Field Marshal Sam Manekshaw: Outspoken Indian Army chief Saturday, 28 June 2008 The Independent 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 It might not have been so. Serving with British forces as a young captain against the Japanese in 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 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 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 When he retired as Army chief in 1973 Manekshaw moved to southern 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
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
The lightning speed of the operations in the east led to the fall of
Gandhi asked Manekshaw to go to
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
Nonetheless, Manekshaw returned to
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
In
Manekshaw was married to Silloo Bode, whom he first met at a social gathering in
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
I arrived just in time to hear rumours that the
"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
By HARESH PANDYA
New York Times Obituary
Field Marshal Sam Hormusji Framji Jamshedji Manekshaw,
The cause was pneumonia,
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
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
In 1947, as colonel in charge of operations, he oversaw Indian forces in fighting that broke out between
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
He became the eighth chief of the Indian Army in 1969, and in 1971 led
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,
General Manekshaw became a national hero and a household name after this triumph, and in 1973, two weeks before his retirement, he became
He was born into a Parsi family, his father a doctor, in
He briefly pursued a degree in medicine and studied at
He met Siloo Bode at a gathering in
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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