Apropos the reports connected with Sardar Patel's 138th birth anniversary, it is unfortunate that such a great occasion is being used by politicians for mutual acrimony and competing claims over his legacy. Instead, this is an occasion to recollect Patel's contribution to the building up of post-Independence India, and to find out ways for solving the country's current problems.
It has to be remembered that the British left India in 1947 after transferring power to the people of India. In respect, only two thirds of the country's area (Pakistan apart), was inhabited by three fourth of its population. The rest, covered by princely states, was allowed to go its own way and most of the princes felt that they had become independent kingdoms. Jawaharlal Nehru was furious, called it Balkanisation, and entrusted the task of solving the problem to Patel. The patience, dexterity and statesmanship with which Patel handled it in two stages, is a lesson all the politicians should learn. He first persuaded the princes to join India, almost on their own terms, thereby making them initially more powerful than they were under the British. Then, after waiting for a few months, using tact, persuasion, cajoling and in only one case force, he made them surrender their territories as well as sovereignty to the new Indian state. He not only created a new India but erased from the face of the country, the old institution of hereditary monarchy. All this was achieved over a span of less than two years. The nation should try to make use of this exemplary story to face its current challenges, rather than arguing over (that too on the basis of incorrect facts) as to who attended Patel's funeral and who did not.
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It has to be remembered that the British left India in 1947 after transferring power to the people of India. In respect, only two thirds of the country's area (Pakistan apart), was inhabited by three fourth of its population. The rest, covered by princely states, was allowed to go its own way and most of the princes felt that they had become independent kingdoms. Jawaharlal Nehru was furious, called it Balkanisation, and entrusted the task of solving the problem to Patel. The patience, dexterity and statesmanship with which Patel handled it in two stages, is a lesson all the politicians should learn. He first persuaded the princes to join India, almost on their own terms, thereby making them initially more powerful than they were under the British. Then, after waiting for a few months, using tact, persuasion, cajoling and in only one case force, he made them surrender their territories as well as sovereignty to the new Indian state. He not only created a new India but erased from the face of the country, the old institution of hereditary monarchy. All this was achieved over a span of less than two years. The nation should try to make use of this exemplary story to face its current challenges, rather than arguing over (that too on the basis of incorrect facts) as to who attended Patel's funeral and who did not.
R C Mody New Delhi
Letters can be mailed, faxed or e-mailed to:
The Editor, Business Standard
Nehru House, 4 Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg
New Delhi 110 002
Fax: (011) 23720201
E-mail: letters@bsmail.in
All letters must have a postal address and telephone number