Sardar Patel

The Story

Born into a farming family of Gujarat, Patel was a brilliant lawyer who went to England to study law at his own expense. But the call of the nation came first: when Gandhi launched the movements, Patel gave up his career to organise the peasants — earning the title 'Sardar', the leader, at the Kheda and Bardoli satyagrahas, where his defiance of unjust taxes made him the farmers' champion.

As the Congress's master organiser and its President in 1931, he was the iron hand behind the freedom struggle's discipline. When Bhārat became independent in 1947, the nation's gravest problem was the map itself: 562 princely states, some dreaming of independence. As Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister, Patel — with V.P. Menon — negotiated, persuaded, and where necessary pressured each state into the Union, achieving in months what many predicted would take decades.

He died in 1950, worn out by the immense labours of nation-building. In 2018, Bhārat raised the Statue of Unity in his honour — at 182 metres, the tallest statue in the world — a monument to the man who made Bhārat one.