Patel
Vallabhbhai Patel, a lawyer from Gujarat, was one of the principal leaders of the independence movement, known as Sardar, "leader", after the Bardoli peasant campaign of 1928. As deputy prime minister and home minister from 1947 until his death in 1950, he oversaw the integration of more than five hundred princely states into the Indian Union, often by persuasion and in some cases, as at Hyderabad, by force. He is remembered as the unifier of India, and the statue takes its name from that role.
The project
The statue was proposed by Narendra Modi in 2010, when he was chief minister of Gujarat, and the foundation stone was laid in 2013. A public campaign collected iron implements from farmers across India as a symbolic contribution. The design is by the sculptor Ram V. Sutar, who based it on photographs and earlier statues of Patel, showing him standing in his customary dhoti and shawl. It was built by the engineering company Larsen and Toubro, with a core of reinforced concrete and steel clad in bronze panels, and stands on a base on Sadhu Bet, an island in the Narmada about three kilometres downstream from the Sardar Sarovar dam. A viewing gallery is set in the chest at about 150 metres.
The statue was inaugurated by Modi, by then prime minister, on 31 October 2018, the anniversary of Patel's birth, which is observed as National Unity Day.
Debate
The statue drew criticism from several directions. Opponents questioned the cost of the project at a time of other needs, and some argued that it was intended to claim Patel's legacy for the ruling party against the Congress, of which he had been a leader. Adivasi communities of the area protested against the acquisition of land for the statue and the tourism complex around it and against their displacement, continuing a long history of protest over the Sardar Sarovar dam itself. Supporters described it as a tribute to an unjustly neglected national leader and as a source of tourism and employment for the region.
Today
The area around the statue has been developed into a tourist zone with gardens, a safari park and other attractions, and the town of Kevadia was renamed Ekta Nagar, "Unity City". The statue has drawn large numbers of visitors.
Further reading
- Guha, Ramachandra. India After Gandhi. Macmillan, 2007
- Metcalf, Barbara D. A Concise History of Modern India. Cambridge University Press, 2012
- Jaffrelot, Christophe. The Hindu Nationalist Movement in India. Columbia University Press, 1996
See also
- Vallabhbhai Patel — Vallabhbhai Patel was an Indian independence leader and, as the country's first Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister from 1947, the principal architect of the integration of over five hundred princely states into the Indian Union.
- Partition of India — The Partition of India in 1947 divided British India into the independent dominions of India and Pakistan, ending British colonial rule and triggering mass migration and communal violence on a scale unmatched in modern history.
- Indian independence movement — The Indian independence movement was the sustained political, social, and armed struggle against British colonial rule that culminated in the independence and partition of British India into India and Pakistan on 15 August 1947.
This entry was last revised on 12 November 2026.