India has always been a peace loving country. But its beauty, wealth and prosperity attracted the attention of many invaders. Due to which India faced many invaders attack. Britishers were one of these invaders. The Britishers came to India for the purpose of trade but they slowly started interfering in the politics of India and spread their rule all over the India. The British were very cruel rulers. They not only exploited the citizens of India but also looted India for 200 years. India 200 years to get independence from the British and India became independent on August 15, 1947. But the problem was not over yet. As soon as the British left, India was divided into 584 princely states. Every king wanted independent princely state. This problem was big before India. 584 princely states were to be united to make a Nation. As the British had broken India in two countries, some princely states did not want to come with India and some wanted to remain independent. In such a situation, the work of Unite India was done by a great man who was Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel. Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel united 584 princely states and created a united India. So let’s read today about such a great man, because of whom India is such a big country today, we are moving on the path of progress today.
Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel was born on 31 October in Nadiad town of Kheda district of Gujarat. His father’s name was Jhaverbhai Patel and mother’s name was Ladba. Sardar Patel had 5 siblings. The names of his four brothers were Sambhai Patel, Narshibhai Patel, Vithalbhai Patel, Kashibhai Patel and his Sister name was Dahiben Patel. Sardar Patel’s early education was done in Gujarat. In the year 1893, at the age of only 16, he was married to Jhaverba Patel. His son’s name was Dhyabhai Patel and daughter’s name was Maniben Patel. Being married at such a young age, he passed class X at the age of 22. Patel refused to study law because of the bad condition of the house & left home and started living in Godhra with his wife. In the year 1909, his wife was caught in the disease of cancer and she died. After the death of his wife, he started living very sad. Sardar Patel always wanted to become a barrister, due to which he stayed away from his family for many years. Sardar Patel started his law studies and obtained his law degree from Middle Temple Inns of Court, London. He returned to India and started practicing law.
Inspired by the ideas of Mahatma Gandhi, Sardar Vallabh Bhai Patel participated in the freedom movement of India. Sardar Patel’s first and biggest contribution to the freedom movement was in the Kheda struggle in 1918. The Kheda division (division) of Gujarat was in the grip of severe drought in those days. The farmers demanded huge tax exemption from the British government. When this was not accepted, Sardar Patel, Gandhiji and others led the peasants and asked them not to pay taxes. In the end the government bowed down and tax relief was given that year. This was Sardar Patel’s first success. After that Bardoli Satyagraha was took place in the year 1928 in which Sardar Patel played a major role. The Bardoli Satyagraha was a major peasant movement that took place in Gujarat in the year 1928 during the Indian freedom struggle, led by Vallabhbhai Patel. At that time the provincial government had increased the rent of the peasants up to thirty percent. Patel strongly opposed this rent increase. The government took drastic steps to crush this Satyagraha movement, but was finally forced to accept the demands of the farmers. A judicial officer, Bloomfield and a revenue officer, Maxwell, after examining all the cases, held the 22 per cent hike in rent wrong and reduced it to 6.03 per cent. After the success of this Satyagraha movement, the women there conferred the title of ‘Sardar’ to Vallabhbhai Patel. Explaining the interrelationship of the peasant struggle and the national freedom struggle in the context of the Bardoli peasant struggle, Gandhi said that every such struggle, every effort is bringing us closer to Swaraj and this struggle directly helps us to reach the destination of Swaraj can prove to be more helpful than struggle for.
After these two successes, Sardar Patel was fully associated with Gandhiji. Sardar Patel was a complete companion of Gandhiji in the non-cooperation movement and left the foreign clothes and adopted Khadi clothes. After which Sardar Patel was given the Presidenship of Congress in 1922, 1924 and 1927. Due to the efforts and sacrifices of the revolutionaries, India became independent on 15 August 1947. But the problem was not over yet. As soon as the British left, India was divided into 584 princely states. Every king wanted independent princely state. This problem was big before India. 584 princely states were to be united to make a Nation. As the British had broken India in two countries, some princely states did not want to come with India and some wanted to remain independent. But Sardar Patel intelligently merged all the 584 princely states into India. The princely state of Hyderabad, which was not ready to join India, was merged with India by force of army by Operation Polo.
After independence, in the presence of Gandhiji, elections were held for the post of Prime Minister in the Congress in which Sardar Patel got the highest number of votes but Gandhiji wanted Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru to be the Prime Minister because he had a good hold on English. He had put the matter of Congress in front of the Britishers many times. Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel had great respect for Gandhiji due to which he relinquished the post of Prime Minister & took over as the first Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister of the India. Today if we are citizens of united India, then the only reason for this is only Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, who united all the princely states and created a united India.
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- Vishal Thakur
- vishalthakur.art.blog
Vishal Thakur 