The First Flush of Freedom: Recollections and Reflections

Volumes have been written about the Indian Freedom Movement that began with Dadabhoy Nooroji, Gandhi, Tagore and Sri Aurobindo. The men who followed them: Tilak and Nehru, Azad and Patel now occupy their rightful place in history. Very little has been said about a third generation of patriots, men who had lit their torches at the parental flame. It was their mission to carry the torch safely over the stormy waters of transition, the terrible bloodletting of the Partition and the general civic unrest that attends the birth of a great democratic nation. H.M. Patel was one of these forgotten heroes: men who presided with commitment, core and wisdom over the fragile early decades of the infant Republic. Midwifery, as Socrates said, is a humble vocation. It seeks no praise for itself but asks only to serve the greatness that is waiting to be born.