Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel
- He was born on 31 October 1875 in Nadi, Gujarat.
- A successful lawyer by profession, his career took a turning point when Mahatma Gandhi selected him as his deputy to lead the Kheda Satyagraha in 1918.
- Patel led the Satyagraha movement in Nagpur in 1923 against the British law prohibiting the hoisting of the Indian flag.
- In 1924, he was elected as the Chairman of the Ahmedabad Municipal Board.
- On assuming office, he renovated the drainage, sanitation, cleanliness and water supply systems of Ahmedabad.
- It was his role in the Bardoli Satyagraha in 1928 that elevated him to a new peak of national glory. It was here that he earned the title of ‘Sardar’.
- At the time of independence, India had 17 British Indian provinces, and the princely states, which constituted two-fifths of the country’s geographical area, numbered over 560.
- Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel intervened to ensure the incorporation of the princely states into the Indian Union and to integrate them.
- He was appointed as the first Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister of India from 1947 to 1950.
- He also served as the Minister of Information and Broadcasting.
