India, Oct. 31 -- "I size up a man," Vallabhbhai Patel once said to Swami Anand, his and Mahatma Gandhi's close colleague, "before he completes four steps from the door towards me." This "boast" was made in private to an individual who could be trusted with one's inmost thoughts. Twelve years younger than Patel and a popular writer, Swami Anand served as Patel's personal secretary during 1928's victorious Bardoli satyagraha, drafting his leader's letters to the government and statements to the public. Mobilising the peasants of Surat district's Bardoli taluka, that satyagraha compelled Bombay Presidency's British rulers to take back most of the land revenue increase they had levied. There may be meaning for us today in the way the Bardoli S...