1.

Sardar Patel has received many aliases during his decades-long

political career, courtesy of his unforgiving efforts to build a vital
foundation for India to stand upon before and after independence.
Besides being dubbed the Iron man of India, he is also recognized
as the “patron saint of India’s civil servants” for having established
the modern All India Service system.

2. Before he joined the freedom struggle with full vigour, Patel was a
practitioner of law at Godhra, Borsad and Anand in the state of
Gujarat, after passing the bar examination. It is believed that as a
poor student, he used to borrow books from senior lawyers to
study for his bar examination.

3. Patel was an exceptional student during his academic life. At age

36, Patel travelled to England and enrolled in the Middle Temple
Inn, a higher education Institute for barristers. There, he
graduated from a 36-month course in just 30 months and topped
the final examination despite not having any experience of college
education beforehand.

4. The exact date of Sardar Patel’s birth is still a matter of dispute.

There are no recorded documents of his date of birth as he was
born before recording such aspects became a norm. However, he
wrote October 31 as his birthdate during his matriculation
examination, and thus, his birth anniversary is celebrated on that
day every year as Rashtriya Ekta Diwas or National Unity day to
commemorate his efforts to unite India into an integrated whole

5. Sardar Patel was not interested in joining the freedom struggle

during its initial days, nor was he fond of the principles
propagated by Mahatma Gandhi. But, after meeting Gandhi in 1917
in Godhra, Gujarat, he was taken with Gandhi’s vision and wisdom
and went on to become one of his earliest political lieutenants and
close confidants.
6. As a central political lieutenant of Gandhi, Patel quit his job as a
practising lawyer to immerse himself fully in resisting the British
colonial rule and fighting for freedom through the non-violent
methods directed by Gandhi. Subsequently, he became the
secretary of Gujarat Sabha after joining the Indian National
Congress and remained an essential part of the party even after
Independence.

7. As a social reformer, Sardar Patel worked extensively to eradicate

many social evils that plagued Indian society at the time. He fought
for the rights of minorities and negotiated emancipatory measures
for the upliftment of women. He was also vocal regarding his
support for the abolition of untouchability and the discriminatory
caste system.

8. Known as the architect of the modern republic of India, Sardar

Patel played a key role in the unification of India. He is credited
with integrating a total of 562 princely states into the Republic of
India due to his unbound wisdom and tactical knowledge.

9. Vallabhbhai Patel was posthumously bestowed with the Bharat

Ratna — the country’s highest civilian award — in 1991 in
recognition of his contribution to pre and post-independent India,
forty-one years after his demise in 1950.

10. The Statue of Unity, constructed in honour of Sardar Patel and his
unprecedented efforts in forging the country into a united
republic, was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on
Rashtriya Ekta Diwas in 2018. Standing on the banks of the
Narmada river, it is 182m or about 600 feet tall, making it the
tallest standing statue in the world. The statue was built at a
reported cost of Rs 2,989 crore.