The Sardar Legacy Retold

Today, there is an attempt to not only segregate the country but also its leaders and heritage, said author Hindol Sengupta.

“We have to understand that India was always one country with a rich culture from time immemorial, said the Wilbur Award winner, who was in Coimbatore to launch his book, The Man who saved India - Sardar Patel and his idea of India.

“It’s not just about dividing the land, but also its heroes. Shivaji is a national hero, and not just a hero for the people of Maharashtra. We have divided the land, the heroes and culture, and therefore, we are not able to unite ourselves as a nation. Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel was one national leader who could make the dream of one India come true in a short period of time. If not for him, our country would have got balkanised,” said Sengupta, whose works include a book on Guru Gobind Singh.

The book launch was organised by INDICA Coimbatore at the Sri Ramakrishna College of Arts & Science, which was coincidentally an earshot of the Sardar Vallabhbhai Institute of Textile Management.

Traditionally dressed, Hindol Sengupta shared his thoughts on a united India as envisaged by Sardar Patel with a gathering that consisted of students, teachers, scholars and intellectuals.

“Research and accumulation of information has been a continuous process,” said Sengupta, adding, the book took him four years of research.

He said, unlike Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru, Patel had not written books or essays as he felt that history had to be made, not written – a thought he shared with his daughter Maniben.

Sengupta said how important it is to document our history. “I feel that until the lion writes its own history, it will be the history of the hunter that will be remembered. We should document our history. Our minds will have to be decolonised. Indians are reading their history that has been rendered by outsiders. I am not saying that others should not write our history, but we should also strive to document it.”

Saying that Patel should have written his autobiography, he said, the book’s title, ‘The man who saved India’ was chosen after much thought. “Our country would have not existed in its current form if not for him. He understood that India should be one and in order to ensure that he took firm decisions with regard to Kashmir and Hyderabad,” he said.

“Patel travelled all around the country for the purpose of integrating it. He is a son of India and belongs to all of us and not just Gujarat. The statue of liberty belongs to the whole of USA and similarly the proposed statue of Sardar Patel belongs to the nation. We are Bharatiya before anything else and this should be on the top of our minds. Patel taught us that freedom gave us an opportunity to rethink our civilisation. We have to re-imagine our own history/culture in the right perspective now.”

Sengupta said the idea of India was quite old. The princely states wanted to integrate with India and accepted the initiatives of Patel. A Soviet leader visiting India had been astonished to learn about this bloodless integration of the country by Patel. The job was smoothly executed by Patel and V P Menon without any bloodshed. It had been achieved purely on the basis of argument, negotiation and persuasion.

Patel was the go getter who had stayed at Ahmedabad at the time of plague in the interest of the people. This instance is just one of the examples of his persistence. He had understood that even after Partition the nation could suffer and therefore he propounded the one nation, one electorate idea in order to keep the country together. The simple man had shunned luxuries and lived an austere life. He had sacrificed a lucrative career and hardly owned property. He had given away all his money and wore khadi all his life.

When asked about the role of Patel as the treasurer of the Congress Party, Sengupta cited an incident: "Maniben, the daughter, took a bag containing Rs 35 lakhs and gave it to Nehruji after the passing away of her father. At that time, she never had any job or career. She expected Nehruji to ask her how she was doing but he never did. She had, in fact, told Verghese Kurien of Amul about this incident. Sardar Patel was given a Bharat Ratna only in the year 1991 while Nehruji, Indira Gandhi and others had received it much earlier.

“Patel was a true leader and visionary. When a number of youngsters approached him and said they wanted to start a revolution, he told them that it would destroy productivity and achieve nothing else. He told them that they should build India and wanted them to define the country, Sengupta said.

He urged the youngsters to reconsider the legacy of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel. “Our heroes are for all of us and they should not be divided on any basis."

“Our civilisation is open source, inclusive, diverse and kinetic. We must understand that individual rights are important as long as we are part of the eco system of our country."

He said Brihadeeshwara Temple at Thanjavur is as much a national treasure like the Jagannath Temple at Puri, underlining the infinite divinity in our country.

“Patel undertook the construction of the Somnath Temple in Gujarat for the purpose of rekindling the pride of being an Indian. The statue of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel is going to be a fitting tribute to - The Man Who Saved India,” said Sengupta.

Hindol Sengupta has written eight books, which have been published in a number of countries. He is a World Economic Forum Young Leader and a Knight - Bagehot Fellow at the Columbia University.