The Collected Works of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel (Volume 6) (1st January 1936-30th June 1937)

Sixth in the series, the volume covers the momentous events of the period from January 1936 to June 1937, when the Congress agreed to fight the General Assembly elections and form ministries in the provinces. Despite his earlier opposition to Council-Entry programme, Sardar Patel as Chairman of the Congress Parliamentary Committee, played a pivotal role in the elections. A great disciplinarian he did not hesitate to take stern action against the top leaders of the party, brooking no interference in it from anyone. Critical of socialists who did not oppose the Communal Award, Patel characterized socialism only as an ideology while Gandhism was backed by active work and service to the people. This brought him into conflict with Jawaharlal Nehru, whose appointment as Congress President was opposed by Patel. Disagreeing with Nehru on the inevitability of class-war, Patel held it was possible to purge capitalism of its evils without resorting to destruction. He assured his followers that he would keep Nehru in check, as the Congress President had no dictatorial powers. The triumph of the Congress in the 1937 elections owes a lot to the Herculean efforts put in by Patel. Commending his organizational capabilities and the excellent work done by Patel, the Congress Working Committee placed on record its appreciations of "the ability, resourcefulness and energy with which the CPP President guided the affairs of the committee and organised the stupendous work of elections in the country with such unique success. Since the official and non-official sources for this period are naturally scarce, the material had to be collected from various repositories of records in India and abroad as well as newspapers of the time. This volume has been prepared under the overall supervision of a high-powered advisory committee with Mr S. Nijalingappa as Chairman, Mr. S.B. Chavan as Senior Vice-Chairman and Union Ministers, Chief Ministers and statesmen of various states as members and Dr. P.N. Chopra, an eminent historian, as Chief Editor.