Beyond a statue

The real achievement of the 'Statue of Unity'

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has inaugurated a colossal statue of India’s Independence leader Vallabhbhai Patel in Gujarat, close to the Sardar Sarovar dam project. The government has indicated that the 182-metre high statue, the world’s tallest, is in commemoration of Patel’s efforts — he was India’s first deputy prime minister — to create the Union of India out of disparate provinces and princely states in the early years after Independence; as such, it has been fittingly anointed as the “Statue of Unity”. There is no doubt that Patel’s legacy deserves greater attention, and that his contributions have long been underplayed