Sardar Vallabh bhai Patel
Sardar Vallabh bhai Patel was born in 1875 at Karamsad, a village in Kaira district in Gujarat. He came from a farmer’s family. He was an extremely naughty boy in school. Studies did not interest him at all. He passed his matriculation examination with great difficulty, then went on to study law. He qualified as a lawyer, and began practicing law at Godhra. He then went to England and became a barrister.
On his return to India in 1923, Vallabhbhai became the leader of Bardoli Satyagraha. He was then named Sardar Patel. He joined the freedom movement and was the right-hand man of Mahatma Gandhi. He went to jail several times- during the freedom struggle. In 1936, the Congress won the majority of seats in seven provinces of British India. In the general elections, Sardar Patel, as the most important member of the Central
Parliamentary Board, controlled the Congress ministers in those seven provinces.
In 1947, the Partition between India and Pakistan took place. Sardar Patel became the first Deputy Prime Minister of free India. He was in charge of the Home Department and saw to it that law and order was maintained.
Sardar Patel was instrumental in organizing the integration of 600 princely states, thus bringing an end to the autocratic rule of Maharajas and Nawabs. He died on December 15, 1950, and with his death India lost a great leader.
