Friday, September 16, 2016

Sardar Patel 1- Iron Man of India

#ashokasays Did you know 310:

All these days through this series we have been seeing the Incredible Bharatha and Incredible Bharathiyas. As the Indian Independence day is nearing I thought for the next three days, it would be worthwhile to remember the lifetime of one of the most Incredible Indian's life and the struggle he went through to see the Bharath we are seeing today.

One was the problem of getting Independence from the British Rule. But there would have been a bigger problem if this Man, "The Iron Man of India", "The Bismark of India", Sardar Vallabhabhai Jhaverbhai Patel was not around. Just Imagine, 555 princly states fighting for thier piece of "India Cake" on a day today basis. Would we have the kind of "today" we are seeing? Being in this generation of ours its very difficult for us to imagine the hardships this man might have gone through to get this country as ONE NATION. No person can claim greater credit for the creation of Bharat than Sardar Patel, ably assisted by V.P. Menon (Was Constitutional Adviser to Lord Mountbatten earlier)

Born on 31st October,1875 (This is as per his Metriculation record and no one knows the actual birth date) Vallabhbhai Patel was born in Gujarat to Jhaverbhai Patel and Laad Bai. His father had served in the army of the Queen of Jhansi while his mother was a very spiritual lady.

After he finished his high-school examination in 1896 he studied hard at home to prepare for the District Leader’s examination passing with flying colors. While he started his own practice of law in Godhara, which flourished, after the death of his wife in 1909, he left for England at the age of 36 to fulfill his dream of becoming a barrister. There he completed a 36 month course in just 30 months topping the course, after which he returned to India. On completion of law studies in 1913, Patel came back to India and started his law practice. For his Excellencies in Law, he was offered many lucrative posts by the British Government but he rejected all. He was a staunch opponent of the British government and its laws and therefore decided not to work for the British.

I will just briefly mention about his role in freedom struggle movement.

In 1917, Patel was elected as the Secretary of the Gujarat Sabha. The next year, when there was a flood in Kaira, the British insisted on collecting tax from the farmers. Patel led a massive "No Tax campaign" that urged the farmers not to pay their land. The peaceful movement forced the British authority to return then land taken away from the farmers his effort to bring together the farmers of his area brought him the title of 'Sardar' to his name.

In every freedom movement which you would have read in your history books, Sardar was completely involved and led from the front along with Mahatma Gandhi. Considering him anti-government he was arrested several times by the British, yet he continued with his freedom struggle participating in the Salt Satyagraha, the Quit India Movement, requesting people refuse to pay taxes and participate in civil disobedience, shutdown of all civil services, and mass protests.

More for tomorrow....



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