Gandhi & Sardar Patel

Gandhi's career is a ladder of experiments, each one testing satyagraha on a bigger stage: South Africa (the laboratory) → Champaran 1917 (indigo, peasants) → Ahmedabad Mill Strike 1918 (workers, his first hunger strike) → Kheda 1918 (revenue remission, with Sardar Patel) → Non-Cooperation 1920-22 (national, called off after Chauri Chaura) → Civil Disobedience 1930 (Dandi salt march) → Quit India 1942 ('Do or Die'). Notice that three of the first four rungs are in Gujarat — Ahmedabad and Kheda are where he built his method, and Sabarmati Ashram is its base. If you remember the ladder, the dates order themselves.

• Champaran, Ahmedabad, Kheda — 1917 and 1918, in that order.

  Gandhi's first three Indian campaigns: Champaran in Bihar for indigo cultivators (1917), the Ahmedabad mill workers' strike (1918, in which he first used a fast), and the Kheda revenue satyagraha (1918, where Vallabhbhai Patel joins him). Two of the three are in Gujarat, but the first is not.

• Bardoli gives the title; the women give the word.

  Vallabhbhai Patel led the Bardoli no-tax satyagraha of 1928; it was the women of Bardoli who called him 'Sardar', and Gandhi endorsed it. That is why the Bardoli date and the title are always asked together.

• Two Octobers, two Gujaratis: 2 October and 31 October.

  Gandhi born 2 October 1869 at Porbandar; Patel born 31 October 1875 at Nadiad. Patel's birthday is observed as National Unity Day, which is also the day the Statue of Unity was dedicated in 2018.

• 1Gandhi was born on 2 October 1869 at Porbandar and returned from South Africa on 9 January 1915, the date now observed as Pravasi Bharatiya Divas.
• 2His first ashram in India was at Kochrab (1915); he shifted to the Satyagraha (Sabarmati) Ashram in 1917.
• 3Gandhi's papers include Indian Opinion in South Africa, and Navjivan, Young India and Harijan in India.
• 4The Ahmedabad mill strike of 1918 was supported by Anasuya Sarabhai and settled after Gandhi's fast; it led to the Majoor Mahajan Sangh.
• 5Vallabhbhai Patel was born on 31 October 1875 at Nadiad and led the Kheda (1918), Borsad (1923) and Bardoli (1928) satyagrahas.
• 6Patel became independent India's first Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister, and headed the States Department that integrated the princely states.
• 7The Statue of Unity at Kevadia, Narmada district, is 182 metres tall and was dedicated on 31 October 2018.

• Gandhi returned to India from South Africa in 1915; Champaran in Bihar (1917) was his first satyagraha on Indian soil, on behalf of indigo cultivators.
• The Dandi March began on 12 March 1930 from Sabarmati Ashram and ended on 6 April 1930 at Dandi, where Gandhi broke the salt law.
• The Non-Cooperation Movement was withdrawn by Gandhi after the Chauri Chaura incident of February 1922 in Gorakhpur district.
• Gandhi founded the Kochrab Ashram in Ahmedabad in 1915 and shifted it to the Sabarmati (Satyagraha) Ashram in 1917; his autobiography is 'The Story of My Experiments with Truth', written in Gujarati as 'Satya na Prayogo'.
• Gandhi gave the call 'Do or Die' at the Quit India session in Bombay on 8 August 1942, after which the entire top Congress leadership was arrested.
• Gandhi edited 'Navajivan' and 'Young India' from Ahmedabad, and later 'Harijan'.

• Gandhi's first satyagraha in India was Champaran in Bihar, not Kheda. Kheda is his first in Gujarat.
• Patel was Deputy Prime Minister, never Prime Minister, and the title 'Sardar' comes from Bardoli, not Kheda.

• NCERT Class XII — Themes in Indian History Part III
• The Story of My Experiments with Truth by M. K. Gandhi
• India's Struggle for Independence by Bipan Chandra

• NCERT textbooks (free PDFs)
• Gujarat State Portal
• GPSC — official syllabus & papers