Historical Figures

74. Sardar Patel was not the enemy of Muslims and Pakistan

When Jawaharlal Nehru took oath as the Prime Minister on 15 August 1947, Sardar Patel was made the Deputy Prime Minister and he was given the charge of the Home Ministry. The Ministry of External Affairs was kept with Jawaharlal. Thus, as soon as the country became independent, there were three big problems on the part of Sardar Patel as the Home Minister - by persuading and extinguishing the 562 princely states of India, controlling the communal riots by stopping the stampede in the country and from Pakistan. To make arrangements for the resettlement of the incoming refugees. These were not easy tasks, but God made Sardar Patel for difficult tasks.

That's why Sadar engaged on these three works simultaneously. Refugees coming from Pakistan were bringing news of Hindus being killed and looted in large numbers, due to which communal violence reached its peak from Amritsar to Delhi. To bring this situation under control, high human sensibilities and strong will power were required.

Sardar Patel visited Punjab and organized a huge public meeting in Amritsar and explained to the Sikhs that if you do not stop the violence, the period of violence in Pakistan will go on for a long time. Because of this it will be more difficult for your brothers to come out from there. The incidents of violence in Punjab decreased significantly after Sardar Patel's visit to Punjab.

Along with this, Sardar Patel strictly suppressed the riots in Delhi. Sardar Patel had strongly criticized the dogmatic attitude of Jinnah and his associates before the creation of Pakistan, due to which many Congress leaders accused Sardar Patel of being anti-Muslim. On this, Gandhiji said in an interview to a journalist that there is a mistake in understanding Sardar Patel because his method of solving the Hindu-Muslim problem is different from me and Sardar, but to call him anti-Muslim, would be to reject the truth. P>

Pyarelal, a great aide of Gandhiji, has written – 'Sometimes Sardar Patel is seen as an enemy of Muslims and Pakistan, but there can be no greater crime than this. It was the Sardar who had decided that Muslims who have decided to stay here considering India as their home, should be treated well and they should get justice.

Morarji Desai, who later became the Prime Minister of India, has written- 'I got the opportunity to work under the leadership of Sardar for about 20 years, on the basis of personal experience I can claim that Sardar was the only person who was communal, caste or religious. He was free from religious prejudice and had goodwill towards all religions and communities.'