Vithalbhai Patel - Life and Times (Set of 2 Volumes An Old and Rare Book)

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THE art of biography is rarely practised in India and, if practised at all, is rarely practised well. It is not easier to write a political biography than to write the biography of a man of letters, scientist or philosopher. A political biography is not merely a collection of speeches made and the activities indulged in by the political leader. It should portray him against the background of his times and it must give a vivid impression to the reader of the development of political ideas and of institutions which moulded him and which were moulded by him.

A classical instance of a model political biography is Morley's Life of Gladstone. We read in it the evolution of Gladstone from a student to a statesman of the highest order. We are told of his personality, his weaknesses and his idiosyncracies, his conversations and what he did with his leisure time, and we also feel that we are in the midst of tremendous political, economic and religious forces which went to make the history of England and even of Europe of those days.

I must congratulate Mr. G. I. Patel on undertaking the ambitious task of writing a full length biography of Vithalbhai Patel and performing it so well. He had vast materials at his disposal, both public records of the time and the private papers left with him by Vithalbhai Patel. The danger of having vast materials is always to lose sight of the wood tor the trees, but Gordhanbhai Patel has refused to allow himself to be lost in the trees.

I AM not sure whether I should assume an attitude of eloquent apology in presenting this work as a labour of love to the public. I am well aware of my limitations, both intellectual and otherwise, in undertaking a work of this kind. Men with much higher and much better qualifications than myself. keener in judgment, deeper in their understanding and more thorough in their grasp of the events and happenings, and of men and matters, that constituted the history of India during the last quarter of a century, would certainly have done ampler justice to this work than I could ever hope to do. I waited, and waited long. for some one belonging to this category of people to take up this work, and I even ventured to suggest to some of those who, I knew, could execute it. But to my great disappointment. I found none ready to discharge this duty to the Departed Great.

**Contents and Sample Pages**