Maniben Patel (3 April 1903 — 26 March 1990) was an

Indian independence movement The Indian independence movement was a series of historic events with the ultimate aim of ending British Raj, British rule in India. It lasted from 1857 to 1947. The first nationalistic revolutionary movement for Indian independence emerged ...

activist and a Member of the

Indian parliament The Parliament of India ( IAST: ) is the supreme legislative body of the Republic of India. It is a bicameral legislature composed of the president of India and two houses: the Rajya Sabha (Council of States) and the Lok Sabha (House of the ...

. She was the daughter of

freedom fighter A resistance movement is an organized effort by some portion of the civil population of a country to withstand the legally established government or an occupying power and to disrupt civil order and stability. It may seek to achieve its objectives ...

and post-Independence

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

n leader

Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Vallabhbhai Jhaverbhai Patel (; ; 31 October 1875 – 15 December 1950), commonly known as Sardar, was an Indian lawyer, influential political leader, barrister and statesman who served as the first Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister of I ...

. Educated in

Bombay Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' financial centre of India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Mumbai is the second- ...

, Patel adopted the teachings of

Mahatma Gandhi Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (; ; 2 October 1869 – 30 January 1948), popularly known as Mahatma Gandhi, was an Indian lawyer, anti-colonial nationalist Quote: "... marks Gandhi as a hybrid cosmopolitan figure who transformed ... anti- ...

in 1918, and started working regularly at his ashram in

Ahmedabad Ahmedabad ( ; Gujarati: Amdavad ) is the most populous city in the Indian state of Gujarat. It is the administrative headquarters of the Ahmedabad district and the seat of the Gujarat High Court. Ahmedabad's population of 5,570,585 (per t ...

Early life

Patel was born on 3 April 1903 at Karamasad,

Bombay Presidency The Bombay Presidency or Bombay Province, also called Bombay and Sind (1843–1936), was an administrative subdivision (province) of British India, with its capital in the city that came up over the seven islands of Bombay. The first mainl ...

British India The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance on the Indian subcontinent. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one ...

. She was brought up by her uncle

Vitthalbhai Patel Vitthalbhai Patel (21 May 1936 – 7 September 2013) was an Indian poet, lyricist, and senior Congress leader known for his contributions in social services and politics as well as for penning several Hindi film songs, including "Na Maangu Sona ...

. She completed her early education at Queen Mary High School in

. In 1920 she moved to

and attended the university of Rashtriya Vidhyapith started by

. After graduating in 1925, Patel went on to assist her father.

Borsad movement

In 1923-24 the British government levied heavy taxes on the common people and for recovery of the same they started confiscating their cattle, land and property. To protest against this oppression, Maniben motivated women to join a campaign led by Gandhi and Sardar Patel and support the No-Tax Movement.

Bardoli Satyagrah

Exorbitant taxation was levied by the British authorities on the peasants of Bardoli in 1928 and they endured similar harassment to those of

Borsad Borsad is a town and a municipality in Anand district in the state of Gujarat, India. It is located around 17 km from Anand. It is surrounded by the fertile Charotar region which largely produces tobacco, bananas, cotton, barley and oth ...

. Mahatma Gandhi directed Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel to take leadership of the

Satyagrah Satyagraha ( sa, सत्याग्रह; ''satya'': "truth", ''āgraha'': "insistence" or "holding firmly to"), or "holding firmly to truth",' or "truth force", is a particular form of nonviolent resistance or civil resistance. Someone ...

. Initially women were reluctant to join the movement. Patel, along with Mithuben Petit and Bhaktiba Desai, motivated women who ultimately outnumbered men in the movement. As part of the protest they stayed in huts erected on land confiscated by the government.

Rajkot Satyagrah

During 1938, a Satyagrah was planned against the unjust rule of the Diwan of

Rajkot State Rajkot State was one of the princely states of India during the period of British rule. It was a 9-gun salute state belonging to the Kathiawar Agency of the Bombay Presidency. Its capital was in Rajkot, located in the historical Halar regi ...

Kasturba Gandhi Kasturbai Mohandas Gandhi (, born Kasturbai Gokuldas Kapadia; 11 April 1869 – 22 February 1944) was an Indian political activist. She married Mohandas Gandhi, more commonly known as Mahatma Gandhi, in 1883. With her husband and her eldest so ...

was keen to join the Satyagrah despite her poor health and Patel accompanied her. The government passed an order to separate the women. She went on a hunger strike against the order and authorities allowed her to reunite with

Non-cooperation movement

Mahatma Gandhi and Manibehn Patel before his departure to Europe, 1931

She participated in the

Non-Cooperation Movement The Non-cooperation movement was a political campaign launched on 4 September 1920, by Mahatma Gandhi to have Indians revoke their cooperation from the British government, with the aim of persuading them to grant self-governance.

as well as the

Salt Satyagraha The Salt March, also known as the Salt Satyagraha, Dandi March and the Dandi Satyagraha, was an act of nonviolent civil disobedience in colonial India led by Mahatma Gandhi. The twenty-four day march lasted from 12 March to 6 April 1930 as a di ...

and was imprisoned for long periods of time. In the 1930s she became her father's aide, also caring for his personal needs. However, because Maniben Patel was committed to the liberation of India, and thus the

Quit India movement The Quit India Movement, also known as the August Kranti Movement, was a movement launched at the Bombay session of the All India Congress Committee by Mahatma Gandhi on 8th August 1942, during World War II, demanding an end to British rule in ...

, she was again imprisoned from 1942 to 1945 in

Yerwada Central Jail Yerwada Central Jail is a noted high-security prison in Yerwada, Pune in Maharashtra. This is the largest prison in the state of Maharashtra, and also one of the largest prisons in South Asia, housing over 5,000 prisoners (2017) spread over va ...

. Maniben Patel served her father closely until his death in 1950. After moving to Mumbai, she worked for the rest of her life with numerous charitable organizations and for the

Sardar Patel Memorial Trust The Sardar Patel Memorial Trust is an organization dedicated to preserving the work and memory of Indian political leader Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel. It does a variety of work - publishing books and magazines on Patel's life and work, maintaining p ...

. She went on to author an account of the freedom struggle as a book on her father's life in the years following Indian Independence.

Principles

Patel always ensured that her and her father's clothes were weaved from

khadi Khadi (, ), derived from khaddar, is a hand-spun and woven natural fibre cloth promoted by Mahatma Gandhi as ''swadeshi'' (self-sufficiency) for the freedom struggle of the Indian subcontinent, and the term is used throughout India, Pakistan ...

threads which were spun by her. She always insisted on travelling in third class.

Electoral career

* 1952 : Won South Kaira (a.k.a.

Kheda Kheda, also known as Kaira, is a city and a municipality in the Indian state of Gujarat. It was former administrative capital of Kheda district. India's First Deputy Prime Minister Vallabhbhai Patel Was Born In Kheda District of Gujarat State ...

) Lok Sabha seat in General Elections, as Congress candidate * 1957 : Won Anand Lok Sabha seat in General Elections, as Congress candidate defeated Amin Dadubhai Mulji * 1962 : Lost to Narendrasinh Ranjithsinh Mahida of

Swatantra Party The Swatantra Party was an Indian classical liberal political party, that existed from 1959 to 1974. It was founded by C. Rajagopalachari in reaction to what he felt was the Jawaharlal Nehru-dominated Indian National Congress's increasingly soci ...

from Anand Lok Sabha Seat, as Congress' candidate * 1964 to 1970 : Congress Member of Rajya Sabha * 1973 : Entered Lok Sabha winning the by-poll from Sabarkantha as Congress(O) candidate, defeating Shantubhai Patel of Congress * 1977 : Won

Mehsana Mehsana (), also spelled Mahesana, is a city and municipality in Mehsana district, in the Indian state of Gujarat. Established in 14th century, the city was under Gaekwads of Baroda State from 18th century to the independence of India in 1947 ...

Lok Sabha seat in General Elections defeating Natvarlal Amratlal Patel, as

Janata Party The Janata Party ( JP, lit. ''People's Party'') was a political party that was founded as an amalgam of Indian political parties opposed to the Emergency that was imposed between 1975 and 1977 by Prime Minister Indira Gandhi of the Indian Nati ...

candidate

Vice president

Patel was once Vice President of the Gujarat Provincial Congress Committee. Later, she was elected as a member of the

Indian National congress The Indian National Congress (INC), colloquially the Congress Party but often simply the Congress, is a political party in India with widespread roots. Founded in 1885, it was the first modern nationalist movement to emerge in the British Em ...

led by Nehru in the first

Lok Sabha The Lok Sabha, constitutionally the House of the People, is the lower house of India's bicameral Parliament, with the upper house being the Rajya Sabha. Members of the Lok Sabha are elected by an adult universal suffrage and a first-past ...

(1952–57) from South Kaira constituency, and in the second Lok Sabha (1957–62) from Anand. She was also Secretary (1953–56) and Vice President (1957–64) of Gujarat state Congress. She was elected to the

Rajya Sabha The Rajya Sabha, constitutionally the Council of States, is the upper house of the bicameral Parliament of India. , it has a maximum membership of 245, of which 233 are elected by the legislatures of the states and union territories using si ...

in 1964 and continued till 1970. Information is lacking on the exact year when she left Congress Party, but it was likely because she decided to stay with NCO (Congress-O) when the party split in 1969. Her brother Dahyabhai Patel was a member of Mumbai Maha-nagar Palika for 18 years and was mayor of Mumbai in 1954. In 1957 he joined Maha Gujarat Janata Parishad and later he joined

. In the early 1970s Dahyabhai was a Rajya Sabha MP with

; both Swatantra Party and NCO (Prime Minister

Morarji Desai Morarji Ranchhodji Desai (29 February 1896 – 10 April 1995) was an Indian independence activist and politician who served as the 4th Prime Minister of India between 1977 to 1979 leading the government formed by the Janata Party. During his ...

's Congress group) were powerful in Gujarat during the years 1967-1971. Maniben Patel did not contest the 1971 Lok Sabha polls. She was elected to Lok Sabha in 1973 when she won by-poll from

Sabarkantha Sabarkantha district is one of the 33 districts of Gujarat state of India and is located in the northeastern part of the state. The administrative headquarters of the district are located in Himatnagar. Geography Sabarkantha District is bounded ...

, defeating Shantubhai Patel of

Congress A congress is a formal meeting of the representatives of different countries, constituent states, organizations, trade unions, political parties, or other groups. The term originated in Late Middle English to denote an encounter (meeting of a ...

by a narrow margin. She was elected to

from

on the

Janata party The Janata Party ( JP, lit. ''People's Party'') was a political party that was founded as an amalgam of Indian political parties opposed to the Emergency that was imposed between 1975 and 1977 by Prime Minister Indira Gandhi of the Indian Nati ...

ticket in 1977. She was connected with several educational institutions including the

Gujarat Vidyapith Gujarat Vidyapith is a deemed university in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India. It was founded in 1920 by Mahatma Gandhi, the leader of the Indian independence movement, and deemed a university in 1963. Etymology "Vidyapith," in many languages of ...

Vallabh Vidyanagar Vallabh Vidyanagar, also known as V.V.Nagar, is a town and a municipality in Anand district in the Indian state of Gujarat. It is located between Ahmedabad and Vadodara, from the town of Anand. V.V.Nagar is renowned as an educational hub of Guj ...

, Bardoli Swaraj Ashram and Navajivan Trust prior to her death in 1990. In 2011, the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Memorial Trust undertook a project to publish her Gujarati diary, in collaboration with Navajivan Publications.

Works

* ''Inside Story of Sardar Patel: The Diary of Maniben Patel, 1936-50'', by Manibahen Patel. Ed. Prabha Chopra. Vision Books, 2001. .

References

External links

Condolence letter from Horace Alexander to Maniben on her father's death (1950). National Archives of India
{{DEFAULTSORT:Patel, Maniben 1903 births 1990 deaths India MPs 1952–1957 India MPs 1957–1962 India MPs 1971–1977 India MPs 1977–1979 20th-century Indian biographers 20th-century Indian women politicians 20th-century Indian politicians 20th-century Indian women writers Bharatiya Lok Dal politicians English-language writers from India Founders of Indian schools and colleges Indian women philanthropists Indian independence activists from Gujarat Indian National Congress politicians from Gujarat Indian philanthropists Indian women activists Indian women non-fiction writers Janata Party politicians Lok Sabha members from Gujarat People from Nadiad Prisoners and detainees of British India Quit India Movement Rajya Sabha members from Gujarat Vallabhbhai Patel Women biographers Women in Gujarat politics Women Indian independence activists Women writers from Gujarat Women members of the Lok Sabha Women members of the Rajya Sabha Indian National Congress (Organisation) politicians