After the independence Vallabhbhai concentrated on the unification of India. He brought about the integration of the 562 princely states and redrew the map of India with remarkable speed. He landed his biggest trouble spot Hyderabad with astute patience and foresight, grim determination and firmness, so characteristic of him. But he displayed his great magnanimity and acute political sagacity by making the same Nizam who wanted to be an independent sovereign the constitutional Rajpramukh administering the state under the advice of councilors. Patel warned the rulers about the rising tide of popular agitation. People were clamouring for democratic rule. Sooner or later, he told them, they would be fired to introduce responsible governments which might not be very sympathetic to them. Once their subjects revolted against them they could not look up to the union government for help. The only way out was that they should merge their territories with Indian Union and make sure of their hereditary dignities, privileges and privy purses. He offered them liberal privy purses. The rulers saw the writing on the wall and cooperated with Vallabhbhai in their own dispossession.
The London Times commented that Vallabhbhai’s achievement in the integration of states had won him a place in history and he would rank with Bismark or even higher in this regard.
Vallabhbhai had hoped that the Hindus and Muslims would live happily after the partition. But his hopes were belied. Soon a systematic slaughter of Hindus and Sikhs began in West Punjab due to the virulent propaganda of the Muslim League. These communal riots were not confined to Punjab alone. They spread to Delhi, Kanpur, Aligarh and other places. To quell the communal flames an emergency committee was set up to review and deal with the situation from day to day. Vallabhbhai worked round the clock and when he found that the police were unable to handle the situation he brought in the Gurkha soldiers.
In Delhi the communal riots were, strangely enough, started by Muslim Communalists. They had collected all kinds of weapons in a mosque for they were expecting the Pakistani army to reach Delhi and they had the fantastic plan of taking Delhi by force. But soon Vallbhbhai unearthed their plot. Khaksars were the men behind these plans. Police raided the mosque and seized and confiscated a large haul of weapons and ammunition. Khaksars were packed off to Pakistan and their weapons were later exhibited. Vallabhbhai was, like all other men of action, widely misunderstood. He was blamed for not being impartial to Muslims. This is however far for true. Vallabhbhai was sympathetic to the Muslims but would not allow them to carry on anti-national activities.
Due to old age and excessive strain Vallabhbhai’s health had started deteriorating especially from mid 1949. He went to Bombay in August for change of climate and stayed there for one and half month. The climate of Bombay had a falubrious effect on him. On September 26, despite ill-health, he began his extensive tour and did a lot of work.
In 1950, the last years of his life, the burden of work increased manifold. But though weary and worried, Vallabhbhai battled against failing health and bunking death in performing the duties of states. At a speech in Bombay he said—“I have reached an age when it is my night to take rest, but the heart is yearning to utilize the time that is still left to me in service of my country in these critical days. It is my earnest wish to see India stable, strong and prosperous and I wish to dedicate the rest of my life to that task.”
Vallabhbhai’s last great contribution to India was his visit to Calcutta in 1950. The relations between India and Pakistan at that time had greatly deteriorated. This time the Hindus of East Bengal were the target of Muslim atrocities. The story of partition was repeated once again. Hindus were massacred, their women were raped and abducted. The Hindus fled from their country and India was faced once again with the problem of refugees. Within a year a million refugees crossed the border into India. They wanted to drive out the Muslims of West Bengal.
The situation seemed explosive. It was at that moment that Vallabhbhai visited Calcutta on March 10, 1950 and in a forceful speech named Pakistan in clear and unmistakable terms of the consequences of its policy of oppressing Hindus of East Bengal. Pakistan heeded the warning for it knew well that Vallabhbhai never uttered an idle threat and meant every word of what he had said. With the result a pact was signed on 8th April by the two Prime Ministers, to which Sardar was also made a party. By it Pakistan undertook to give full protection to the minorities, to restore their property and abducted women. The Hindu refugees were asked to return to their home in Pakistan. Thus ended the tension and averted a possible war between the two countries.
The extensive tours and strenuous work was too much of a strain for Vallabhbhai. His old ailment, intestinal trouble, revived again in the middle of November. This time his disease took a serious form. He could take only liquid diet and had became very weak. On the advice of doctors he was taken to Bombay on 12th December and three days later had another heart attack and he died peacefully in the early hours of December 15, 1950.
The news of his death plunged the country into grief. President Rajendra Prasad, Pandit Nehru, Rajagopalachari and other important leaders flew to Bombay to attend his funeral. The procession was six miles long. Next to the funeral procession of Lokmanya Tilak, it was the biggest the city had ever seen.
Tributes to Vallabhbhai poured in from all parts of the world. Lord Mountbatten said, “His spirit will live for ever in India. His work in charge of the ministry of states in 1947 & 1948 will go down in listing, for he handled one of the most difficult problems which ever confronted any statesman, with a high degree of understanding and regard for the Indian princes.”
Even the British press paid him glowing tributes. ‘The London Times’ observed that Vallabhbhai was equal to ten Bismarks of Germany, in as much as the German Bismark evolved a limited Germany, the Indian Bismark evolved a united India which is about ten times the size of Germany.
C. Rajagopalchari said that—“Vallabhbhai was born not a day too soon for India. But he died too soon. India wishes he had not found his rest in the mother’s lap so hurriedly when he was so much wanted for sometime longer.”
Vallabhbhai was man of action who believed in action. He was not a creature of listing, but a maker of history.
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