Iyengar used a metaphor from what, in 1950, was already India’s most popular sport, to describe the work of these two nation-builders. Iyengar wrote in 1950, ‘It is to the good fortune of the country that we have in Pandit Nehru and Sardar Patel two personalities who have characteristics each complementary to the other.’ He added: ‘For never has there been a combination of humanism and realism so complete as in Jawaharlal and Vallabhbhai.’ Yet those who saw them at work while they were alive had no illusions about their cooperative relations.

The politics of the present has posthumously set up Nehru and Patel as rivals and adversaries. From 30 January 1948 – the day Gandhi was murdered – to 26 January 1950, when the Constitution came into effect, Nehru and Patel worked shoulder to shoulder to help create a united and democratic republic. As Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister, Patel focused on the integration of the princely states, the reform and modernization of the administrative system, and the passing of the Indian Constitution. As Prime Minister, Nehru focused on relations between the different provinces, forging an independent foreign and economic policy, and promoting security for Muslims as well as equality for women. The two men arrived at an effective sharing of responsibilities. Nehru was also much younger than Patel, and took greater interest in international affairs.Īfter Gandhi’s assassination, Patel set aside whatever reservations he had about Nehru’s leadership and served under him until his own death in December 1950. Nehru was a Hindu who was trusted by Muslims, a man who was committed to gender equality, a north Indian who had reached out to south India.

However, as Vallabhbhai Patel’s own biographer has argued, Gandhi chose Jawaharlal Nehru as his political successor for sound reasons, namely, that Nehru appealed to a far greater cross-section of Indians than Patel, or indeed any other leader in the Congress Party.

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