Gujarat is probably the only state in the entire world that has given birth to two iconic leaders celebrated as fathers of the nation in two different countries. While Porbandar-born Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi is revered in India, Muhammad Ali Jinnah, born in Paneli-hardly 150km from Probandar helped establish Pakistan. Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, a proud soldier of Gandhi's nonviolent freedom movement, led the integration of nearly 560 princely states to create modern India, and also played a key role in transforming the predominantly British civil service into India's trusted steel frame. Suffice to say, whenever India faced a political vacuum or instability, someone from Gujarat has stepped up to meet the challenge.
Krishna, inarguably India's most loved god and cultural icon, chose to live and die in Gujarat even as he settled the political dispute in Hastinapur. Several millennia later, Gandhi and Patel did a similar job by giving strength and direction to India's freedom struggle. After the dark days of Emergency, Morarji Desai, another son of Gujarat, took the lead in saving the spirit of democracy. In 2014, it was the turn of Narendra Modi to offer India a stable government after decades of hung parliaments.
Gujarat showed India that an unpopular government could be brought down by a public movement when the Navnirman Andolan forced the Congress government of Chimanbhai Patel to quit in 1974. Senior BJP leader L.K. Advani chose to launch his rath yatra, which changed the face of Indian politics forever, from Somnath in Gujarat.
This story is from the December 18, 2022 edition of THE WEEK India.
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This story is from the December 18, 2022 edition of THE WEEK India.
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