Patel was not much enamoured
of the concept of secularism

Fifty years after India won freedom, the myth that Sardar Patel was anti-Muslim persists. In this fascinating essay,Dr Rafiq Zakaria, the respected scholar, reveals the truth about Patel and India's Muslims.

Patel was, however, not much enamoured of the concept of secularism, he used the word rarely; its western connotation, which downgraded religion, was not much to his liking. Though not a deeply religious man, he was proud of his Hindu heritage. But like his master, his Hinduism was not narrow; he respected other religions and had no quarrel with the nation's composite character. But it had to harmonise with the mainstream; the minorities must reconcile to being an integral part of it. He could not understand their fear that in the process, their identities might suffer.

He failed to appreciate that because Hinduism was a vast ocean, with limitless powers of absorption, there was always the danger that it could encompass, embrace and finally absorb other religions, thus destroying their cultural identities. Hence the conflict that had occasionally arisen between Hinduism and other religions. This had not been confined to Islam alone but also to earlier religions like Buddhism and Jainism. But it is a tribute to Hinduism that, despite its all-embracing nature and the occasional conflicts that it encountered with other faiths, it has refrained from being monolithic. Its base has remained as elastic as ever before.

Of that Patel seemed to be aware; that was why he opposed Veer Savarkar's concept of a Hindu raj, it violated, according to the Sardar, the basic structure of Hinduism. He was one of the framers of India's Constitution, his was the major role in incorporating many of the basic precepts which Hindus had inherited from their past. One of these was Sarv Dharma Sambhava: equal respect to all religions. And equal treatment to their followers.

He had affixed his signature to the document which has enshrined these values; they have distinguished India, he said, from rest of the world. He publicly declared, in February 1949, that all talk of Hindu Raj was a 'mad idea'; he was sure that his country, in the remoulding of which he had played such a notable part, would never subscribe to it. In his unforgettable words: 'It will kill the soul of India.'

Tough, determined, uncompromising and even unforgiving at times, the Sardar was not vengeful; what Wordsworth said applies aptly to him:

In him the savage virtue of the race,

Revenge and ferocious thoughts were dead;

Nor did he change; but kept in lofty place

The wisdom which adversity had bred.

Excerpted from Sardar Patel and Indian Muslims, by Rafiq Zakaria, Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, 1996, Rs 125, with the author's permission. Readers interested in buying a copy of the book may write to Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, Kulapati K M Munshi Marg, Bombay 400 007.