The Iron Man - Sardar Patel

Sardar Patel
The Iron Man

The undisputed boss of the Congress’ party organisation at the time of independence, Patel is often invoked by Nehru-baiters as the greatest prime minister India never had. A dour man, conspicuously indifferent to the anxieties of Indian Muslims after Partition, he is part of the republic’s roll-call of heroes because of the ruthless dispatch with which he coerced and cajoled India’s princes into merging their states with the new republic at a time when everything could have unravelled.