Patel, Vallabhbhai (vŭl'ləb-bä`ē pətĕl`), 1875–1950, Indian political leader. He was admitted (1913) to the bar in England and set up a lucrative practice in India. In 1915 he met Mohandas Gandhi Gandhi, Mohandas Karamchand (mōhän`dəs kŭ'rəmchŭnd` gän`dē)
..... Click the link for more information. and within a short time became one of his closest associates, a staunch nationalist and a supporter of the Indian National Congress Indian National Congress, Indian political party, founded in 1885. Its founding members proposed economic reforms and wanted a larger role in the making of British policy for India.
..... Click the link for more information. . A talented organizer, he successfully directed the civil-disobedience campaigns of the 1920s and 30s; several times he suffered imprisonment. He was mayor of Ahmedabad (1924–28) and was elected (1931) president of the Indian National Congress. In 1942 he was imprisoned, with other Congress leaders, for refusing to support the British war effort in World War II. After his release (1945), he initiated a purge of Communists (who had supported the war) from the Congress. Patel played an important role in the negotiations that led to independence and the partition of the subcontinent into the two states of India and Pakistan. In 1947 he was made deputy prime minister of India and minister of state affairs. Holding these offices until his death, he effected the complex and difficult feat of integrating the many princely states into the new Indian political structure.

Bibliography

See his Correspondence, 1945–50, ed. by D. Das (Vol. I, 1971); biographies by N. D. Parikh (tr., 2 vol., 1953–56) and L. N. Sarin (1972).

Patel, Vallabhbhai (Jhaverbhai)

known as Sardar Patel

(born Oct. 31, 1875, Nadiad, Gujarat, India—died Dec. 15, 1950, Bombay) Indian statesman. Educated in India, he set up his own law office in 1900 and later studied law in Britain; he did not become involved in politics until 1917. Like Mohandas K. Gandhi (and unlike Jawaharlal Nehru), he advocated dominion status within the British Commonwealth rather than independence for India. He opposed armed struggle on practical rather than moral grounds, and he was not interested in Hindu-Muslim unity. Patel was repeatedly a candidate for the presidency of the Indian National Congress, but his uncompromising attitude toward the Indian Muslims cost him Gandhi's support and, ultimately, the presidency. After Indian independence (1947), he held several cabinet positions. He is remembered for achieving the peaceful integration of the princely Indian states into the Indian union and the political unification of India.