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{{Use Indian English|date=December 2015}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=December 2015}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| name = Hirubhai M. Patel
| image =
| alt =
| caption =
| office = [[Minister of Home Affairs (India)|Minister of Home Affairs]]
| term_start = 24 January 1979
| term_end = 28 July 1979
| predecessor = [[Morarji Desai]]
| successor = [[Yashwant Chavan]]
| office1 = [[Minister of Finance (India)|Minister of Finance]]
| term_start1 = 24 March 1977
| term_end1 = 24 January 1979
| predecessor1 = [[Chidambaram Subramaniam]]
| successor1 = [[Charan Singh]]
| office2 = [[Defence Secretary (India)|Defence Secretary]]
| term_start2 = 7 October 1947
| term_end2 = 20 July 1953
| predecessor2= G. S Bhalja
| successor2 = B. B. Ghosh
| office3 = [[Member of parliament, Lok Sabha]] <br>for [[Sabarkantha (Lok Sabha constituency)|Sabarkantha]]
| term_start3 = 1984
| term_end3 = 1989
| predecessor3= [[Shantubhai Patel]]
| successor3 = [[Maganbhai Patel]]
| term_start4 = 1977
| term_end4 = 1980
| predecessor4= [[Maniben Patel]]
| successor4 = [[Shantubhai Patel]]
| birth_date = {{Birth date|df=yes|1904|08|27}}
| birth_place = [[Bombay]], [[Bombay Presidency]], [[British Raj|British India]]
| death_date = {{Death date and age|df=yes|1993|11|30|1904|08|27}}
| death_place = [[Vallabh Vidyanagar]], [[Kheda district|Kheda]], [[Gujarat]], India
| party = [[Swatantra Party]]<ref>{{cite web |title=Rajmohan Gandhi on C Rajagopalachari and the birth of the Swatantra Party |url=http://www.rediff.com/news/oct/31raj2.htm |website=Rediff.com |access-date=1 November 2018}}</ref>
| other_names =
| known_for = National security during the [[Partition of India]] (1947)
| occupation = Civil servant, politician
| children = 5; including [[Amrita Patel]]
}}

'''Hirubhai Mulljibhai Patel''' [[Order of the Indian Empire|CIE]] (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]]. From 1977 to 1979, he served as the [[Finance Minister]] and later [[Home Minister]] 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]], [[Vallabh Vidyanagar]]

==Early life and carer==
Patel was born on 27 August 1904 in [[Bombay]] (now Mumbai), in the erstwhile [[Bombay Presidency]] of [[British India]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Vittal |first1=Gita |title=Reflections: Experiences of a Bureaucrat's Wife |date=2007 |publisher=Academic Foundation |isbn=9788171884711 |page=60 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EgYRwrtyPAIC |access-date=1 November 2018 |language=en |chapter=Heerjibhai Muljibhai Patel}}</ref> He was educated St. Xavier's in Bombay, before he left for England, aged 14. He graduated from [[St Catherine's College, Oxford]] with a major in economics and joined the [[Indian Civil Service]] in October 1927.<ref name="toi1">{{cite web |title=HM Patel, a multi-faceted visionary with grit |url=https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/ahmedabad/HM-Patel-a-multi-faceted-visionary-with-grit/articleshow/828793.cms |website=The Times of India |access-date=1 November 2018 |date=26 August 2004}}</ref> From 1927 to 1933, he served as an assistant collector in [[North Canara]] and [[Ahmednagar]], and as Collector of [[Bharuch]], 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]], [[Nazi Germany|Germany]] 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.<ref name="record_list">{{cite book|pages=296|title=The India Office and Burma Office List: 1945|publisher=Harrison & Sons, Ltd.|year=1945}}</ref> In the [[1946 New Year Honours]] list, Patel was appointed a Companion of the [[Order of the Indian Empire]] (CIE).<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=37407|supp=y|page=11|date=28 December 1945}}</ref>

One of his benefactors was a member of the erstwhile ICS & former chief justice of the Patna high court

==As a civil servant ==
Patel became [[Home Secretary (India)|Home Secretary]] under [[Vallabhbhai Patel]] in 1946, serving till 1950. Up to independence, Patel worked with [[Chaudhry Muhammad Ali]], the future Prime Minister of Pakistan, and [[Walter John Christie]] on the preparation and implementation of the crucial document ''The Administrative Consequences of Partition''.<ref>John Christie ''Morning Drum'' BACSA 1983 {{ISBN|0-907799-04-3}} pp.95-102.</ref>

He was the head of the Emergency Committee administering [[Delhi]] in the days following the outbreak of massive violence following the [[Partition of India]] in 1947. Patel headed the effort to rehabilitate millions of [[Hindu]] and [[Sikh]] refugees entering the city, while protecting the [[Muslim]]s living in the city.

Patel served as India's [[Defence Secretary (India)|Defence Secretary]] between 1947 and 1953. In 1950, he was tasked with reducing the powers of the [[Indian Armed Forces]] 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.<ref>{{cite web |title=The Rediff Interview: Rear Admiral (retired) K R Menon on the navy chief's dismissal |url=http://www.rediff.com/news/1999/jan/02navy3.htm |website=Rediff.com |access-date=1 November 2018 |date=2 January 1999}}</ref> Patel continued as one of India's highest-ranking civil servants till 1958.

Patel, during his tenure as secretary in the [[Ministry of Finance (India)|Ministry of Finance]], was led to resign from the position along with Finance Minister [[T. T. Krishnamachari]] over the [[Mudhra Scandal|Haridas Mundhra#The Mundhra Scandal]] in 1958.<ref name="toi1"/><ref>{{cite web |last1=Rao |first1=S. L. |title=The exponential rise of corruption |url=https://www.thehindubusinessline.com/opinion/the-exponential-rise-of-corruption/article8393707.ece |website=The Hindu Business Line |access-date=1 November 2018 |language=en |date=24 March 2016}}</ref>

== As politician ==
Patel first contested the election to the [[Lok Sabha]], the lower house of the [[Parliament of India|Indian Parliament]], in [[1967 Indian general election|1967]]. Contesting from the [[Swatantra Party]], Patel lost due be being largely unknown to the electorate.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Chowdhury |first1=Javid |title=The Insider's View: Memoirs of a Public Servant |date=2012 |publisher=Penguin UK |isbn=9788184757224 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bRNXeLFv0D0C |access-date=1 November 2018 |language=en}}</ref> Following the defeat of [[Indira Gandhi]]'s Congress Party in the 1977 elections that ended the [[Indian Emergency]], Patel was appointed the Finance Minister by the new Prime Minister [[Morarji Desai]], 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]] to pull out of India, but most others did not.

Patel was later appointed Home Minister when [[Charan Singh]] rejoined the cabinet of Morarji Desai as Finance Minister in 1979. Patel was a fervent admirer of [[Vallabhbhai Patel]], and a critic of [[Jawaharlal Nehru]].

Patel was the chairman of the [[Gujarat Electricity Board]] and was a trustee and supporter of the [[Sardar Patel University]] in Anand district. He joined the [[Swatantra Party]] of [[C. Rajagopalachari]], which was committed to free market economic policies.

Patel resigned as a member of the Lok Sabha over the [[Bofors scandal]] during his second term. He represented the [[Sabarkantha (Lok Sabha constituency)|Sabarkantha constituency]] in the House first between 1977 and 1980, and then between 1984 and 1989. He did not contest the [[1991 Indian general election|1991 general election]] due to advancing old age. He died on 30 November 1993 at his residence in [[Vallabh Vidyanagar]] in the [[Kheda district|Kheda]] (now in [[Anand district]]), of Gujarat. He was survived by five daughters; one daughter [[Amrita Patel]] then served as the managing director of the [[National Dairy Development Board]].<ref>{{cite news |title=H.M.Patel dead |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=HH9lAAAAIBAJ&sjid=vp0NAAAAIBAJ&pg=2637%2C2624470 |work=The Indian Express |date=1 December 1993}}</ref>

==Literary career==
Patel wrote two books: ''Rites of Passage: A Civil Servant Remembers'' and ''The First Flush of Freedom: Recollections and Reflections''.<ref>{{cite web |title=Ringside view of history |url=https://www.thehindu.com/br/2005/06/28/stories/2005062800191400.htm |work=The Hindu |access-date=1 November 2018 |date=28 June 2005}}</ref> He also translated some books of [[K. M. Munshi]] from Gujarati to English<ref name="vyas2012">{{cite book |last=vyas |first=Rajani |title=Gujaratni Asmita |page=૩૧૨ |edition=5th |year=2012 |publisher=Akshara Publication |location=Ahmedabad}}</ref>

He was a senior ranking functionary of the Sumati Morarjee Shipping Company after his retirement from the Indian civil service.

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
*{{worldcat id|lccn-n82-47045}}

{{s-start}}
{{s-off}}
{{succession box|
before=[[C. Subramaniam]]|
title=[[Finance Minister of India]]|
years=1977–1979|
after=[[Choudhary Charan Singh]]
}}
{{s-end}}

{{Ministry of Finance (India)}}
{{Home Ministry (India)}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Patel, Haribhai M}}
[[Category:1903 births]]
[[Category:1993 deaths]]
[[Category:People from Gujarat]]
[[Category:Indian civil servants]]
[[Category:Companions of the Order of the Indian Empire]]
[[Category:Indian Civil Service (British India) officers]]
[[Category:People from Anand district]]
[[Category:6th Lok Sabha members]]
[[Category:Swatantra Party politicians]]
[[Category:8th Lok Sabha members]]
[[Category:Lok Sabha members from Gujarat]]
[[Category:Janata Party politicians]]
[[Category:Bharatiya Lok Dal politicians]]
[[Category:Defence Secretaries of India]]
[[Category:Indian Home Secretaries]]
[[Category:Finance Ministers of India]]
[[Category:Ministers for Corporate Affairs]]

Hirubhai M. Patel - Revision history

CleanupBot at 04:50, 11 December 2022