Source : Google photo of Sardar Ballabh Bhai Patel
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Synopsis : A great man was born in India who had the
vision, the courage and the wisdom to steer the country in the right direction
after its independence in 1947 so he was rightly called the Man of steel. This
is the story of Sardar Ballabh Bhai Patel whom all patriotic Indians venerate.
The British did not like him because he would not serve
their interest in the independent India. The so called Mahatma asked him to
give way to the sycophant Nehru so that he could be the Prime Minister although
he was disliked by all the members of the Congress Party Working Committee
except one. The party unanimously elected Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, the man of
steel as the next Prime Minister because they knew that he was a man of
character, of immense integrity, courage and a great patriot but the Mahatma
prevailed.
This pleased the British who had asked for Nehru whom they
called the brown sahib who had promised to serve the British interest after the
independence without an iota of shame. His skin may have been brown but inside
he was as British as they came.
This came about due to immense pressure generated on the Mahatma
to ask the man of steel to step aside by the viceroy Mountbatten and his wife
Edwina so a deal was made that allowed the British to leave India ahead of the
schedule provided Nehru was made the prime minister. British actively
encouraged the partition of India and the selection of sycophant Nehru as the
next Prime Minister of independent India.
Being a gentleman and a man of honor Sardar Patel
acquiesced although he did not like Nehru because he was pro-British to his
core that riled Sardar to no end. It was a very sensitive time for India when
the mass exodus of Muslims from India to Pakistan and the return of Hindus and
Sikhs from there to India took place and resulted in a genocide of over a
million people in the process.
The vivisection of India into three parts due to the
insistence of Jinnah that caused the genocide was too traumatic for the Indians
who waited with great trepidation to see what a newly independent nation would
do but this partition was followed by more bad news from Kashmir. The
Pakistanis had sent in heavily armed terrorists to occupy a part of Kashmir
that even today is called the POK or Pakistan occupied Kashmir.
Sardar Patel became the Deputy Prime Minister ,Home
Minister, Minister of Information and Minister of State after independence who
was responsible for the internal security of the country so the very first
thing he did was to bring under one flag some 562 independent princely states
to make one United India. It was not easy because these princely states did not
like to give up their privileges they had enjoyed under the British rule but
Sardar Patel prevailed so they all agreed to join India except one who insisted
to join Pakistan. It was the Nizam of Hyderabad who had his own army but Sardar
sent in the Indian Army to surround Hyderabad to force Nizam to accede and
disarmed all the armed goons of Nizam. He would not allow a part of Pakistan to
be formed in the heart of India. After defeating Nizam, Patel retained him as
the ceremonial chief of state, and held talks with him.
This brave action on his part earned him the nickname The
man of steel. He also sent the Indian army to Kashmir to beat back the
terrorists but Nehru capitulated and went to the UN to ask for a cease fire
thus overruling the Home Minister Patel. This action led to thousands of more
deaths in Kashmir that resulted in three wars since 1947. The 4th war is in the
offing to resolve the Kashmir issue once and for all but no one knows when it
will start. Pakistan considers India as its enemy so continues to send
terrorists to make trouble from time to time.
But this blog is about the Man of steel so let me now tell
you who really was Sardar Ballabh Bhai Patel and why all Indians salute him as
the greatest leader who played a major role in deciding the inclusion of all
the princely states to make one United India. His intervention in Kashmir stemmed
the tide in favor of India so that the future governments could take more
decisive actions to regain the parts lost to Pakistan.
Biography
of Sardar Patel
Vallabhbhai Patel, in full Vallabhbhai Jhaverbhai
Patel, by name Sardar Patel (Hindi: “Leader Patel”), (born October 31,
1875, Nadiad, Gujarat,
India—died December 15, 1950, Bombay [now
Mumbai]), Indian barrister and
statesman, one of the leaders of the Indian
National Congress during the struggle for Indian independence.
During the first three years of Indian independence after 1947, he served as
deputy prime minister,
minister of home affairs, minister of information, and minister of states.
Early life and legal career
Patel was born into a self-sufficient landowning family of
the Leva Patidar caste. Reared in an atmosphere of traditional Hinduism,
he attended primary school at
Karamasad and high school at
Petlad but was mainly self-taught. Patel married at the age of 16, matriculated at
22, and passed the district pleader’s examination, which enabled him to
practice law. In 1900 he set up an independent office of district pleader
in Godhra, and two
years later he moved to Borsad.
As a lawyer, Patel distinguished himself in presenting an
unassailable case in a precise manner and in challenging police witnesses and
British judges. In 1908 Patel lost his wife, who had borne him a son and
daughter, and thereafter remained a widower. Determined to enhance his
career in the legal profession,
Patel traveled to London in August 1910 to study at the Middle Temple. There he
studied diligently and passed the final examinations with high honors.
Returning to India in February
1913, he settled in Ahmadabad, rising
rapidly to become the leading barrister in criminal law at
the Ahmadabad bar. Reserved and courteous, he was noted for his superior
mannerisms, his smart, English-style clothes, and his championship in bridge at
Ahmadabad’s fashionable Gujarat Club. He was, until 1917, indifferent to Indian
political activities.
In 1917 Patel found the course of his life changed after
having been influenced by Mohandas K. Gandhi.
Patel adhered to Gandhi’s satyagraha (policy
of nonviolence) insofar as it furthered the Indian struggle against the
British. But he did not identify himself with Gandhi’s moral convictions and
ideals, and he regarded Gandhi’s emphasis on their universal application as
irrelevant to India’s immediate political, economic, and social problems.
Nevertheless, having resolved to follow and support Gandhi, Patel changed his
style and appearance. He quit the Gujarat Club, dressed in the white cloth of
the Indian peasant, and ate in the Indian manner.
During the II world war Patel rejected as impractical
Gandhi’s nonviolence in the face of the then-expected Japanese invasion of
India. On the transfer of power, Patel differed with Gandhi in realizing that
the partition of the subcontinent into Hindu India and Muslim Pakistan was
inevitable, and he asserted that it was in India’s interests to part with
Pakistan. ( Wikipedia ).
Sardar Patel did not always agree with Mohandas Gandhi and
his way of begging the British to leave India that hurt the pride of all
Indians who had fought and died for the freedom of India. He secretly admired
the courage of Netaji Bose and his struggle to free India through armed
intervention using his Indian National Army ( INA ) that eventually forced the
British to leave but Sardar was too committed
to abandon the Gandhian movement he had joined in 1917 . He was also
sick and a widower. The long years of incarceration in British jails and the
struggle to free India had sapped his energy but he continued as the Home
Minister because the country needed him at a very difficult time in 1947. Only
his iron will kept the country together. He never hesitated to speak his mind.
He was a true nationalist to his core and saw the British as just the colonial
occupiers whose time had come to leave. He died on December 15, 1950, barely
three years after Independence.
Why the country reveres Sardar Patel for his contribution
to lay the foundation of modern India and why 75 years after the Independence
he remains relevant while all other Congressmen have faded or have started to
fade into the history books?
If the correct history book is written now, many would not
be mentioned as praiseworthy because Indians demand accountability from them
even after their death. The Congress Party that ruled India for many years is
now on its way out in most states.
But Sardar shines as the star that continues to mesmerize
the country so long after his death. His personality, his honesty, his iron
will and his patriotism put him in a category far apart from the rest. So much
so that the present government of Modi has put up his statue in Gujarat in his
honor that is the tallest in the world.
The Western news media derisively criticized the Indian
government for spending millions of dollars on a statue of a man they had
hardly ever heard of. The ignorance of the Western media when it comes to India
is not surprising. All they know about India is the over population and its
poverty but that is called stereotyping at its crudest.
Modern India is not the same as of yesteryears. It is no
longer poor or starving and is growing at a mind boggling rate to reach a multi
trillion dollar economy soon. It is a proud and self-sufficient country that
manufactures everything it needs and then some. It has sent its vaccine to save
millions of people in more than 100 countries and it feeds the world with the
massive export of food grains like wheat and rice. Its economy is robust in
spite of a 2 year pandemic of Corona virus and its military is very strong to
deal with any external threats. Its space program has left behind many so
called developed nations by routinely sending missions to Mars and beyond using
its own rockets and satellites. Indian scientists are second to none.
Due to his dedicated service to the nation, Sardar Patel will
always live in the hearts of all patriotic Indians forever who bow to this
great man when they look at the Statue of Unity built in his honor. The Statue
of Unity is the world's tallest statue, with
a height of 182 meters (597 feet), located in the state of Gujarat,
India. If you ever get a chance to visit India, do visit the extraordinary site
where the statue of Sardar stands.
Now watch this video made on the Statue of Unity of Sardar
Patel in Gujarat.
Link : https://youtu.be/e9teLkVeXwI
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La biografía de anil en español.
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