A Dedicated Daughter: Maniben Patel

A Dedicated Daughter: Maniben Patel

·         She lived a worthy daughter of the Sardar, the national hero of India

·         Nehru took the a bag of Rs.35 Lakh from Maniben without emotions

Dr.Hari Desai’s Weekly Column “Back to Roots” in Asian Voice, the Newsweekly of ABPL Group, London 9 June 2018 Web Link : https://bit.ly/2HpbMxG or www.haridesai.com

·         She was destined to study in England but ended up graduating from Gujarat Vidyapith along with her younger brother. Both of them were left as boarders with one Miss Wilson of Queen Mary’s School in Bombay by their father, Vallabhbhai Patel, before he left for London to be a Barrister from the Middle Temple. Both used to talk in English with each other and took up French as a subject, but after their father became follower of Mahatma Gandhi, a transformation in their life made them study in the nationalist University established by the Mahatma in 1920.

·         After Sardar Patel died, the Birlas asked her to stay at the Birla House for a while, but the arrangement did not suit her so she left to stay in her cousin’s house in Ahmedabad. She used to meet people at Navjivan Trust office.This writer was also fortunate to have met her there. A woman of tremendous honesty and loyalty, she dedicated her life to her father who contributed so much to build up present day India. Both father and daughter lived and died for the nation. After the demise of Sardar Patel, how shabbily Prime Minister Pandit Nehru treated Maniben is described by Dr. V. Kurien, the Father of White Revolution in India in his autobiographical book, “I too had a Dream”.

·         Even when she was dying, the Chief Minister of Gujarat, Chimanbhai Patel, came to her bedside with a photographer, instructing him to take a picture that was published the next day in all the newspapers!

·         We, the lovers of our national hero Barrister Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel in India, feel happy and honoured to know that the Sardar Patel Memorial Society, UK under the leadership of Shri C. B. Patel, the Chairman of the Society and the Editor-Publisher of “Asian Voice” as well as “Gujarat Samachar”, the Newsweeklies of ABPL Group, London, in collaboration of the India House, is celebrating the historical Bardoli Day on 12 June 2018.