Key Facts

India observed National Unity Day (Rashtriya Ekta Diwas) on 31 October 2026, the 151st birth anniversary of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel. A feature in The Hindu revisits Patel's legacy through a reprinted edition of Rajmohan Gandhi's 'Patel: A Life' (Aleph), noting his role in integrating over 500 princely states into the Indian Union and his relationship with Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru. It stresses that Patel banned the RSS after Gandhi's assassination and lifted the ban only after it agreed to respect the tricolour and confine itself to cultural activity, and that he rejected the idea of a Hindu Rashtra and called for unity beyond caste and creed. The author cautions against selective political appropriation of Patel's image.

GK Context

Rashtriya Ekta Diwas has been observed every 31 October since 2014. Patel, born in 1875 at Nadiad in Gujarat, was independent India's first Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister and received the Bharat Ratna posthumously in 1991. With V.P. Menon, Secretary of the Ministry of States, he secured accession of the princely states through Instruments of Accession. The 182-metre Statue of Unity near Kevadia on the Narmada, the world's tallest statue, was inaugurated on 31 October 2018.