Iron Man With An Iron Will

October 31, 2011

[b]Faced with the challenge of integrating more than 500 princely states to form the Union of India, some of them extremely hostile, Sardar Patel rose to the occasion with aplomb. None in history can compare with his feat, not even Bismarck. Without his tireless perseverance there would have been no modern India[/b]

Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel has often been compared with Otto von Bismarck, the unifier of Germany by 1871. Recently, Balraj Krishan wrote a book calling Sardar Patel the Bismarck of India. To describe him thus belittles his achievements. Is it because we suffer from an inferiority complex vis-à-vis Europe? Be that as it may, what follows here would show that, on the contrary, Bismarck can be called the Patel of Germany.

Bismarck came into national prominence after he was appointed the Chancellor of Prussia in 1861 by Kaiser Wilhelm I. He soon resorted to an expansionist policy by going to war with Denmark in alliance with Austria and taking over the duchies of Schleswig and Holstein. The latter was initially allotted to Austria. A year later, as a result of a war with Austria, Prussia took it away after signing the Peace of Prague, 1866. In this Austro-Prussian war, four principalities of northern Germany namely Hanover, Hesse-Kassel, Nassau and Frankfurt were annexed by Prussia.

Then remained four major states of southern Germany. This annexation would not have been easily possible without going to war with King Napoleon III of France. Bismarck managed to provoke him into attacking Germany and getting defeated at the battle of Sedan. The French aggression induced the southern principalities of Bavaria, Baden, Hesse and Wurttemberg to join the rest of Kaiser Wilhelm’s empire resulting in the unification of Germany by 1871. It was a union of Prussia plus 21 smaller and tiny principalities, comprising a total of 3,25,000 square kilometres and a population of 4 crore. The merging small states were half of Prussia and a third of the united country.

In contrast, Sardar Patel’s challenge was far greater. After he completed his mission of integration the Union of India consisted of 33 lakh square kilometres populated then by 40 crore people. There were 560 princely states, large, small and tiny to bring in. On the borders was MA Jinnah, who was doing his best to entice as many princes as possible to join Pakistan on their terms. Inside the country, Lord Mountbatten was sometimes unsupportive while Jawaharlal Nehru was perpetually vacillating, afraid lest Patel’s attempts provoke communal conflict. By contrast, Bismarck had no domestic opposition; he had a monarch who gave him every support and an army which obeyed him implicitly.

The Indian army was loyal but its top commanders were still British and they were anxious to avoid any clash with Pakistan. For instance, General Roy Bucher discouraged Patel until the last minute on police action against Hyderabad in November 1948. The British political agents as well as advisors in the states headed by Muslim rulers worked in opposition to India. The Indian Independence Act passed by the British Parliament in July 1947 provided for a Princeton as a third dominion which led many a prince to believe that he need not join either India or Pakistan when the British left and their paramountcy lapsed. The then foreign secretary KPS Menon feared that India was going to be balkanised. Fortunately, in return for Patel accepting that India join the Commonwealth, Mountbatten conceded that regardless of official policy he would leave the princely states to be dealt with by the iron man.

Probably because the Nehru family was Kashmiri and Sheikh Abdullah was his friend, Nehru kept the dealings with that princely state to himself. The Valley, even today, is an unsolved problem. Patel’s toughest challenge was Hyderabad, and its Nizam who was a virtual prisoner of the Pakistan agents called Razakars. Moreover, his British advisor Sir Alexander Monckton was a friend of Lord Mountbatten but distinctly pro-Pakistan. Patel had to wait until September 1948 before sending in the Army.

The Nawab of Bhopal, Hamidullah Khan, was Jinnah’s most active emissary for luring the princes to link up with Pakistan. He was the Chancellor, Chamber of Princes, he worked day and night to cause a split among the princes, as Balraj Krishan has put it. The all out attempt was to build the third dominion to be called Princestan. Indore, Baroda and as well as Jodhpur were links in a potential chain of this grand design.

The Divan of Travancore, Sir CP Ramaswami Aiyar had proved to be an eminent example for many a prince to stay away from joining the Indian Union. He had on May 9, 1947, declared his State to be independent immediately on the end of British paramountcy; Jinnah was quick to support the declaration. The Divan was so overbearing that the Maharajah could not differ from him; it was only when the Sardar phoned him directly that he was rattled enough to give in.

Under the leadership of the Jamsaheb, who succeeded Bhopal as the chancellor that a meeting of Kathiawar states was induced to resolve that they would not join either dominion. With the appointment of Shah Nawaz Bhutto, Jinnah’s ally, as the new divan of Junagarh in late July, it was evident that his game plan would be to accede to Pakistan. This was formally announced on August 15. It was not until November that Patel could move troops into Junagarh and that too by leaving Mountbatten in the dark until the action began, Balraj Krishan has recorded.

The trickiest problem was Jodhpur, a Hindu ruler, Hindu populace but its territory bordered Sindh and the Maharajah was immature, just crowned. Jinnah made several tempting offers including a signed blank paper on which the Maharajah could write any terms. Lord Mountbatten admitted his failure to change the prince’s mind. Only Patel’s direct intervention turned the tide and Jodhpur joined Hindustan.

The integration of 560 princely states with India was a mammoth operation. It is difficult to portray all its dimensions in such a short space. It was made all the more difficult by Gandhiji’s obsession with non-violence, the British military reluctance to allow the use of force and Jawaharlal Nehru’s Hamlet like vacillation. Bismarck had none of these handicaps and his challenges were far smaller.