For the Tanzanian cricketer also called R. D. Patel, see R. D. Patel (cricketer)

R. D. Patel (cricketer)

RD Patel played cricket for Tanganyika/Tanzania between 1957 and 1968, and also played three first-class matches in the 1960s.-Career:...

Raojibhai Dahyabhai Patel was an Indo-Fijian lawyer and politician, who was better known as the younger brother of A.D. Patel

A.D. Patel

Ambalal Dahyabhai Patel, better known as A.D. Patel, was a Fiji Indian politician, farmers' leader and founder and leader of the National Federation Party. Patel was uncompromisingly committed to a vision of an independent Fiji, with full racial integration...

. To distinguish between the two, he was generally referred to as R.D. Although he lacked his brother's charisma and oratorical skills, he was much loved and admired by members of his community.

Early life

R.D. Patel was born in the Kheda

Kheda

Kheda is a town and a municipality in Kheda district in the Indian state of Gujarat. Kheda, also known as Kaira, is 35 km from Ahmedabad. The National Highway no. 8 connecting Ahmedabad and Mumbai passes through Kheda...

 district of Gujarat in India

India

India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

. He arrived in Fiji

Fiji

Fiji , officially the Republic of Fiji , is an island nation in Melanesia in the South Pacific Ocean about northeast of New Zealand's North Island...

 after his brother had established his law practice in Nadi

Nadi

Nadi is the third-largest conurbation in Fiji. It is located on the western side of the main island of Viti Levu, and had a population of 42,284 at the most recent census, in 2007. Nadi is multiracial with many of its inhabitants Indian or Fijian, along with a large transient population of foreign...

. Like his brother, he was a lawyer and worked together with him before establishing his own law practice in Ba

Ba (town)

Ba is a town in Fiji, 37 kilometres from Lautoka and 62 kilometres from Nadi, inland from the coast of Viti Levu, Fiji's largest island. Covering an area of 327 square kilometres, it had a population of 14,596 at the 1996 census. The town is built on the banks of the Ba River, after which it is...

.

Political career

In the elections for the expanded Legislative Council

Legislative Council (Fiji)

The Fijian Legislative Council was the colonial precursor to the present-day Parliament, which came into existence when Fiji became independent on 10 October 1970.-The first Legislative Council:...

 in 1966

Fiji election of 1966

The general election to the Legislative Council of Fiji in 1966 was the last to be held before independence from the United Kingdom was granted in 1970. It was not the first election to be held under colonial rule, but it marked the first time that all adult citizens were allowed to vote....

, he was nominated for the Ba Indian Constituency

Communal constituencies (Fiji)

Communal constituencies have been the most durable feature of the Fijian electoral system. In communal constituencies, electors enrolled as ethnic Fijians, Indo-Fijians, Rotuman Islanders, or General Electors vote for a candidate of their own respective ethnic groups, in constituencies that have...

. This was the most marginal seat in the 1963 election, in which Sidiq Koya

Sidiq Koya

Siddiq Moidin Koya was a Fijian Indian politician and Opposition leader. He succeeded to the leadership of the mostly Indo-Fijian National Federation Party on the death of the party's founder, A.D. Patel, in October 1969, remaining in this post until 1977...

 had managed to defeat James Shankar Singh

James Shankar Singh

James Shankar Singh was a Fiji Indian farmer, businessman, social worker and politician who served as a Minister in the Alliance Government of Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara...

 by only 518 votes. With the redrawing of the constituency's boundaries, the seat had become even harder for the Federation Party

National Federation Party (Fiji)

The National Federation Party is a Fijian political party founded by A.D. Patel in November 1968, as a merger of the Federation Party and the National Democratic Party...

 (NFP) to win, but after a hard campaign, R.D. Patel defeated James Shankar Singh by only 293 votes. He increased his majority in the 1968 by-election to 2000.

Rivalry with Sidiq Koya

After the death of A.D. Patel in 1969, R.D. was touted as the next leader but the party chose Sidiq Koya instead. There was dissatisfaction within the National Federation Party with the concessions made by Koya to facilitate Fiji's independence, so when after the 1972 election

Fiji election of 1972

General elections were held in Fiji between 15 and 29 April 1972, the first since independence from the United Kingdom in 1970. They were characterised by the lack of rancour between racial groups, typical of the 1966 general election and the 1968 by-elections.The result was a landslide for the...

, R.D. Patel was made the Speaker

Speaker of the House of Representatives (Fiji)

The Speaker is the presiding officer of the Fijian House of Representatives. At its first session following a general election, the House of Representatives elects a Speaker and a Deputy Speaker. With a view to ensuring impartiality, the Speaker is not allowed to be a member of the House, though...

 of the House of Representatives

House of Representatives (Fiji)

The House of Representatives is the lower chamber of Fiji's Parliament. It is the more powerful of the two chambers; it alone has the power to initiate legislation...

, many assumed that it was an attempt by Koya to get R.D. out of his way. While he was speaker, he did not refrain from making public comments regarding the way Sidiq Koya was conducting his duties as leader of the NFP.

His term as speaker, was not without controversy and when he adjourned Parliament to delay debate on a Bill that his party opposed, a vote of no-confidence was passed in him. He resigned as speaker in 1976, only to become embroiled in the emerging conflict within the NFP. Differences within NFP were patched up for the elections

Fiji election of 1977 (March)

General elections were held in Fiji between 19 March and 2 April 1977. A split in the ethnic Fijian vote, which saw 25 percent defecting to Fijian Nationalist Party of Sakeasi Butadroka, an extremist organization which advocated the "repatriation" of Indo-Fijians to India, led to the narrow defeat...

 held in March 1977, but R. D. Patel stood against Sidiq Koya as an independent candidate. Although he lost the election, he won a significant number of votes and "softened" Sidiq Koya for the first defeat of his political career six months later in the September elections

Fiji election of 1977 (September)

Early general elections were held in Fiji between 17 and 24 September 1977, following the impasse of an earlier election that had been held in March...

.

R.D. Patel became the de-facto leader of the Gujarati

Gujaratis in Fiji

Unlike the bulk of Fiji's Indian population, who are descendents of Indian indentured labourers brought to Fiji between 1879 and 1916, the Gujaratis came to Fiji as free immigrants beginning in 1904. While the indentured labourers, on becoming free, generally took up farming, the Gujaratis were...

 community in Fiji after his brother's death and the spent the rest of his life in community service, in particular with the Gujarat Education Society of Fiji.

See also

• A.D. Patel
• National Federation Party