VALLABHBHAI PATEL : His role and style in Indian politics 1928-1947 Rani Dhavan Shankardass Dissertation submitted for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy School of Oriental and African Studies University of London 1985. ProQuest Number: 11010657 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a com plete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. uest ProQuest 11010657 Published by ProQuest LLC(2018). Copyright of the Dissertation is held by the Author. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States C ode Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC. ProQuest LLC. 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106- 1346 ABSTRACT This study of Vallabhbhai Patel’s role and style in In­ dian politics attempts to show how mobilisation of men and materials was achieved by exclusively political means for the attainment of conservative goals and for the prevention of any radical changes. This was done primarily at Patel's ins­ tance in the face of much opposition from many forces, parti­ cularly the socialists who sought a more comprehensive pro­ gramme for a wider section of society. Patel's qualifications for this job lay in his background, his personality and his affinity with certain regions (Chapter I). Several experi­ ments in controlled mobilisation culminating in the Bardoli Satyagraha showed the political effectiveness of Patel's ver­ sion of Gandhi's nationalist scheme (Chapter II). The plan of nourishing the roots rather than spreading the branches greatly strengthened the Congress organisation and helped Patel in steering Congress party policy in the direction of conservative goals (Chapter III). Patel and Gandhi's mutual reliance on each other, and Gandhi's granting Patel a free hand in political tactics, gave much political strength to the Gandhiites in Congress. The quest for political supremacy was accompanied by efforts to exclude other political groups, and particularly the left, from political limelight (Chapter IV). There were problems in running an intense political race. Threats posed by ambitious leaders, factional infight­ ing and conflicting goals were put down with a heavy hand and political opposition was not tolerated (Chapter V). Negative steps in some areas were accompanied by positive steps in others, such as acceptance of office in the provinces and a gradual change of Congress's policy towards the States (Chap­ ter VI). Factors beyond Patel's control such as British imperialist policy and the accompanying political readjust­ ments in India brought some setbacks for Congress. But, Patel was quick to recover lost ground and rivals were soon outmano­ euvred (Chapter VII). The thesis argues that Patel typifies the Indian politi­ 2 cian par excellence, capable of taking control over all the diverse and unevenly developed aspects of Indian society by giving them a political direction, thus circumventing certain social and economic requirements which leaders with either a Marxian or a traditionally reformist vision would consider essential for development. 3 CONTENTS Preface 5 Introduction 7 Chapter I The Provincial Experience: 14 Early Years to 1927. Chapter II Consolidating the Provincial 67 Base 1928. Chapter III Emergence on the National Scene 99 1928-34. Chapter IV Congress’s New Policy and the 123 Ascendancy of the Right Wing 1934-37. Chapter V Maintenance of Congress Disci­ 175 pline 1936-38. (i) Nariman Episode. (ii) C.P.Crisis. (iii) Patel-Bose Conflict. Chapter VI Entrenchment of Congress Power 221 1937-39. (i) Congress Ministries. (ii) Policy towards Indian States. (iii) Exit of Ministries. Chapter VII Negotiator 1939-47. 262 Conclusion 311 Bibliography 319 Supporting Material 'Spokesman for the Peasantry: The case of Vallabhbhai Patel and Bardoli'. 4 PREFACE This is a political study and hence precludes any extensive discussion of socio-economic matters. Rather it analyses Vallabhbhai Patel’s contribution to the political activity of the period. In choosing Patel as the subject of my work I have worked under many limitations, the most significant being that he wrote very little. Unlike Nehru and Gandhi there are no revealing articles, no autobiograph­ ies or ’Experiments with Truth’ in the case of Patel, There are only letters written for particular purposes, newspaper accounts of political activity and interviews carried out with Patel’s contemporaries which form a large part of the research on Patel. I would like to extend my thanks to some of Patel’s associates and contemporaries. First of all I am grateful to Manibehn Patel, Patel’s daughter, with whom I spent time at different stages of my work and from whom I was able to pick up interesting details of her life with her father and her own personal impressions of his yearly years. She was kind enough to permit me to see the Patel Papers at Nava- jivan, Ahmedabad. G.M.Nandurkar, the editor of Patel's correspondence, also gave whatever assistance he could. Many of Patel's contemporaries provided valuable in­ sights into his personality and the prevailing conflicts of the period. I have formally interviewed and informally conversed with them over the entire period of my research and, therefore, have not always specified the dates of all my encounters with these people. In particular, Jai Prakash Narain, J.B.Kripalani, G.D.Birla, S.K.Patil, J.L,Kapur(all now dead) and Jagjivan Ram, Morarji Desai, Shankar Prasad, Bhagwan Sahay, D.P.Mandelia and P .G.Mavlankar have all given invaluable help in discussing Patel’s contributions as a leader. In England,the late Lord Mountbatten and Sir Conrad Corfield also spared considerable time to talk about Patel and India. 5 No modern historical study of India can be complete without the help of two vital institutions - the India Office Library in London and the Nehru Memorial Library in New Delhi. I am very appreciative of the congenial working conditions and atmosphere of cooperation in both these establishments. £ also wish, to thank Profs, Ravindra Kumar and S,Rt Mehrotra for sparing the time to discuss particular aspects of Congress with me. My husband, Vijay, who has been ac­ tively grappling with, the inter-action between the Congress Party and the Government in relation to some voluntary socioeconomic schemes with which he is closely connected, has provided me with some information pertaining to current Congress functioning at various levels. To him I am in­ debted for this and for doing my ’running around’,in Eng­ land if I was in India, and vice versa. I began my work under Dr.B.N.Pandey's supervision. However, I was deprived of his guidance midstream when he died in J.982, Dr,Peter Robb, who took over from him, has shown me excessive patience and forbearance and saved me from much of the despair that set in two and a half years ago. To him I am most grateful. This thesis terminates in 1947 and not 1950, the year of Patel’s death, Patel’s administrative period for which he is particularly admired by Indians has only been briefly surveyed in this work. I have sought primarily to assess Patel’s role as a nationalist and analyse his contribution to the independence movement. The omission of the last three years of his life does not affect the argument of the thesis in any way. London. Rani Dhavan Shankardass 6 INTRODUCTION Indian politics before 1947 have been variously inter­ preted by historians. Much thought has been devoted to the larger question of the direction from which control, initia­ tive and change emanated in the colonial context. Within this thinking fall what Stokes called the simplified dicho­ tomies of East and West, tradition and modernity, caste and class, status and contract, feudalism and capitalism, con­ tinuity and change, which formed the basis of nineteenth century thinking of the study and progress of the society. More recent interpreters of colonial rule in India - ortho­ dox Marxists, neo-Marxists, anti-ideologists, Namierists, neO'rMachiaveIlians, moffusilites, kulakites, and subalter- nists - explore the nature of society more thoroughly, while differing in the emphasis they place on the causes of conflict and the prime determining factor of change. Whatever the emphasis, whether the focus is on the struc­ ture of Indian society, or changes in modes of production or processes of modernisation, it becomes increasingly clear from most recent studies that the role of vested interests in determining the degree of conflict and the direction of change is vital. This is because it is the one factor that moulds and shapes the thoughts and activi­ ties of persons and groups of different economic back­ grounds, social traits and political ideologies and it can be translated into an idiom and language understood equally by all people in all periods. It may broadly be defined as that interest which, either as individuals or as members of economic, social or political groups, people tend to safeguard above all other interests. In a diversified society like India vested interest takes different forms and assumes different nomenclatures. In the context of the Indian national movement some studies have focused on the class or caste factor, or the primordiality factor, or the modernisation factor to explain the nature or direction of nationalism or other movements engaging people. Historical 7 analysis being as complex as it is the single factor approach certainly has its limitations. So does a multi­ factor approach which does not bring out the extent to which a particular factor actually governs interactions at particular periods, in particular areas and between parti­ cular participants.