Hirubhai Mulljibhai Patel CIE, also known as H. M. Patel, (27 August 1904 — 30 November 1993) was an Indian civil servant who played a major role in the issues regarding internal and national security in the first years after the

independence of India The Indian independence movement was a series of historic events in South Asia with the ultimate aim of ending British Raj, British colonial rule. It lasted until 1947, when the Indian Independence Act 1947 was passed. The first nationalistic ...

. From 1977 to 1979, he served as the

Finance Minister A ministry of finance is a ministry or other government agency in charge of government finance, fiscal policy, and financial regulation. It is headed by a finance minister, an executive or cabinet position . A ministry of finance's portfoli ...

and later

Home Minister An interior minister (sometimes called a minister of internal affairs or minister of home affairs) is a cabinet official position that is responsible for internal affairs, such as public security, civil registration and identification, emergenc ...

of India. He was also the chairman of the Charutar Vidya Mandal, which founded Vallabh Vidyapith that was later on named as

Sardar Patel University Sardar Patel University (SPU) is a public state university in Vallabh Vidyanagar, a Anand City Gujarat, India. It is named after politician Vallabhbhai Patel and was founded in October 1955 by an Act of the Legislative Assembly of the then-Bomb ...

Vallabh Vidyanagar Vallabh Vidyanagar, also known as V.V.Nagar, is a town and a Anand Municipal Corporation in Anand district in the Indian States and territories of India, state of Gujarat. It is located between Ahmedabad and Vadodara, from the town of Anand, Guj ...

Early life and career

Patel was born on 27 August 1904 in

Bombay Mumbai ( ; ), also known as Bombay ( ; its official name until 1995), is the capital city of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of Maharashtra. Mumbai is the financial centre, financial capital and the list of cities i ...

(now Mumbai), in the erstwhile Bombay Presidency of

British India The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance in South Asia. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one form or another ...

. He was educated St. Xavier's in Bombay, before he left for England, aged 14. He graduated from

St Catherine's College, Oxford St Catherine's College (colloquially called St Catz or Catz) is one of the Colleges of the University of Oxford, constituent colleges of the University of Oxford. In 1974, it was also one of the first men's colleges to admit women. It has 528 un ...

with a major in economics and joined the

Indian Civil Service The Indian Civil Service (ICS), officially known as the Imperial Civil Service, was the higher civil service of the British Empire in India during British Raj, British rule in the period between 1858 and 1947. Its members ruled over more than 3 ...

in October 1927. From 1927 to 1933, he served as an assistant collector in

North Canara Uttara Kannada is a fifth largest district in the Indian state of Karnataka, It is bordered by the state of Goa and Belagavi districts to the north, Dharwad District and Haveri District to the east, Shivamogga District, and Udupi District to ...

and

Ahmednagar Ahmednagar, officially Ahilyanagar, is a city in, and the headquarters of, the Ahmednagar district, Maharashtra, India. Ahmednagar has several dozen buildings and sites from the Nizam Shahi period. Ahmednagar Fort, once considered almost impre ...

, and as Collector of

Bharuch Bharuch () is a city at the mouth of the river Narmada in Gujarat in western India. Bharuch is the administrative headquarters of Bharuch District. The city of Bharuch and surroundings have been settled since times of antiquity. It was a shi ...

, after which he received attachment to the Central Board of Revenue in 1934. In March 1936, he was appointed as an officiating deputy secretary in the finance department of the Bombay Presidency. From July 1937, he served as the Indian Trade Commissioner in

Hamburg Hamburg (, ; ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg,. is the List of cities in Germany by population, second-largest city in Germany after Berlin and List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, 7th-lar ...

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

until the outbreak of war, after which he returned to India and was posted as a deputy Trade Commissioner in January 1940. In September that year, he was appointed a deputy secretary in the Department of Supply, rising to the rank of full secretary by 1945. In the

1946 New Year Honours The 1946 New Year Honours were appointments by many of the Commonwealth Realms of King George VI to various orders and honours to reward and highlight good works by citizens of those countries, and to celebrate the passing of 1945 and the beginn ...

list, Patel was appointed a Companion of the

Order of the Indian Empire The Most Eminent Order of the Indian Empire is an order of chivalry founded by Queen Victoria on 1 January 1878. The Order includes members of three classes: #Knight Grand Commander (:Knights Grand Commander of the Order of the Indian Empire, ...

(CIE).

As a civil servant

Patel became

Home Secretary The secretary of state for the Home Department, more commonly known as the home secretary, is a senior minister of the Crown in the Government of the United Kingdom and the head of the Home Office. The position is a Great Office of State, maki ...

under

Vallabhbhai Patel Vallabhbhai Jhaverbhai Patel (; ''Vallabhbhāī Jhāverbhāī Paṭel''; 31 October 1875 – 15 December 1950), commonly known as Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, was an Indian independence activist and statesman who served as the first Deputy Prime ...

in 1946, serving till 1950. Up to independence, Patel worked with

Chaudhry Muhammad Ali Chaudhri Muhammad Ali (15 July 1905 – 2 December 1982) was a Pakistani politician and statesman who served as the fourth prime minister of Pakistan from 1955 until his resignation in 1956. His government transitioned Pakistan from a British ...

, the future Prime Minister of Pakistan, and Walter John Christie on the preparation and implementation of the crucial document ''The Administrative Consequences of Partition''. He was the head of the Emergency Committee administering

Delhi Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India containing New Delhi, the capital of India. Straddling the Yamuna river, but spread chiefly to the west, or beyond its Bank (geography ...

in the days following the outbreak of massive violence following the

Partition of India The partition of India in 1947 was the division of British India into two independent dominion states, the Dominion of India, Union of India and Dominion of Pakistan. The Union of India is today the Republic of India, and the Dominion of Paki ...

in 1947. Patel headed the effort to rehabilitate millions of

Hindu Hindus (; ; also known as Sanātanīs) are people who religiously adhere to Hinduism, also known by its endonym Sanātana Dharma. Jeffery D. Long (2007), A Vision for Hinduism, IB Tauris, , pp. 35–37 Historically, the term has also be ...

and

Sikh Sikhs (singular Sikh: or ; , ) are an ethnoreligious group who adhere to Sikhism, a religion that originated in the late 15th century in the Punjab region of the Indian subcontinent, based on the revelation of Guru Nanak. The term ''Si ...

refugees entering the city, while protecting the

Muslim Muslims () are people who adhere to Islam, a Monotheism, monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God ...

s living in the city. Patel served as India's

Defence Secretary A ministry of defence or defense (see spelling differences), also known as a department of defence or defense, is the part of a government responsible for matters of defence and military forces, found in states where the government is divided ...

between 1947 and 1953. In 1950, he was tasked with reducing the powers of the

Indian Armed Forces The Indian Armed Forces are the armed forces, military forces of the India, Republic of India. It consists of three professional uniformed services: the Indian Army, the Indian Navy, and the Indian Air Force.—— Additionally, the Indian Ar ...

because it was feared that the Forces might take over the country. Patel succeeded in doing so by erecting the bureaucracy as a stonewall between the Forces and the ministers. On the other hand, he succeeding in separating finances from the Forces, by pushing for the civilian government to pass a separate budget for defence in the Parliament every year. Patel continued as one of India's highest-ranking civil servants till 1958. Patel, during his tenure as secretary in the

Ministry of Finance A ministry of finance is a ministry or other government agency in charge of government finance, fiscal policy, and financial regulation. It is headed by a finance minister, an executive or cabinet position . A ministry of finance's portfoli ...

, was led to resign from the position along with Finance Minister

T. T. Krishnamachari Tiruvellore Thattai Krishnamachari (1899 1974) was an Indian politician who served as Finance Minister from 1956 to 1958 and from 1964 to 1966. He was also a founding member of the first governing body of the National Council of Applied Econom ...

over the Mundhra Scandal in 1958.

As politician

Patel first contested the election to the

Lok Sabha The Lok Sabha, also known as the House of the People, is the lower house of Parliament of India which is Bicameralism, bicameral, where the upper house is Rajya Sabha. Member of Parliament, Lok Sabha, Members of the Lok Sabha are elected by a ...

, the lower house of the

Indian Parliament The Parliament of India (ISO: ) is the supreme legislative body of the Government of the Republic of India. It is a bicameral legislature composed of the Rajya Sabha (Council of States) and the Lok Sabha (House of the People). The President o ...

, in

1967 Events January * January 1 – Canada begins a year-long celebration of the 100th anniversary of Canadian Confederation, Confederation, featuring the Expo 67 World's Fair. * January 6 – Vietnam War: United States Marine Corps and Army of ...

. Contesting from the

Swatantra Party The Swatantra Party was an Indian classical liberal political party that existed from 1959 to 1974. It was founded by C. Rajagopalachari in reaction to what he felt was the Jawaharlal Nehru-dominated Indian National Congress's increasingly so ...

, Patel lost due be being largely unknown to the electorate. Following the defeat of

Indira Gandhi Indira Priyadarshini Gandhi (Given name, ''née'' Nehru; 19 November 1917 – 31 October 1984) was an Indian politician and stateswoman who served as the Prime Minister of India, prime minister of India from 1966 to 1977 and again from 1980 un ...

's Congress Party in the 1977 elections that ended the

Indian Emergency The Emergency in India was a 21-month period from 1975 to 1977 when Prime Minister Indira Gandhi declared a state of emergency across the country by citing internal and external threats to the country. Officially issued by President Fakhruddi ...

, Patel was appointed the Finance Minister by the new Prime Minister

Morarji Desai Morarji Ranchhodji Desai (29 February 1896 – 10 April 1995) was an Indian politician and Indian independence activist, independence activist who served as the Prime Minister of India, prime minister of India between 1977 and 1979 leading th ...

, who was leading India's first non-Congress administration. He changed many of India's socialist economic policies, ending barriers to foreign investment and reducing tariffs while protecting home industries. He was responsible for the policy that all foreign companies must form corporations with an Indian company holding a 50 per cent stake, which caused

Coca-Cola Coca-Cola, or Coke, is a cola soft drink manufactured by the Coca-Cola Company. In 2013, Coke products were sold in over 200 countries and territories worldwide, with consumers drinking more than 1.8 billion company beverage servings ...

to pull out of India, but most others did not. Patel was later appointed Home Minister when

Charan Singh Chaudhary Charan Singh (23 December 1902 – 29 May 1987) was an Indian politician, peasant leader, author and an independence activist who briefly served as the prime minister of India from July 1979 to January 1980. Singh was principally kn ...

rejoined the cabinet of Morarji Desai as Finance Minister in 1979. Patel was a fervent admirer of

, and a critic of

Jawaharlal Nehru Jawaharlal Nehru (14 November 1889 – 27 May 1964) was an Indian anti-colonial nationalist, secular humanist, social democrat, and statesman who was a central figure in India during the middle of the 20th century. Nehru was a pr ...

. Patel was the chairman of the Gujarat Electricity Board and was a trustee and supporter of the

in Anand district. He joined the

C. Rajagopalachari Chakravarti Rajagopalachari (10 December 1878 – 25 December 1972), popularly known as Rajaji or C.R., also known as Mootharignar Rajaji (Rajaji'', the Scholar Emeritus''), was an Indian statesman, writer, lawyer, and Indian independence ...

, which was committed to free market economic policies. Patel resigned as a member of the Lok Sabha over the

Bofors scandal The Bofors scandal was a major weapons-contract political scandal that occurred between India and Sweden during the 1980s and 1990s, initiated by Indian National Congress politicians and implicating the Indian prime minister, Rajiv Gandhi, and ...

during his second term. He represented the Sabarkantha constituency in the House first between 1977 and 1980, and then between 1984 and 1989. He did not contest the 1991 general election due to advancing old age. He died on 30 November 1993 at his residence in

in the

Kheda Kheda is a city and a municipality in the Indian state of Gujarat. Kheda was known as Kaira during the British Raj. It was the former administrative capital of Kheda district. The city is known for tobacco farming. The nearest railway statio ...

(now in

Anand district Anand District is an administrative district of Gujarat state in western India and whose popular nickname is Charotar. It was carved out of the Kheda district in 1997. Anand is the administrative headquarters of the district. It is bounde ...

), of Gujarat. He was survived by five daughters; one daughter

Amrita Patel Amrita Patel (born 1943) is an Indian businessperson associated with cooperative dairy sector as well as an environmentalist. She headed the National Dairy Development Board from 1998 to 2014 which led the world's biggest dairy development pro ...

then served as the managing director of the

National Dairy Development Board The National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) is a statutory body set up by an Act of the Parliament of India and an Institution of National Importance. It is under administrative control of the Ministry of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairyin ...

Literary career

Patel wrote two books: ''Rites of Passage: A Civil Servant Remembers'' and ''The First Flush of Freedom: Recollections and Reflections''. He also translated some books of K. M. Munshi from Gujarati to English. He was a senior ranking functionary of the Sumati Morarjee Shipping Company after his retirement from the Indian civil service.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Patel, Haribhai M 1904 births 1993 deaths Indian civil servants Companions of the Order of the Indian Empire Indian Civil Service (British India) officers People from Anand district India MPs 1977–1979 Swatantra Party politicians India MPs 1984–1989 Lok Sabha members from Gujarat Janata Party politicians Bharatiya Lok Dal politicians Defence Secretaries of India Indian Home Secretaries Ministers of finance of India Ministers for corporate affairs