New Delhi: History remembers conquerors for wars, thinkers for ideas, and dreamers for vision. But rarely does it remember a man who did all three — not through conquest, but through conviction; not by blood, but by belief.

Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, the Iron Man of India, stands in the same pantheon as Otto von Bismarck, who united the German-speaking States into one nation. Patel bound together 562 princely states into the Indian Union, forging from a thousand divisions the soul of a single nation.

As the British prepared to withdraw in 1947, they left behind a political minefield. The princely states, constituting nearly two-fifths of India’s territory, were given the freedom to accede to India, Pakistan, or remain independent.

This proposition was not merely a constitutional arrangement. It was a potential recipe for the disintegration of the newly born nation. The Congress leadership saw the abyss ahead — and only one man, firm yet farsighted, had the will to bridge it.

In June 1947, the States Department was established to manage the task of accession. At its helm was Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, the then Minister for States. His mission was clear but colossal — to bring unity out of uncertainty, to stitch together the torn fabric of a civilisation.

Even Mahatma Gandhi, who differed with Patel on several issues, saw in him a rare decisiveness. “The problem of the States is so difficult,” Gandhi said, “that you (Patel) alone can solve it.”

At 72, Patel began one of the most delicate diplomatic campaigns in modern history. He reached out personally to the rulers of princely states, engaging them not as subordinates but as compatriots in a shared destiny.

He held informal meetings, used social gatherings, and appealed to their sense of........

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