A birthday tribute to the unifier!

 

A birthday tribute to the unifier!

 

In 1947, India was like a piece of broken glass attached to a single frame. There were 565 princely states across India. Imagine a government at the centre ruling over 565 independent heads of princely states! Will that be a viable task? British gave three options for those princely states. They can either join India or Pakistan or remain Independent. Most of the princely states joined India. If I simply say that the majority of princely states joined India, it would be really a mischief to Sardar Patel.

This invincible leader with the strong vision in his mind, bold moves in his foots and with a deep message in his hearts spoke to the heads of the independent princes and made them join India. The strong message he carried in his heart and for those independent rulers was, “Our internal quarrels, envy and enmity have contributed to our defeats at the time of the foreign invasion. Let us not repeat the mistake and get caught in the net of slavery”. Everyone joined India except 3 princely states, The Kashmir, Junagadh and Hyderabad.

Junagadh was in trouble. Nawab Muhammad Mahabat Khanji III, who was the then head of Junagadh Princely state went on to sign a treaty of accession with Pakistan. This move of him was against the will of the people of Junagadh. Patel asked Pakistan to revert its decision of accepting Junagadh as its province. Pakistan denied to it. Without further delay, Patel sent our military forces to repatriate Junagadh. After the successful plebiscite, Junagadh was united with India. Junagadh is located in the Southern Coast of Gujarat. If a small Portion in the southern tip of Gujarat was controlled by Pakistan, Our Internal security to this day would have been a great threat. The brave action of Patel saved our nation.

Next comes Hyderabad. Mir Osman Ali Khan, The Nizam of Hyderabad was a short and uncompromising in his regional primacy. After numerous diplomatic talks, Nizam was not in line to accede his authority to India. If a small landscape in the mid geography of the nation remained Independent, Imagine the administrative and other compliance issues in the ruling of India. Sardar Vallabhai Patel decided to go for police action in Hyderabad. Finally, By the means of police action, The Hyderabad was united with India.

The most iconic administrative initiative of Patel was to form “The State Department”. This department was key in the uniting works of Patel. Sri. V. P. Menon was functioning hand-in-hand with Patel. The visionary leader will always think for unity. If there is not unity, no vision could be accomplished. Unity speaks above all. As he was the propagator of unity, He didn’t ask anyone to compromise their regional identity. That’s the beauty of Indian thoughts. He didn’t think for uniformity, He strived well for Unity! Remember, everything doesn’t work out well for Patel when he carried out this mission. There were lots of differences in opinions with his peers, lots of leaders were not in consent with the moves of Patel and many other hardships. But Patel’s vision was clear that nothing can be achieved in India without unity. Fragmented lands will always lead to fragmented growth and that’s no way useful to the spirit of Bharat.

"Manpower without Unity is not a strength unless it is harmonised and united properly, then it becomes a spiritual power".

As Patel rightly puts, Man power alone will not contribute strength. Manpower backed by strong will of unity will make a man power a spiritual power. What else can’t be achieved If unity is achieved. A wholehearted tribute to the "Iron Man of India" on his birth anniversary.