time in April 1928. Also seen is her husband Somabhai Patel.
Plainly Speaking by Dr. Hari Desai
4
HMG concedes Victory of ‘Lenin’ Patel
·
For the first time Bhikhiben addressed Vallabhbhai as “Sardar”
·
Lord Winterton told, “Patel has met with a measure of success”
In the last installment, we discussed the
climax in the Bardoli Satyagraha and Gandhiji preparing to go to Bardoli as “a
solder of Vallabhbhai”. Of course, before the Mahatma reached Bardoli on 2
August 1928, many dramatic events were to take place on Ground Zero. By May
end, the Members of the legislature started resigning their membership. K. M.
Munshi resigned on 17 June, five days after the nation-wide celebration of the
Bardoli Day on 12 June. Barrister Vithalbhai Patel, the elder brother of
Vallabhbhai and the President of the Central Legislature, wrote to Gandhiji
attaching a cheque of Rs.1,000 with a promise to send Rs.1,000 every month till
the Bardoli Satyagraha would be on. The
action of Vithalbhai embarrassed the Government. On the Ground Zero, Vallabhabhai
virtually paralysed the Taluka’s revenue administration. Eighty Village Patels
(Head-men) and nineteen Talatis had resigned. Among the other Government
employees, the most were sympathetic to the cause of the peasants and the
Satyagraha.
To enlighten the people about the Bardoli
Satyagraha and raise funds for it, it was decided to celebrate Bardoli Day on
12 June throughout the country. Narhari Parikh describes the celebration and
collection of Rs. Two Lakh in these words in “Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel”: “12th
June celebrated throughout the country with great enthusiasm as Bardoli Day.
The people of Bardoli fasted for 24 hours and offered prayers. The young men in
Bombay went from house to house and collected anna each and collected 1,500
rupees. The office of the Bardoli Satyagraha Ashram was inundated with cheques
and money orders.”
Some Parsi gentlemen including a Parsi who did
not belong to Bardoli Taluka purchaged some land. People of their own community and of the town to which they
belonged resolved to boycott them. On
Bardoli Day, the Sardar served a warning to those who had purchaged or might
purchage the forfeited land: “So long as a square foot of land belonging to any
agriculturist or to any participant in this fight remains forfeited, this fight
will continue. For the sake of such land, thousands of agriculturists are ready
to die. This is not a charity performance for the Government to hand over land
to some kerosene merchant from Bharuch. He who buys such land drinks the
life-blood of agriculturists. Whoever does that will do well to give thought to
the retribution which will be meted out to him by God in this life.”
“The first limb of the establishment to concede
Vallabhbhai’s ascendancy in the conflict was the Times of India. After
touring the Taluka, its special correspondent described Vallabhbhai as a
“Lenin” who had “instituted a Bolshevik regime” in Bardoli, and held him
responsible for the suffering of the peasants “herded in their miserable
windowless dwellings” and their cattle with “festering sores all over their
bodies,” describes Rajmohan Gandhi in “Patel: A Life”, adding: “All the same,
the correspondent’s reports suggested that the Raj’s writ no longer ran in the
Taluka but Vallabhbhai’s did.”
On the side, the Commissioner of the Northern
Division, Mr. Wilfred Smart, who had gone to the sea-side for rest, was ordered
to proceed to Surat and to camp there. The Collector was also resting in the
neighbouring state and he was ordered to come down. “It was surprising that
while so much was happening in the Taluka, the District Collector had not
thought it necessary even to visit Bardoli,” notes Narhari Parikh. He adds,
“He was content to see everything through the eyes of his deputy.” Even when
the Collector went to visit Bardoli, he found all shops shut and the doors of
all the houses locked. Not a man was to be had to wait on him. Then he thought
he would go to some smaller village. The policeman went to hire a taxi. The
taxi-driver said that the car was already engaged. So his license was taken
away. With great difficulty, he reached the village Sarbhon. As he approached
it, the young men immediately beat the drum, so that by the time the Collector
entered the village, the doors of every single house were shut and the streets
were completely deserted. The Collector sent for the Patels who replied, “The people
will not listen to us. The people are indifferent about forfeitures and
confiscations.”
The Collector started making false statements,
transferring the weak Mamalatdar to another Taluka and bringing stricter one to
act for the seizures. Some times in April, in one of the public meeting a
tribal lady named Bhikhiben addressed Vallabhbhai as “Now onwards you are our
Sardar” and Patel earned the title “Sardar”. Though Rajmohan says, “It was
during April 1928 that someone, no one knows who, first referred to Vallabhbhai
as the peasants’ Sardar, Maganlal I. Patel of Bardoli College in his Ph.D.
thesis submitted to the South Gujarat University in September 1990, clearly
states: “During the Bardoli Satyagraha in a meeting of peasant men and women at
Nani Palsod, in the presence of Sardar Patel, Kanaiyalal Munshi, Mahadevbhai
Desai, Mohanlal Pandya etc., one lady of Aakoti named Bhikhiben told after floral reception of
Vallabhbhai, ‘Vallabhbhai, now onwards you are our Sardar.’ Uttamchand Shah,
the Secretary of Swaraj Ashram, Bardoli along with his wife Santokben, was also
present in the meeting.”
During the hot summer of May 1928, even when
the agriculturists were warned that land once taken in possession of the
Government would not be returned, the Sardar was making fun of the Raj, asking
them whether they would carry the land with them to England? The Government
declared that it had disposed of 1,400 acres of land and was keen to disposed
of another 5,000 acres. “How much land does a man requires? Six feet at the
most, and the Hindus not even that, except for a couple of hours, after which
they make room for others,” the Sardar would address the public.
Following the Times of India report,
even while replying the discussion in the House of Commons, Lord Winterton, a
member of His Majesty’s Government had to admit:“It is true that Vallabhbhai
Patel has met with a measure of success.” The Governor of Bombay, Sir Leslie
Wilson, declared his intention to rush to Simla for consultation with Lord
Irwin, the Viceroy. All eyes were set on the Raj’s further action. But
Vallabhbhai was informed by Commissioner Smart that the Governor was willing to
receive him at Surat. The Raj had been compelled. Gandhiji wrote to
Vallabhbhai: “The next two weeks are a very critical period during which no
such words be uttered on our side as is likely to impede a settlement.” Patel
agreed with Gandhiji. (To be continued)
(13 June 2019)
And Barrister Vallabhbhai Patel becomes Sardar Patel
Reviewed by Dr.Hari Desai
on
June 12, 2019
Rating:
Reviewed by Dr.Hari Desai
on
June 12, 2019
Rating:
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