framework of India   which could be made possible with the  integration of princely States which Sardar Patel Patel achieved by showing exemplary statesmanship. We should be mindful of the fact that Sardar Patel understood unity in very broad  factors which, among others,  included the  coexistence of all faiths and treating all Indian as  citizens without reducing the idea of  citizenship to  religious identities. In his speech delivered in the Constituent Assembly in 1947 when the articles on citizenship were taken up for discussion he said that the idea of citizenship of India should not be narrow at all and it should be as broad, enlightened and liberal in scope. It is rather shocking that that the citizenship amendment Bill which the Government drafted and is under scrutiny by a Parliamentary Committee has provisions in it that only Hindus, Buddhists, Jains and  Christians  who come from other countries to India would be considered for getting citizenship of our country. In the scope of the Bill there is no place for  Muslims who might come from other countries. The Bill  is inconsistent with the enlightened and liberal vision of Sardar Patel. Such dangerous tendency of reducing Indian citizenship to a few selective religions speaks volumes for the divisive agenda which would jeopardize the secular character of India and our Constitution which Sardar painstakingly highlighted in his innumerable articulations and underlined the necessity of defending it.

           Rather it is highly deplorable that there is massive opposition even to the idea of secularism from some public figure who  feel very uncomfortable with the secular framework of the Constitution declared by the Supreme Court in the Bommai judgement as its  basic structure. 

          Those leaders are silent on Sardar Patel's  secular vision and outlook which he coherently expressed  on numerous occasions in his interventions in the Constituent Assembly. While moving the provision for reservation for scheduled castes and tribes in the Constituent Assembly he asserted in May 1949 that "They were laying the foundation of a truly secular democracy in India." Again on  5th June 1949 he said in the Assembly that "...a healthy secular outlook is the foundation of true democracy." He even  invoked God in defence of secularism when he said in the Constituent Assembly that "And now we are today with the grace of God and blessings of the Almighty laying the foundation of a true, secular democratic State where everybody has an equal chance and equal opportunity. May God give us wisdom and courage to do the right thing to all manner of people as our Constitution provides." After the Constitution was adopted and enacted Sardar while addressing a meeting  in Fateh Maidan in Hyderabad on 8th October 1950 had said that people should realise that they were citizens of secular democracy enjoying equal rights. He said so to assure the Muslims, after the integration of princely State of Hyderabad to the Indian union to feel secure about their status as citizens in secular India. 

Patel as the architect of civil service

He was the architect of our civil service in Independent India.  When some Members of the Constituent Assembly complained against civil servants and questioned their fairness and loyalty to newly independent India Sardar Patel defended the civil servants by stating "Do not quarrel with the instruments with which you want to work.  It is a bad workman who quarrels with the instrument.  Nobody wants to put in work when he is criticized and ridiculed in public." 

On another occasion when Dr. Gopi Chand Bhargava sought his advice to punish civil servants who during British rule ill treated our freedom fighters and subjected them to inhuman treatment, Sardar Patel advised him to bear in mind that Indian independence movement was based on principles of forget and forgiveness and therefore, urged him not to prosecute the civil servants.  It demonstrated his broadmindedness free from vindictive approach. 

Patel on Social Change

Sardar Patel was one such leader in our freedom movement who stressed on social change and transformation.  He once famously stated that "Social change is more valuable and difficult than fighting the Government".  Guided by such a vision he during Bardoli Satyagraha mobilized large number of women and consulted them to prepare the strategy of the Satyagraha.  It was primarily due to his effort that such large scale participation of women could be achieved in the said satyagraha.  Yet again his commitment to gender equality was demonstrated in ample measure when he got a letter from Dr. Rajendra Prasad, the President of the Constituent Assembly, advising him not to rush through the Hindu Code Bill in the Constituent Assembly.  Dr. Prasad urged that the Constituent Assembly was elected to frame the Constitution and not to pass the Hindu Code Bill.  It would be pertinent to recall that the central feature of Hindu Code Bill was gender equality and women's empowerment.  When Sardar Patel got that letter from Dr. Prasad he advised him not to influence the mind of Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru to stall Hindu Code Bill.  Sardar Patel's support to Hindu Code Bill brought out his commitment to rights of women and their empowerment. 

On one occasion in 1922 when Sardar Patel came  to attend a session of the Indian National Congress he found a separate enclosure for Dalits where they would seat. He in instead of occupying a seat earmarked for him in the main enclosure, straight way proceeded to the enclosure meant for Dalits and sat there and delivered his speech from that enclosure. This point was prominently mentioned in the speech of President K.R.Narayanan when he unveiled the statute of Sardar Patel in front of Central Hall of Parliament.

Patel and Odisha

Sardar Patel had great and profound connection with Odisha which was was established as a separate State  in 1936.  It is not well known that the process of integration of princely State of Odisha with the Odisha province commenced in 1938, two years after the creation of Odisha.  It was done under the leadership of Dr. Harekrushna Mahatb's   and under the supervision of Sardar Patel.  Later Dr. Mahatab wrote a book on merging of princely States of Odisha and requested Sardar Patel to contribute a foreword.  Sardar was gracious enough to write a foreword on 11th Nivember 1949 which brought out the historic role played by Odisha in setting the trend in whole of India for merger of princely States with the Indian Union. He complimented Odisha for its pioneering role and wrote:-

"....I had the privilege of initiating the twin process of integration(of princely States) and democratization, which for its small beginnings in distant Orissa, has gradually swept over the whole of the sub-continent. Centuries ago, it was the proud privilege of Kalinga to arouse awakening in a great monarch who became in the course of time not only a great and wise sovereign and Suzerain, but also a great guide, friend and philosopher of his people. Few had dreamt and none had imagined that it would be from the same land that will start a revolutionary change which would achieve for India the same measure of unity and strength and security which India had attained under that distinguished Ruler Ashoka" .

How many of us know that the integration of princely States with the Indian Union began under the leadership of Sardar Patel in Odisha? In fact there is a sentence in the foreword which reads as follows:

"I am happier... that it was that backward province, as they call it, which led the way for the rest of India to follow".

What a great legacy Odisha  inherit and what a wonderful compliment to Odisha and Odiyas from none other than Sardar Vallavbhai Patel, the Bismark of India.

In all the above mentioned points we found a constructive vision for the unity of India and for treating all citizens equally irrespective of their faith, caste and social and economic status. I salute  Vallabhbhai Patel, Sardar of India.

The author served as Officer on Special Duty and Press Secretary to President of India late Shri K.R.Narayanan and had a tenure as Director in Prime Minister's Office and Joint Secretary in the Rajya Sabha Secretariat.

 Views expressed are personal .