RASHTRIYA EKTA DIWAS 2021

 

National Unity Day 2021

National Unity Day or Rashtriya Ekta Diwas is celebrated on October 31st since 2014. The day is observed with patriotic events to mark the birth anniversary of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel – the man who played an important role in the unification of India. He is popularly known as the “Iron Man of India”. Patel was a lifelong member of the Indian National Congress (INC) and fought against the British during India’s freedom movement. In Independent India, he became the first Deputy Prime Minister of the country.

Sardar Patel was born in Nadiad, Kheda district, and raised in the countryside of the state of Gujarat. He was a successful lawyer. He one of the six children of Jhaverbhai Patel and Ladba.He belonged to the Leva Patel Patidar community of Central Gujarat. He was an Indian barrister and practised law in Godhra, Borsad and Anand. Sardar Patel organised relief efforts for partition refugees fleeing to Punjab and Delhi from Pakistan and worked to restore peace. He led the task of forging a united India, successfully integrating into the newly independent nation those British colonial provinces that formed the Dominion of India. Patel persuaded almost every princely state to accede to India.

Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel led the integration of more than 500 princely states into India before and after the country got its independence from British rule. He is considered one of the most important faces of India’s freedom movement.

He is also remembered as the "patron saint of India's civil servants" for having established the modern All India Services system. He is also called the "Unifier of India". The Statue of Unity, the world's tallest statue, was dedicated to him on 31 October 2018 and is approximately 182 metres (597 ft) in height.

To honour his contribution to India’s independence and unity, the Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) in 2014 declared that National Unity Day will be celebrated on Patel’s birth anniversary, every year.