How Patel became Sardar

Vallabhbhai Patel's great claim to fame originated from his steely leadership of a struggle against a repressive regime, a good three decades before the achievement of states' unification

Vallabhbhai Patel, whose birth anniversary we observe today with much pomp and circumstance, rose to national prominence 90 years ago through his sterling leadership of a seminal event in India’s independence struggle, the Bardoli Satyagraha. Unfortunately, it is reduced to a mere footnote, largely due to its marginalisation in the official history of the Indian National Congress released in 1985. Dr Chittaranjan Desai, son of Patel’s contemporary and great friend Dadubhai Desai (a descendant of Patel’s collateral maternal family branch) has extensively documented it in his immaculately researched India’s Struggle for Freedom, Three Strategies (2007, reissued in 2017). Recapitulating salient