Freedom146;s Apprentice

It is interesting to note that after the independence and partition of India an unusually large number of those who served the erstwhile Imp...

It is interesting to note that after the independence and partition of India an unusually large number of those who served the erstwhile Imperial Indian Civil Service ICS stayed on, and contributed immensely to the new nation. When the time came to rest on their laurels, they did so with honour, and their names continue to ring a bell8212;BK Nehru, LK Jha, RN Banerjee, to name a few. But one among their numbers, HM Patel, rose high quickly, and his descent was equally precipitate, and very unfair to the man.

Rites of Passage has been ably pieced together by historian Sucheta Mahajan from two books that Patel was writing at the time of his death in 1993, his memoirs and an account of the events leading to partition, and the working of the Partition Council, whose job was the actual nitty-gritty of dividing the assets of India between the two countries, a task which is largely forgotten today. It is, obviously, an incomplete work, but nevertheless, a valuable contribution to partition literature.

Patel, with an amazing capacity and dedication for hard work, rose from a district officer in Sindh to the secretariat of the Bombay Government. After a stint in Europe as trade commissioner, he returned to India and the Centre, where not yet forty years, Lord Wavell appointed him the youngest ever cabinet secretary.

Patel narration of partition is interesting in that unlike other participants he does not justify it or consider it to have been avoidable. He clearly says that it had become unavoidable. If there had been no partition, then a civil-war situation would have prevailed in an undivided India. Reading his version of the Partition Council raises one8217;s respect for these men in such trying times. Patel came into contact with Sardar Patel at this time. The old Congressman and young civil servant bonded well. An essay that Patel later wrote is testimony to the impact the Sardar had on him. The imprint of the Sardar8217;s ideas and ideals are discernible in Patel8217;s later public life and work.

Perhaps this closeness to the Sardar played no small a part in Patel8217;s downfall. After stints as agriculture and defence secretary, Patel became finance secretary. The memoirs are silent on the Mundhra scandal, but it is clear that Patel, the arch-civil servant, became a victim of his minister8217;s attempts to save himself. Jagmohan Mundhra held shares in joint stock companies, which were bought by the Life Insurance Corporation at a loss, at the instance of Finance Minister T.T. Krisnamachari. When the story broke, the minister denied all knowledge, and held Patel responsible. Even though he was exonerated, Patel quit the ICS in 1959. A brilliant career was in tatters.

It is a pity that Patel did not chronicle his remaining days in public life, for they are of equal, if not more, interest than his days inside the steel frame. They are briefly outlined by Kersy Katrak in an afterword. During this time, to use Mahajan8217;s felicitous phrase, the civil servant became a public servant. He spent the most fulfilling years of his life at Vallabh Vidyanagar, before entering the Gujarat Assembly, and then the Lok Sabha, courageously leading the opposition in Parliament during the Emergency. And then, a vindication of sorts took place when Patel became finance and home minister in the Janata regime.

Never mind. Together with a companion volume, The First Flush of Freedom, his memoirs narate the story of a nation in the making.