Why Muslims owe a lot to Sardar Patel

Men like K.M. Munshi and Purushottam Das Tandon protested that even in the 1931 Karachi session of the Congress, only the "right to profess and practice one's religion," and not propagation, had been allowed. But Patel would have none of it. He went by the reasoning of Christian and Muslim members that propagation of faith was central to their tenets. That's how you have the word "propagate" in Article 25 of the Constitution. (2)

It was also Patel who gifted Muslims and Christians, and other minorities, with Articles 29 and 30, that allowed them the right to pursue their language and culture as well as control their own educational institutions. These rights are enshrined in India's Constitution. (3)

The first Chief Commissioner of Delhi that Patel appointed was Khurshid Alam Khan. The Inspector General of the Special Police Force was a Muslim and a close confidant of Sardar Patel. In September 1947, Patel had 10,000 or more Muslims shepherded to safety inside the Red Fort. During communal violence he had free kitchens opened for them.

Many senior civil servants and police officers have left a vivid account of Patel's sense of justice. He once rushed out in person in the middle of a night to save the Dargah of Nizamuddin Auliya. Choudhary Khaliquzzaman writes in Pathway to Pakistan (P 395-396) how Patel ordered Section 144 Cr.P.C to save besieged Muslim lives.

It was in the sacred Constituent Assembly that Patel had thundered: --a discontented minority is a burden and a danger and that we must not do anything to injure the feelings of any minority so long as it is not unreasonable." On another occasion he addressed Hindus thus: "If you think that you can go on constantly troubling loyal Muslims because they happen to be Muslims, then our freedom is not worthwhile."

In 1949, the idol of Ram was installed inside the non-functioning Babri Masjid. Patel lost no time in writing to UP Chief Minister Pt. Govind Ballabh Pant that the mob must not be allowed to take law into its own hands. That the law-breakers must be met with force.

Rajaji wrote thus in "Swarajya" in 1971: "A myth had grown about Patel that he would be harsh towards Muslims. This was a wrong notion but it was a prevailing prejudice."

In January 1948, Gandhi wrote: "Many Muslim friends had complained to me of the Sardar's so-called anti-Muslim attitude. I was able to assure the critics they were wrong... the Sardar had a bluntness of speech which sometimes unintentionally hurt, though his heart was expansive enough to accommodate all."

Thus here we are looking at a man who is more secular than those who employ it as a tool to push their own despicable agenda. Why would you think a man of such generosity and big-heartedness didn't get his due from the establishment? In one short word: Nehru, his successors and the ecosystem that they spawned in their wake.

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