No Sardar Patel Sans Pattabhi

Dr Bhogaraju Pattabhi Sitaramayya was a visionary. He was instrumental in shaping modern India. Sardar Patel could not have earned the name and fame for integration of the Princely States in India but for the strong foundation laid by Pattabhi. Andhra Bank, the premier bank in Andhra Pradesh, was founded by him. Pattabhi was president of the Indian National Congress. He was a journalist and founder of newspapers. A multi-faceted personality who was loved and respected by Mahatma Gandhi, Subhas Chandra Bose, Rajendra Prasad, Pattabhi was the tallest Telugu leader in the Congress at his time. Today, November 24, happens to be his birth anniversary.

“I am the baniya utrakara and Dr Pattabhi is the Brahmin commentator", said Mahatma Gandhi of the Congress historian. And when Pattabhi Sitaramayya, obeying the Mahatma's command, contested against the charismatic Subhas Bose and lost the Tripura Congress presidential election in 1939, Gandhiji famously declared that "the defeat is more mine than his''.

Nine years later Pattabhi Sitaramayya did become the Congress President at the Jaipur session . But by then, power passed from the Congress President (Rashtrapathi as the Congress President was called) to the Prime Minister and Jawaharlal Nehru towered above everyone in both power and prominence.

Narrating the plight of the Congress President in India without Mahatma Gandhi, Pattabhi said with characteristic humour:"When I became president I only thought I was made the 'Pathi' (head) without a 'Rashtram' (state) which was quietly removed from it. But later by an 'open dacoity' my whole title was taken away and made over to the President of the Republic. I am sincerely proud that if I have done nothing for the Republic, I have at least supplied the title for its President."

As a leading member of the Constituent Assembly, Pattabhi Sitaramayya played a notable role in the making of the Constitution. He used to hold regular discussions with many eminent persons at his residence, 19 Canning Lane, in Delhi and this group that frequently met at Pattabhi’s residence was known as Canning Lane group of which Anantasayanam Ayyangar, Durgabai and Kala Venkata Rao were active members.

He was Chairman of the Committee on Chief Commissioner’s Provinces and member of Union Powers Committee in the Constitutent Assembly. Pattabhi Sitaramayya was even considered for the office of Vice-President of India. But as ‘National Herald's editor M Chalapathi Rau put it, 'In spite of the tragedy of national honours not equaling national renown, he (Pattabhi) has lost nothing of his buoyancy or zest for work".

Two aspects of the 'the tragedy’ MC referred to deserve to be recalled in particular to put the record straight and also to appropriately honour the memory of the stalwart leader and an eminent Gandhian.

One is Dr Pattabhi's outstanding contribution for the liberation movement in the princely states at a time when no Congress leader was willing to involve the Congress actively in the struggle of the states' people. He laid the foundation for Sardar Patel’s magnificent work of integrating the Princely states with the Indian union after Independence. The other is the ungenerous manner in which Jawaharlal Nehru treated Pattabhi, especially in the last years of the latter.

Before alluding to these two facts and the many-sided contributions of Pattabhi Sitaramayya, it is necessary to briefly mention how a boy born in a village Gundugolanu, in West Godavari district on November 24, 1880, and raised in utter penury rose to national eminence by the sheer dint of merit and hard work.

Bhogaraju Pattabhi Sitaramayya who as a boy managed for seven years with just a single shirt, was helped by Christian missionary schools in his early education.

After obtaining first class in the matriculation examination, he stood first in the intermediate examination. A monthly allowance of ten rupees enabled him to study BA in the plebeian Madras Christian College.

He saw Gandhiji for the first time in 1898. That year marked a turning point in his life when he married the well- known Ganjam Venkataratnam's daughter. Helped by his father-in-law, Pattabhi studied MBBS in Madras, fulfilling his childhood dream.

Masulipatam was a favourite place for the Golconda rulers who found in it a useful outlet for exports and imports. As William Dalrymple wrote, the road from Hyderabad to the port of Masulipatam was one of the most beautiful in the Deccan.

Inspired by the famous Brahmo and social reformer Raghupati Venkataratnam Nayudu, young Pattabhi plunged into social reconstruction work in the then famous town of Masulipatam.

He, Kopalle Hanumantha Rao and Mutnuri Krishna Rao, lovingly called the ‘three musketeers of Masulipatam’, founded the Andhra Jateeya Kalasala, promoted cottage industries and rare institutions for the emancipation of the poor and the downtrodden. Dalits were admitted into schools and the work of social reconstruction that they performed in the first two decades of the last century moved Gandhiji to tears.

"My visit to Masulipatam," wrote the Mahatma, "brought tears of joy to my eyes. I appreciated the gentle love and I realised the capacity of the people for discipline and their quick responses to varying demands on their patriotic spirit.

I praised God for his abundant mercy with tears of joy", the programmes that Gandhiji launched had already been carried out in Masulipatam and Pattabhi observed that Gandhi came to them with a certain familiarity.

Vemuri Ramji Rao earned for Masulipatam wide acclaim by running a school, probably the first of its kind in south India, for Dalits, many of whom later rose to high positions in public life.

The first commercial bank in Andhra, the Andhra Bank, the first insurance company, the Andhra Insurance Company, the Krishna District Cooperative Bank, the Hindustan Ideal Insurance company, the Bharat Lakshmi Bank were all founded by him. He was among the earliest to plead for a separate university for Andhras. The movement for linguistic redistribution of provinces was spearheaded by him and later he along with Nehru and Patel constituted the JVP Committee to study the issue.

A pioneer in journalism too, Pattabhi launched 'Janmabhoomi,' an English weekly in 1919, which inspired many young journalists, according to K Rama Rao, Editor of National Herald. Pattabhi could not accept the offer of editorship of the Bombay Chronicle. While in jail he wrote on scraps of paper the History of the Congress and completed the two huge volumes in an amazingly short time.

From his prolific pen flowed several important and interesting writings. During his 32-month incarceration in Ahmednagar jail, Pattabhi wrote ‘Feathers and Stones’, on his experiences in jail, were brought out in a book form titled ‘My Study Windows’ in 1945. The inspiration for the title was the famous American writer JR Lowell’s book.

Over a dozen other books on wide ranging issues enhanced his reputation as a prolific and versatile writer. He had a 'razor sharp mind', wrote Homi Talyerkhan who 'could not see a wisp of cloud in his arguments, nor a trace of hesitation in his massive and masterly marshalling of facts’.

His role in the merger and integration of the princely states in the Indian Union described as 'the world's biggest bloodless revolution' has not received the recognition it deserved. Sardar Patel was the great architect of national integration.

Differences in approach between the "Congress and the All-India States' people's Conference persisted and the top Congress leaders, including Gandhiji, were opposed to intervention in the affairs of the states' people. The Congress reiterated in 1935 its policy of 'moral and friendly influence upon the states'. Rajendra Prasad and Patel opposed any change in the Congress policy.

Early in 1936, Pattabhi was invited by the Servants of the People's society, Lahore, for their anniversary celebrations. He was bold enough to say that the Congress could no longer ignore the states' people In July 1936, Pattabhi was elected president of the All-India States' People’s Conference at Karachi.

"The Congress is equally the Congress of the whole nation", he thundered. A genuine all-India federation would be possible only when the princely states and the British India provinces joined as equals. The Karachi session of the AISPC was beyond doubt a turning point.

With characteristic speed and efficiency, Pattabhi adopted a two-fold strategy — a direction to the States People's Movement and gearing up the machinery of the AISPC. Soon as Hodson observed, "The principle of impotent non-intervention was getting transmuted into the practice of active involvement".

The top Congress leadership was visibly upset over Pattabhi's deviation from the chosen path and many expressed their resentment over it. But the pace of progress in the states was so fast and the results so impressive that acceptance of the new line became imperative.

The Navasari convention of the AISPC in February 1938, a tactical move made by Pattabhi before the historic Haripura Congress, clinched the issue beyond any doubt.

An English fortnightly 'States' People' was launched and the resolution passed at Navasari was later accepted as the official resolution at the Haripura Congress. From Kashmir in the north to Travancore in the South from Saurashtra in the west to Orissa in the east 'an amazing awakening' was witnessed in the princely states. Subhas Bose hailed it as 'unprecedented awakening' of the people of the Indian states.

Pattabhi divided the states into 14 major groups for better organisation and coordination of the movement. He suggested merger of the smaller states with the adjoining big states as the small states were in the words of VP Menon 'the weakest link in the Princely chain. Pattabhi invited Nehru to take over the presidentship of the AISPC in 1939 and the latter gladly agreed. Interestingly, Pattabhi admitted that "questions relating to Kashmir and Hyderabad were reserved to Nehru's exclusive advice".

The All India States People's Conference was later a source of inestimable strength to Sardar Patel as he set himself to the gigantic task of integrating India. Rajendra Prasad was throughout warm towards Pattabhi. A proposal to make Pattabhi the Vice- President of India was turned down by Nehru whose choice of Radhakrishnan was acclaimed by all including Pattabhi.

But the manner in which Pandit Nehru made him the Governor of Madhya Pradesh was ungenerous, to put it mildly. The Prime Minister made the appointment of Pattabhi as governor of Madhya Pradesh with none too good grace. He fixed the tenure as two years instead of the normal five years.

With Ravi Shankar Shukla, the Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister, strongly recommending an extension of the term and President Prasad advising the Prime Minister to continue Pattabhi in office, an extension was given till 1956. Nehru wanted Pattabhi to retire in 1956 following states' reorganisation but somehow the five-year term was completed in 1957.

Two years later in December, 1959 Pattabhi Sitaramayya died in Hyderabad. Only the Andhra Bank honoured its founder Dr Pattabhi Sitaramayya’s memory by republishing an English biography of his and Pattabhi’s jail diary ‘My Study Windows.’

When Prime Minister Indira Gandhi nationalised banks stating that it was being done to help the poor farmer and trader, Andhra Bank’s Chairman K Gopala Rao aptly and proudly said:“The bank’s credit should be made available to the farmers and the traders on a fifty- fifty basis. That this principle, laid down half a century ago, has now been adopted as national policy speaks for the great foresight of our founder”.

At a time when Jawaharlal Nehru and Sardar Patel are remembered for their great services to the nation it is appropriate and necessary to honour the memory of other stalwart leaders who had made significant contribution to national reconstruction. A road in the Capital of India should be named after Dr Pattabhi Sitaramayya who was the Congress President (Rashtrapathi) in the first year after India won freedom and whose signature on the text of India’s Constitution was at the top along with those of Rajendra Prasad and Jawaharlal Nehru .

(The writer is a retired professor, cricket writer and commentator and Director - Centre for Policy Studies, Visakhapatnam)