Vallabhbhai Patel

Vallabhbhai Jhaverbhai Patel (Gujarati: [ʋəlːəbʱ ʱɑi dʒʱəʋeɾbʱɑi pəʈel]; 31 October 1875 – 15 December 1950), commonly known as Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, was a Gandhian Indian independence activist, lawyer and statesman who served as the first Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister of India from 1947 to 1950. He was a senior leader of the Indian National Congress, who played a significant role in the Indian independence movement and India's political integration. In India and elsewhere, he was often called Sardar meaning "chief". He acted as the Home Minister during the political integration of India and the Indo-Pakistani War of 1947. Patel was born in Nadiad city (present-day Kheda district, Gujarat) and raised in the countryside of the state of Gujarat. He was a successful lawyer. One of Mahatma Gandhi's earliest political lieutenants, he organised peasants from Kheda, Borsad and Bardoli in Gujarat in non-violent civil disobedience against the British Raj, becoming one of the most influential leaders in Gujarat. He was appointed as the 49th President of Indian National Congress. Under the chairmanship of Patel "Fundamental Rights and Economic Policy" resolution was passed by the Congress. Patel's position at the highest level in the Congress was largely connected with his role from 1934 onwards (when the Congress abandoned its boycott of elections) in the party organisation. Based at an apartment in Bombay, he became the Congress's main fundraiser and chairman of its Central Parliamentary Board, playing the leading role in selecting and financing candidates for the 1934 elections to the Central Legislative Assembly in New Delhi and for the provincial elections of 1936. While promoting the Quit India Movement, Patel made a climactic speech to more than 100,000 people gathered at Gowalia Tank in Bombay on 7 August 1942. Historians believe that Patel's speech was instrumental in electrifying nationalists, who up to then had been sceptical of the proposed rebellion. Patel's organising work in this period is credited by historians with ensuring the success of the rebellion across India. As the first Home Minister and Deputy Prime Minister of India, Patel organised relief efforts for partition refugees fleeing to Punjab and Delhi from Pakistan and worked to restore peace. Besides those provinces that had been under direct British rule, approximately 565 self-governing princely states had been released from British suzerainty by the Indian Independence Act 1947 (10 & 11 Geo. 6. c. 30). Patel, together with Jawaharlal Nehru and Louis Mountbatten persuaded almost every princely state to accede to India. Patel's commitment to national integration in the newly independent country earned him the sobriquet "Iron Man of India". He is also remembered as the "patron saint of India's civil servants" for playing a pioneering role in establishing the modern All India Services system. The Statue of Unity, the world's tallest statue which was erected by the Indian government at a cost of US$420 million, was dedicated to him on 31 October 2018 and is approximately 182 metres (597 ft) in height.