India, June 3 -- The days following India's independence remain the darkest period of the post-independence era. The British had departed, leaving us with a parting gift - partition. At this juncture of Indian history, men were not men, and law was not law. Neighborhoods were being destroyed. Villages were being burnt. Cities were being devastated. Trains filled with corpses were crisscrossing the subcontinent. Millions of homeless refugees were pouring in. Traumatized. Starved. Penniless. The first Deputy Prime Minister of India, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, short of an adequate police force, with limited medical facilities, and bare minimum funds, was directly dealing with the communal Frankenstein across India. The deadly riots even threa...