(Sardar Patel and the Making of United India)
On 15 August 1947, the tricolour rose over Delhi, but the map of India was still a jigsaw. British India covered two-thirds of the territory; the rest lay in over 560 princely states—Hyderabad larger than France, Travancore richer than many European nations, Bhopal with its own currency and postage. Each ruler cherished sovereignty; some dreamed of independence, others of absorption into Pakistan. A single, democratic republic seemed a fantasy.
Into this chaos stepped Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister. Nicknamed the “Iron Man,” Patel combined steel with silk—unyielding resolve with persuasive diplomacy. “His realism, more than idealism, held the country together,” writes historian Rajmohan Gandhi. Within 24 months, Patel and his secretary V.P. Menon stitched the patchwork into one Union, averting Balkanisation that could have splintered India into dozens of warring statelets.
Patel’s masterstroke was the Instrument of Accession—a three-page document that asked princes to cede only defence, external affairs and communications. Internal autonomy remained intact. “Sign this and secure your legacy,” Patel told them. “Refuse, and history will judge you harshly.” He began with the willing. On 18 July 1947, Bikaner became the first major state to accede. Baroda, Gwalior and Patiala followed swiftly. By 15 August, 136 states had signed. Yet the toughest nuts remained: Junagadh, Hyderabad and Jammu & Kashmir.
Junagadh lay on Gujarat’s coast, 300 miles from Pakistan, with a Hindu majority (82%) but a Muslim Nawab. On 15 August 1947, the Nawab acceded to Pakistan. Patel saw red. “Geography and demography cannot be ignored,” he declared. He imposed an economic blockade; grain supplies dried up. Arzi Hukumat, a provisional government of locals, seized border towns. On 9 November, the Nawab fled to Karachi with his dogs and treasury. Junagadh joined India peacefully—Patel’s first surgical strike without firing a shot.
Hyderabad, India’s largest princely state, spanned 82,000 square miles with 16 million people. Its Nizam, Mir Osman Ali Khan—once the world’s richest man—flirted with independence, arming the Razakars, a private militia of 100,000. By September 1948, atrocities mounted: villages razed, Hindus massacred. Patel warned the Nizam: “You can remain independent only if you can defend yourself.” When talks collapsed, he authorised Operation Polo on 13 September. Indian troops under Major-General J.N. Chaudhuri crushed resistance in five days. Casualties: 1,373 Razakars, 32 Indian soldiers. Hyderabad acceded on 17 September. Patel later reflected, “Force is justified only when persuasion fails and the nation’s integrity is at stake.”
Maharaja Hari Singh of Jammu & Kashmir dithered as Pakistani tribals invaded on 22 October 1947. Srinagar burned. Patel urged immediate airlift of troops, but Nehru hesitated without accession. On 26 October, Hari Singh signed the Instrument under duress. Indian forces landed the next day, saving the Valley. Patel wanted to clear the entire state but deferred to Nehru’s ceasefire in 1949. The line became the Line of Control. Patel’s pragmatic regret: “We stopped too soon.”
Integration demanded administration. Patel dismantled the Indian Civil Service (ICS), tainted by colonial loyalty, and birthed the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) and Indian Police Service (IPS) in 1947. “The success of a democracy depends on the quality of its civil service,” he told the first IAS probationers at Metcalfe House. He handpicked 200 officers, blending ICS veterans with fresh talent. The “steel frame” he forged still holds India’s federal structure.
He also merged 300+ smaller states into viable units. Saurashtra united 222 states; Vindhya Pradesh absorbed 35. Patel’s formula: compensate princes with privy purses, retain palaces, but dissolve armies. Total cost: ₹7 crore annually—less than one day’s defence budget today.
On 31 October 2014, the Government declared Patel’s birth anniversary **Rashtriya Ekta Diwas (National Unity Day). From Statue of Unity runs to school pledges, the day celebrates collective resolve. In 2025, India marks Patel’s 150th birth anniversary amid new fault lines—regional assertions, linguistic chauvinism, digital polarisation. His words ring truer: “Manpower without unity is not a strength unless it is harmonised and united properly.”
Patel’s decisions offer blueprints. Junagadh teaches that plebiscites must respect geography and demography. Hyderabad proves surgical force can restore order when negotiations fail. IAS/IPS shows institution-building outlasts personalities. Privy purses (abolished in 1971) remind us integration demands compromise, not conquest.
Seventy-eight years on, India faces new “princely” challenges: separatist whispers in border states, caste coalitions, urban-rural divides. Patel’s antidote remains dialogue backed by deterrence. “We have to shed mutual bickering, shed the difference of being a Hindu or a Sikh or a Muslim or a Christian, and unite as Indians,” he urged in 1949.
At the Statue of Unity, 182 metres tall, visitors see not just bronze but a message: unity is forged daily. Patel’s final warning echoes: “Every citizen of India must remember that he is an Indian and he has every right in the country, but with certain duties.”
That duty—to rise above tribe, tongue and temple—remains the nation’s unfinished accession.
