RONO HILLS, 2 Nov: The NSS and NCC cell of Rajiv Gandhi University (RGU) organized an e-talk on ‘Understanding Sardar Patel’s vision of Indian national unity’ on Tuesday as part of the National Unity Day celebration.
Prof Hitendra Patel from Kolkata (WB)-based Rabindra Bharati University’s history department, who delivered the e-talk, said that “Sardar Patel is seen as one of the most important Congress stalwarts who guided the movement in the 1930s and the ’40s and worked to make India united and strong.”
However, the professor said, “the attention on Sardar has been marginal and often his contributions do not get proper attention.”
Outlining Sardar Patel’s role as a farmers’ leader and as the architect of discipline in the Congress, the professor said that “the works done by Sardar, particularly in between 1934 and 1939 and 1947 to 1949 were most significant and he anchored the national politics.”
“The posts of the Congress president and the prime minister of India should have gone to Sardar if Gandhi had not decided to ask Patel to withdraw in favour of Nehru,” he said, adding that, seen carefully, Sardar Patel always worked with the larger national interests in mind.
“There is a great urgency to unpack the political history of the 1940s to see how Sardar saved the country and tried to keep the Indian nation strong. He was a true nation-builder of modern India,” Prof Patel said.
He requested RGU Vice Chancellor Prof Saket Kushwaha to “think of a centre for documentation of history, as we need to document sources to make a proper assessment of leaders who worked for unity of this great nation.”
Besides Prof Kushwaha, RGU Registrar Dr NT Rikam, Prof PK Panigrahi, Dr Anil Mili, Dr Vivek Singh, Moyir Riba, faculty members and students of various departments joined the e-talk.
