SOCIO-POLITICAL ANALYSIS OF SARDAR VALABHAI PATEL’S ROLE DURING THE INDEPENDENCE MOVEMENT

Abstract

This article reflects on the political role of Sardar Valabhai Patel in the independence movement of India.  Very few political leaders in the history of South Asia played their role exclusively along the ideological lines. Sardar Valabhai Patel was one among them. He contributed his services to the independence of India without any material and institutional interests.He seemed to have facilitated the process of political integration seemed to be facilitated by him and hence its analysis is one of the purposes of this work. This article probes the consistency and harmony between his ideological inclination and other situational requirements which emerge during the course of political developments in pre-independence India. Such inquiry warrants the analysis of his position in ensuing leadership patterns of Indian independence movement. For this particular purpose of research, leadership approach has been adopted to scrutinize his political role during the movement in enrichment of growth and level of politics in India. Methodology employed for the inquiry is historical interpretative. It is worth analyzing that his position as an associate of All India National Congress party never impeded his commitment to the independence of undivided India from stranglehold of colonialism. Although India was divided at the end but his struggle as a political activist had left behind an anti-colonial legacy.