vallabh bhAi paTEl

vallabh bhAi paTEl, Iron man of India, who dealt with the razAkar thugs of HyderAbAd, ensured accession of junAgarh and kAshmIr, who rebuilt sOmanAtha-shivAlaya. Among his defects:

  • Acceeding to the wishes of MK gandhi to withdraw from prime minister candidacy in favor of javAharlAl nehru ultimately ruined the country.
  • Mild opposition to the activities of NB Khare.
  • nArAyaNa-bhAskara-khare
    • As prime minister of Alwar state: achieved huge conversions in bharatpUr and AlvAr in 1947-48. Alwar was ~30% Muslim in 1941. It was 6% Muslim in 1951. “Meo peasants were in revolt, incited by both the Communists and an assorted bunch of Muslim organisations [not just the Muslim League]. They were clamouring for Meostan, burning temples, slaughtering cows and raping Hindus. Faced with these troubles, Khare turned this crisis into an opportunity. He put together a Hindu force made up mostly of Jats and Gujjars, and began paying the Jihadis and the Communists in their own coin. Communists and Jihadis were ruthlessly crushed, and Meos converted.”
    • He was consistently opposed by government and Congress folks (including Patel, Gandhi and Nehru) and arrested, but they thankfully failed.
    • Being in charge of “commonwealth relations” in viceroy’s executive council: “He was responsible for placing on the Statute book the Indian Reciprocity Act Amendment Bill and enforcing it against South African Europeans for getting acquitted all the highly placed Indians in Malaya, like Dr. Goho, who were charged with high treason and collaboration with the Japanese, for securing rights of citizenship for Indians domiciled in America, for withdrawing the High Commissioner of India from South Africa, for applying economic sanctions against South Africa and for lodging complaint against South Africa in the United Nations.”