Borsad Satyagraha – Fight against tax: The Borsad satyagraha was over a punitive tax of over Rs 2.40 lakh imposed on the villages (Gujarat) to pay for additional police forces to protect against two dacoits of that area – Babar Deva and Ali. In reality, “the officials were in collusion with the two dacoits” and the police got a share of the loot! ⁣
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Borsad Satyagraha – Fight against tax

When Mahatma Gandhi was in jail, Sardar Patel and his allies uncovered evidence suggesting that the police were in league with local dacoits in the Borsad taluka even as the government prepared to levy a major tax for fighting dacoity in the area. ⁣
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More than 6,000 villagers assembled to hear Patel speak and supported the proposed agitation against the tax, which was deemed immoral and unnecessary. ⁣
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Patel organized hundreds of Congressmen, sent instructions and received information from across the district. Every village in the taluka resisted payment of the tax, and through cohesion, also prevented the seizure of property and lands. ⁣
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After a protracted struggle, the government withdrew the tax. Historians believe that one of Patel’s key achievements was the building of cohesion and trust amongst the different castes and communities which were divided on socio-economic lines.⁣
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Borsad satyagraha

After securing victory in Borsad Satyagraha in 1924, Patel told the locals, “When we make you fight with the government, you shower much love on us. But the real test of your love will be when I make you fight with your own limitation. Government is maya [illusion], a castle in the air, a bubble of water. It burst as soon as we identify it. But we have blindfolds on our eyes. So, we haven’t known it in its real form’.⁣