[ALOCHONA] Obituary: Field Marshal Sam Manekshaw

Field Marshal Sam Manekshaw:

Outspoken Indian Army chief

Saturday, 28 June 2008

The Independent

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/field-marshal-sam-manekshaw-outspoken-indian-army-chief-856109.html

 

A story told of the barbed and occasionally barrack-room humour of Sam Manekshaw has him visiting his unit and being told of a soldier who had been punished after contracting a venereal disease. Asking what punishment had been meted out, he was told that the soldier's head had been shaved. "Shaved?" he roared in response. "Dammit. He didn't do it with his head."

 

Manekshaw was the archetypal solider, the so-called "soldiers' general" who over the space of four decades rose to the highest rank in India's army, serving as Chief of Staff from 1969 until 1973. He was one of just two Indian soldiers to be designated Field Marshal.

 

That appointment followed what was considered to be his greatest moment, when he drew up the tactics and strategy for India in the 1971 Indo-Pakistan war which saw Pakistani forces routed in just 14 days and the creation of the state of Bangladesh. In all, Manekshaw's military career spanned five different wars. "He was also one of the most decorated officers of the Indian Army. In his demise, the nation has lost a great soldier, a true patriot and a noble son," India's defence minister, A.K. Antony, said yesterday.

 

It might not have been so. Serving with British forces as a young captain against the Japanese in Burma during the Second World War, Manekshaw was seriously injured during a counter-offensive against the invading troops. He was hit by a burst of machine-gun fire and was severely wounded in the stomach. Reports tell that such were his injuries that a senior officer who saw him fall decided to pin his own Military Cross ribbon to the apparently dying Manekshaw. "A dead person cannot be awarded a Military Cross," said the officer. As it was, Manekshaw survived.

 

Even in the most serious situations, Manekshaw, a man who sported a traditional handlebar moustache, found room for humour. Just before the 1971 operation against Pakistan, he was asked by Prime Minister Indira Gandhi whether he was prepared for the imminent conflict. "I am always ready, sweetie," he is said to have replied. Mrs Gandhi was apparently not offended. On another occasion, she asked if he was planning to take over the country. Pointing to his long nose, the general replied: "I don't use it to poke into others' affairs."

 

He was born Sam Hormusji Framji Jamshedji Manekshaw in 1914 in Amritsar to Parsi parents who had migrated to Punjab from the small town of Valsad on the Gujarat coast. After completing his education at Amritsar and then at Sherwood College in Nainital, he joined the first batch of 40 cadets at the Indian Military Academy at Dehradun. In 1934 he was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in the Indian Army. He held several regimental assignments and was first attached to the Royal Scots and later to the 4/12 Frontier Force Regiment.

 

He was always outspoken, and his willingness to express his own opinions sometimes got him into trouble. In 1961 he was sidelined after speaking out against the defence minister V.K. Krishna Menon's strategy in the northern border with China. A year later Indian forces suffered defeat at the hands of the Chinese in the Indo-Sino war and Manekshaw was rushed to the region to command the retreating Indian forces. His first order to troops was that there was to be "no withdrawal without written orders and these orders shall never be issued". Menon, meanwhile, resigned.

 

When he retired as Army chief in 1973 Manekshaw moved to southern India and lived in Tamil Nadu. He had been in a military hospital in the town of Wellington for some time where he was being treated for progressive lung disease.

 

Andrew Buncombe

 

Sam Hormusji Framji Jamshedji Manekshaw, army officer: born Amritsar, India 3 April 1914; MC 1942; Chief of the Army Staff 1969-73; Field Marshal 1973; married 1939 Silloo Bode (two daughters); died Wellington, India 27 June 2008.

 

 

Obituary: Field Marshal Sam Manekshaw

Vinod Saighal

The Guardian,

Monday June 30, 2008

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/jun/30/india

 

Sam Manekshaw, who has died at the age of 94, was the first general of the modern Indian army to be made a field marshal; he was awarded this honorary rank in 1973, at the end of his four years as chief of army staff. His career lasted almost four decades, saw five wars, and culminated in his successful masterminding of the Indo-Pakistan war of 1971.

 

The partition that accompanied Indian independence in 1947 created a Pakistan of two wings separated by more than 1,000 miles of Indian territory. The political dominance of West Pakistan was challenged after the 1970 election, and, in March 1971, a military response to civil dissent in East Pakistan led to calls for independence for what was to become Bangladesh, supported by Indian prime minister Indira Gandhi.

 

Manekshaw's first battle was to withstand the political pressure to launch his forces that spring, as around 10 million refugees poured across the border. He held his ground until he had created the conditions for almost certain victory. Inspired by the example of Israel's pre-emptive air strike on its Arab neighbours in the six-day war of 1967, on December 3 1971 Pakistan attacked airfields in north-west India, hoping that if it could make inroads in the west, then it would be able to relieve pressure in the east. But these sorties, carried out with just 50 planes, caused only temporary damage, and India made inroads into West Pakistan and launched a coordinated assault by land, sea and air on West Pakistani forces in East Pakistan.

 

The lightning speed of the operations in the east led to the fall of Dhaka and Lieutenant General AAK Niazi's surrender on December 16, with 93,000 soldiers taken prisoner. Under intense US and UN pressure, India agreed to a ceasefire in the west the following day.

 

Gandhi asked Manekshaw to go to Dhaka, the capital of the new nation, to accept the surrender of the Pakistani forces, but he declined the honour, which he said belonged to the eastern army commander, Lieutenant General Jagjit Singh Aurora. It was the sort of gesture that marked him out as a great leader, respected by all who served under or came into contact with him, notably the Indian army's Gurkhas, of whom he remarked: "If anyone tells you he is never afraid, he is a liar or he is a Gurkha."

 

A colourful figure, he was known by the nickname Sam Bahadur - Bahadur being an honorific indicating bravery. He was forthright in his personal dealings: when Gandhi inquired about his state of preparedness for the 1971 war, he is reputed to have replied: "I'm always ready, sweetie," his boldness disarming any possible reproach.

 

Once that conflict was over, the jaunty military march Sam Bahadur was composed in his honour and his popularity was such that the premier reportedly confronted him with rumours that he was planning a coup against her. He is said to have replied: "Don't you think I would be a worthy replacement for you, madam prime minister? You have a long nose. So have I. But I don't poke my nose into other people's affairs."

 

Born to Parsi parents and brought up in Amritsar, the capital of Punjab, Manekshaw went to Sherwood College, Nainital, and, in 1932, belonged to the first batch of 40 cadets to be selected for the Indian Military Academy, Dehradun, with the intention that Indians should become commissioned officers in the British Indian army. In February 1934 he joined the 12 Frontier Force Rifles as a second lieutenant. The outbreak of the second world war led to Japanese forces invading Burma, and, in February 1942, Manekshaw saw action on the Sittang river. While involved in a counter-offensive, he was hit in the stomach by machine-gun fire. Recognising his courage, Major General David Tennent Cowan took off his own Military Cross ribbon and pinned it on the wounded officer's chest, saying: "A dead person cannot be awarded a Military Cross."

 

Nonetheless, Manekshaw returned to Burma once recovered, was wounded again, and ended the war in Indo-China, rehabilitating thousands of prisoners of war. Thereafter he rose through the military operations directorate at army headquarters, and was involved in planning for the partition and the consequent Indo-Pakistan war of 1947, with fighting in Jammu and Kashmir. By 1959 he was commandant of the Defence Services Staff College, and came into such conflict with the defence minister, VK Krishna Menon, that there was a risk that he would be sidelined by the disciplinary proceedings started against him.

 

However, in October 1962, the army was defeated in a battle with Chinese soldiers over a disputed area of the Himalayan border region of Arunachal Pradesh, and Jawaharlal Nehru, the Indian prime minister, sent Manekshaw to take command, now with the rank of lieutenant general. His absolute instruction that there would be no further withdrawals helped to restore morale pending moves towards a political settlement.

 

By the end of 1963, he was army commander in the west, and the following year attained the army's top operational role, as commander in the east. During the Indo-Pakistan war of 1965, centred on Kashmir, Manekshaw advised against attacking East Pakistan, a factor that played to his advantage six years later.

 

In Delhi in 1996, he gave the inaugural Field Marshal KM Cariappa memorial lecture, in honour of the first Indian army chief after independence, another central figure in the modernisation of the armed forces. During the course of it, with the politicians of Delhi in mind, he observed: "There is a very thin line between being dismissed and becoming a field marshal." His rakish charm and razor-sharp wit could have landed him in trouble on several occasions, but no one ever doubted that he would uphold the oath that he had taken on being commissioned in the Chetwode Hall in Dehradun.

 

Manekshaw was married to Silloo Bode, whom he first met at a social gathering in Lahore in 1937. On occasion, she could outdo him for directness. At a much later function, when he was chief of staff, they encountered the defence minister who had aspired to best him - but who had resigned after the humiliation by China. "Darling, you remember Mr Menon?" the general inquired diplomatically. "No, I don't," she responded.

 

She died in 2001, and he is survived by his daughters Sherry and Maja.

 

Harold Jackson writes: I have cherished the memory of Field Marshal Sam Manekshaw as my favourite military leader ever since reporting on the Indo-Pakistan war of 1971. The military hazards in Kashmir and East Pakistan turned out to be child's play compared with my grim battles against Indian bureaucrats in New Delhi and their Bengali brothers in Dhaka: by the time I flew back to Delhi, they had almost reduced me to a gibbering wreck.

 

I arrived just in time to hear rumours that the Pakistan army had surrendered - unfortunately accompanied by one of Delhi's power cuts. The defence ministry phones were all engaged. In desperation, I rang the chief of staff's direct line.

 

"Manekshaw here."

 

"Harold Jackson of the Guardian. Nobody here seems sure if you've won the war or not."

 

"Oh yes, we've won all right. General Niazi signed the surrender at 4.31 this afternoon. Is that all? Anything else I can help you with? No. Well I'm afraid I'm rather busy just now. All the best." He was one of a kind.

 

· Sam Hormusji Framji Jamshedji Manekshaw, soldier, born April 3 1914; died June 27 2008

 

June 30, 2008

Sam H.F.J. Manekshaw Dies at 94; Key to India's Victory in 1971 War

By HARESH PANDYA

New York Times Obituary

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/30/world/asia/30manekshaw.html?ei=5087&em=&en=2fde705a6a5cda44&ex=1214971200&pagewanted=print

 

Field Marshal Sam Hormusji Framji Jamshedji Manekshaw, India's best-known soldier and the architect of the country's victory in the 1971 war with Pakistan that gave birth to Bangladesh, died in Wellington, India, on Friday. He was 94.

 

The cause was pneumonia, India's Defense Ministry said in a statement.

 

Field Marshal Manekshaw first drew notice as a captain in the British Indian Army during World War II. He was severely wounded on Feb. 22, 1942, in a counteroffensive against the Japanese on the Sittong River in Burma, now known as Myanmar. But he kept exhorting his soldiers, and he continued fighting until he collapsed.

 

Fearing the worst, the English commander, Maj. Gen. D. T. Cowan, pinned his own Military Cross on Captain Manekshaw and was quoted as saying, "A dead person can't be awarded a Military Cross."

 

But the young officer survived, and a storied military career began. He not only recovered from his wounds but went back to Burma later in the war and was wounded again.

 

In 1947, as colonel in charge of operations, he oversaw Indian forces in fighting that broke out between India and Pakistan over Kashmir, the territory claimed by both new nations.

 

With a military mustache guarding a genial face, he was known as a stern disciplinarian with a common touch. He once insisted on doing folk dances with his troops even though he had a sprained ankle. By the end of the night, the sprain had turned into a fracture.

 

He instilled a sense of duty, efficiency and professionalism in the Indian Army, and he taught officers to stand up to political masters and bureaucratic interference. His wit, sometimes bordering on sarcasm, did not go over well with many in power.

 

In 1961, he had a falling out with the defense minister, V. K. Krishna Menon. But by then a general, he was vindicated late the next year when Indian troops were overrun by Chinese forces that swept down from the Himalayas. Mr. Menon resigned and Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, who had been close to Mr. Menon, rushed General Manekshaw to the front. There he rallied the retreating Indian forces until a cease-fire was declared.

 

He became the eighth chief of the Indian Army in 1969, and in 1971 led India's forces in the war with Pakistan that ended with the creation of Bangladesh from East Pakistan. According to articles published in Indian newspapers after his death, General Manekshaw firmly resisted demands by Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in the spring of 1971 for an immediate invasion of East Pakistan in support of rebels there. He insisted that a campaign be put off until after the monsoon season ended and the armed forces were better prepared.

 

Just before the conflict began that December, the prime minister asked him, "General, are you ready for the war?" He replied, "I'm always ready, sweetie." Less than three weeks later, Pakistan was defeated.

 

General Manekshaw became a national hero and a household name after this triumph, and in 1973, two weeks before his retirement, he became India's first field marshal. He had already received India's highest civilian awards — Padma Bhushan in 1968 and Padma Vibhushan in 1972.

 

He was born into a Parsi family, his father a doctor, in Amritsar in Punjab on April 3, 1914.

 

He briefly pursued a degree in medicine and studied at Sherwood College, in Naini Tal, and Hindu Sabha College, in Amritsar, before joining the first class of the new Indian Military Academy at Dehra Dun in 1934. It had been opened to train Indians for commissioned ranks in the British Indian Army. He was first attached to the Royal Scots regiment. He later joined a Ghurka regiment and wore the Ghurka cap even after becoming the army's chief of staff.

 

He met Siloo Bode at a gathering in Lahore, in what is now Pakistan, in 1937, and they were married in 1939. She died in 2001. He is survived by his daughters, Maja Daruwala and Sherry Batliwala, and three grandchildren.

 

Like many officers of his generation, he had an affection for British military traditions. A 1971 article in The New York Times noted that upon waking at 5:30 every morning, he liked drinking a small glass of whiskey, listening to the BBC news and puttering in his garden before going to work.

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