Sardar, Operation Polo and My Grandmother

Today Prime Minister of India is unveiling a tall statue of a tall leader, Iron man of India, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel. There are several discussions on his legacy.

Sardar, no doubt, is the architect of modern administratively integrated geographical India. He certainly deserves a huge respect from every Indian.

Everytime i read about Sardar, i reminisce my childhood. As a child, i grew up listening to many personal stories of India’s freedom struggle

and Operation Polo from my grandmother. They included both the happy and dreaded feelings living in the erstwhile Hyderabad state post 1947.

This is my humble blog relating my perspectives connecting Sardar, Operation Polo and my paternal grandmother.

My grandmother’s stories always fascinated me. She had personally lived through the independence movement. Let me digress for a bit about her life.

Before you start thinking if my grandmother was some great public/political leader, no she wasn’t. She was a simple god-fearing housewife. She lived in Wanaparthy samsthanam, a vassal of erstwhile Hyderabad state under Nizam.

She was the daughter and daughter-in-law of orthodox Brahmin landlord families. She was a distant cousin of the freedom fighter and first elected Chief Minister of liberated Hyderabad state, Burgula Ramakrishna Rao. She was married to Kovuru Venkateshwar Rao (my grandfather and namesake). My grandfather was an english convent educated lawyer turned philosopher with deep spiritual beliefs.

My grandmother was a varacious reader. She read numerous books on diverse topics while giving me company ( at times competing 😀) while i studied for my academics.

I never dared/cared to ask her academic credentials. It may be not very high given the circumstances those days. But as far as I am concerned she was a living University. My best schooling was when i was listening to her.

May be diverse family background coupled with her interesting story-telling abilities helped to capture the imagination of my young mind.

She often talked about India’s Independence movement. She would recall those anxious moments they spent in erstwhile Hyderabad state post 1947. They were concerned not just for the safety of their immediate family but all the families of many villages in that area.

She would describe with a glint in her eyes the relief and happiness from all villagers when they were told that “Indian Union” flights are hovering on their heads. It assured them of their safety.

She would also talk about how they worked together to prepare Indian flags with saree and any available cloth material. She proudly described the audacity and the fearlessness inspired by the ideals of leaders in those times.

Then she would go on to joyfully describe the festive atmosphere in their homes when they joined with the rest of India in celebrating the liberation and independence.

Thanks to Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel and the Operation Polo who played a major role in shaping the destiny and uniting it with rest of India. No words will be enough to describe the gratitude of all these citizens.

IMHO, this land of India and its people were always united by its philosophical, spiritual, cultural ethos from time immemorial irrespective of the rulers.

I personally don’t subscribe to the modern historians view that “India” is a British/post 1947 Independence creation. The name may be. But it was always a living cultural entity, perhaps not as an integrated administrative unit owing to the political compulsions and issues of local governance.

I do sometimes think that India should have still used the federal governance structure than the Union model on the lines of Mahatma Gandhi’s Grama Swaraj model of governance. But i rest that discussion for another day.

In prehistoric/mythological terms, we hear about Bharata Khanda which included Vanga, Kalinga, Dravida, Telungu, Andhra, Tripura, Naga, Dwaraka, Avanti, Kamboja, Parasurama Kshetra and other places including all corners of modern India. Even today, every Hindu ritual starts with people mentioning Bharata Khanda in the beginning (Sankalpam).

In more recent history from 2000+ years ago, northern King Chandragupta Maurya seem to have moved to Karnataka in South where he breathed his last. Again his grandson Asoka pillars exist all across modern day India. We have mostly northern philosophies of Jainism and Buddhism and monasteries in interior parts of South India.

Centuries ago, Adisankara born in Kerala (South) travelled to Kashmir (North) and then crisscrossed the entire Indian landmass and could relate to people across all these areas and vice-versa.

Likewise, Ramanuja(Tamilnadu in South), Chaitanya(Bengal in East), Ramananda/Kabir/ Tulsidas/Ravidas(UP in North).

The list just goes on..

Obviously Sardar(Gujarat in West) helped give administrative integrity as well to this in the modern times and no less considered as our very own here in Hyderabad( Telangana in South).

None of us can ever forget Sardar’s contribution in building current administrative land of India, a successful completion of his Karma in this spiritual land.

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This is a spiritual land where the people were taught from their childhood in Gurukul (school) about Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam (World as one family). Also every child was taught about Sarve Jana Sukhino Bhavantu (Let All become Happy), Samasta Loka Sukhino Bhavantu (Let All worlds including and beyond Earth become Happy)

They were taught to internalize
ॐ सर्वे भवन्तु सुखिनः
सर्वे सन्तु निरामयाः ।
सर्वे भद्राणि पश्यन्तु
मा कश्चिद्दुःखभाग्भवेत् ।
ॐ शान्तिः शान्तिः शान्तिः ॥

which means to say,

May all be happy. May all be free from illness. May all realize what is auspicious. May none be subject to misery. Let there be peace in all three aspects – Inner Self, Physical Environment and Metaphysical realms.

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