Historical Figures

45. Rural women with torn rags used to apply tilak on Patel's spear

Even after the atrocities committed on the farmers, when the Bardoli movement did not relax, the British government took two new measures. They started sending gangs of goons to the villages, who would go to the villages to beat up the people and misbehave with the women. At the same time, the government deprived the farmers of fodder and water by tying them with pegs. The government believed that when farmers saw their animals tied to pegs hungry and thirsty, they would be broken. Sardar Patel had to find an end to this tyranny.

He appealed to the tax collectors and the Talatis not to participate in the atrocities on their brothers and to give up their posts. This appeal of Sardar Patel played the role of fire in the dry forest.

Of the 90 of Bardoli tehsil, 69 Patels and 35 Talatis immediately resigned their posts and joined the farmers. The sympathy of the people living in the cities also became completely with the farmers. When the government servants wanted to go to the village for attachment, no one would give them their ride.

Barbers stopped cutting hair and shaving beards of government servants. The servants who worked in the houses of those who had bought the cattle and land of the farmers stopped working. No matter how much money he is tempted to give!

When both the sides stuck to their respective point, Kanhaiyalal Maniklal Munshi, a member of the Bombay Section, wrote a letter to the Governor of Bombay, urging him to solve the problems of the farmers of Bardoli, but this letter did not have any effect on the Governor.

After this Munshi himself came to Bardoli and saw with his own eyes the atrocities being committed by the government. They were astonished to see Sardar Patel's way of working. Munshi wrote a letter to the governor in acrimonious language - 'You may have received reports that the peasant movement has been imposed from outside, but the reality is that the movement is real and the report is false.

In order to save their milch animals, for the last three months men, women and children, along with their animals, have been lying in dark, dung and stinking cells. An example of such a bad situation cannot be found even in the medieval period. Despite all the oppression, the farmers are only making fun of the government repression.

Sardar Patel is his only leader, wherever he goes, people throng to welcome him. The helpless women of the village, wrapped in torn rags, greet Patel by applying tilak on his forehead. Without Vallabhbhai's orders no work would have been done in Bardoli. I am writing all this to you so that you may know the reality.'