Sam Bahadur
Pre Script :
I write nothing new in this article. I’m basically writing a short script about Field Marshal Sam Manekhaw’s life and everything is available somewhere in the public domain. I’ve just collected them and put it at a single place for the layman’s use.
Script :
Born on 3rd April 1914, in a large family of 6 siblings, his parents named him as “Sam Manekshaw”. Sam later changed this to “Sam Hormusji Framji Jamshedji Manekshaw”, appending his forefathers’ names, just because he thought he can get a name with impressive initials as “SHFJ Manekshaw”.
Being born to a doctor and having seen his Father send his Elder brother to London to pursue studies, he was disappointed when his Father refused to send him to London to pursue Medicine. In an act of rebellion, Sam wrote the entrance to join the newly constructed Indian Military Academy, Dehradun. Having cleared the exams, he was selected to join the first batch of Cadets at the Academy in 1932.
On 1st February 1935, Sam Manekshaw was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant into the British Indian Army with the 12th Frontier Force Regiment. His first battlefield action came in 1942, in World War II, when his unit, 4/12 Frontier Force, took part in the Battle at Sittang. As a company commander, Sam led his company in an attack on a hill and got hit by a burst of Light Machine Gun in the firefight. Sam was clinging on to life, and the commander of Indian Forces Major General David Cowan pinned his own Military Cross on Sam’s chest saying ‘A dead person cannot be awarded a Military Cross’. Sam lived on, thanks to his orderly Sher Singh’s efforts in convincing a Surgeon to treat him, who thought Sam’s chances of survival were low. After recuperating, he did a Staff Course and was posted as Brigade Major throughout the rest of the War.
By the time of Indian Independence, he had been promoted to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel and was posted at the Military Operations (MO) Directorate as General Staff Officer I. During Partition, he opted to stay with India, even though Mohammad Ali Jinnah offered to make him the Pakistani Army Chief. As his parent unit 12th Frontier Force went to Pakistan after Partition, Sam was reassigned to the 8th Gorkha Rifles, which is where his long association and fondness for the Gorkhas began.
After Independence, he got a posting order to command 3rd Battalion of 5th Gorkha Rifles, but just before he moved to his new appointment on 22nd October 1947, Pakistan invaded Kashmir, and after Kashmir’s accession to India, a full scale war broke out. As a result of the Kashmir war and the annexation of Hyderabad, which was also planned by the MO Directorate, he never commanded a Battalion and his stay at MO Directorate got extended during which he was promoted to a Colonel and then a Brigadier. During this stint, he developed a close relationship with the Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and the Home Minister Sardar Patel.
After commanding a Brigade and a stint as the Commandant of the Infantry School, he was promoted to Major General and appointed General Officer Commanding (GOC) of 26th Infantry Division. As GOC, General KS Thimmaya was his Army Chief and VK Krishna Menon the Defense Minister. During a visit to Sam’s division, Krishna Menon asked Sam what he thought of the Chief. Sam, being the straight talking person he is, explained that Thimayya was his senior and it would be inappropriate to evaluate him.
Krishna Menon, now a little annoyed, exclaimed that he could get Thimayya sacked if he wanted to, to which Sam nonchalantly replied ‘Good, I’ll go up one rank’ . Sam further went on to give Krishna Menon a lesson, ‘ Mr. Minister I am not allowed to think about him. He is my Chief. Tomorrow you’ll be asking my subordinate Brigadiers and Colonels what they think about me. It’s the surest way to ruin the discipline of the Army. Don’t do it in the future. ’
You can probably guess that Sam was a marked man and Krishna Menon almost got Sam dismissed from service. This was in 1961 and Krishna Menon had managed to get a Court of Inquiry (CoI) ordered against Sam. Just as a side note, Krishna Menon was himself currying favor with Major General BM Kaul, and promoted Kaul out of turn and undeservingly to Lieutenant General and made him the IV Corps Commander. Just as Sam’s CoI was pending (which made him ineligible for promotions), the 1962 Indo-China War broke out, in which Kaul’s IV Corps was mauled by the Chinese and Nehru had to sack Krishna Menon and Kaul in the aftermath of the defeat.
Sam’s CoI, headed by Lt. Gen. Daulet Singh, the Western Army Commander, a man known for his integrity and honesty, found the charges baseless and exonerated him on all counts. Nehru apologized to Sam for this mishap and got him promoted to Lieutenant General and gave him the command of IV Corps. This is when, to motivate his troops, he gave one of his most iconic orders : ‘Gentlemen, I have arrived and there shall be no withdrawals without written orders and these orders shall never be issued’, and asked his troops to advance.
After a brief one year stint as Western Army Commander, he took over as the Eastern Army Commander in 1964, a post which he held till 1969, before his elevation as the Chief of Army Staff (COAS).
Now is a good time to take an aside, to talk a little bit about Sam. Even though he was a straight talking General, he had an amazing wit and knew what to say when. As the COAS, he was about to sign a letter to the Defense Minister, when he noticed a typo in the signature block. Instead of the ‘C’ in his designation, a ‘T’ had been printed, making it read ‘Thief of Army Staff’. He promptly circled the typo, marked the letter back to the Adjutant General and wrote in red ink near the typo ‘May be true, but keep it within the Army, Goddamn it!’.
During a visit to a formation, he saw a soldier who had got 3 bullet wounds and remarked to him ‘At your age I got 9 bullets in me and look at me now, I am the Chief of Army Staff.’
Coming back to the story, trouble started brewing in East Pakistan in March 1971, where the West Pakistani Government began a military genocide campaign to suppress calls for a secessionist movement. Operation Searchlight, as it was called, involved mass killing, raping and looting of Bengalis and other minorities in East Pakistan.
By April, thousands of refugees started flocking into neighboring Indian states and obviously this caused a huge issue for India. The then Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi, called Sam and asked him to liberate East Pakistan militarily. Sam flatly refused and explained that the Army was not ready and time wasn’t appropriate. Sam explained the reasons, and just to name a couple, the opening of Himalayan passes, which will allow the Chinese to open a new front if they wanted to, lack of proper arms and ammunition for the Army as the Finance Ministry kept starving it of funds and so on.
Sam asked for some time, and complete autonomy for the War to be conducted in his terms, in which case he guaranteed a victory. Indira Gandhi relented to Sam’s request, and Sam took off earnestly in preparation. Meanwhile, Indira Gandhi herself went on diplomatic tours to convince other nations of India’s predicament and to garner International support.
After months of preparation, the War commenced on 3rd December 1971. After a blitzkrieg 13 day campaign, all Pakistani Forces in East Pakistan surrendered on 16th December 1971 and close to 90000 fully armed soldiers laid down their weapons after Lt. Gen. AAK Niazi signed the Instrument of Surrender to Indian Eastern Army Commander, Lt. Gen. Jagjit Singh Arora. Coincidentally, 2021 is the 50th Anniversary of this War Victory.
Post the War, in recognition of Sam’s services to the Nation, he became the first person to be elevated to the rank of Field Marshal — a ceremonial rank that has been awarded only to one other person, Field Marshal KM Cariappa. He was also awarded with Padma Vibhushan, in addition to the Padma Bhushan he received in 1968 (of which I haven’t mentioned here).
After a career spanning nearly 40 years, 5 wars and culminating with India’s most decisive Military Victory that saw a new nation Bangladesh being created, Sam superannuated on 15th January 1973.
Post retirement, Sam declined all Ambassadorial offers and led a peaceful life in his home in Wellington, along with his wife Siloo. Though Sam was a a figure much revered by the public, the Government did everything possible to play him down.
Field Marshals are considered to never retire, and hence have a salary and some perks. The Government withheld everything and Sam got his due only when the then President of India, APJ Abdul Kalam, stepped in to solve the issue in 2007. It was a case of too little too late as Sam breathed his last on 27th June 2008.
All these aside, the Government’s handling of his last rites was probably the most insulting. Neither the President nor the Prime Minister were present, the Government was represented by one Minister and not even a day of mourning was announced. Sadly, the Defense Forces failed too, with neither the Navy Chief or the Air Force Chief showing up, and only the Army Chief had the excuse of being in Russia and was represented by the Vice Chief. There was a huge outcry but the damage was done.
But I’ll be doing Sam dirty if I finish on such a note. So instead I’ll finish by saying that even though Sam is no more, he embodies the Field Marshal’s spirit that they never retire, and remains the Gold Standard for any Officer from the Defense Forces and will keep on inspiring the generations to come.
Post Script: Now that I’ve written this article, I realize that this is mostly similar to his Wikipedia page, but I still think it necessary to publish this, because why not.
Also, here’s a link to Sam’s speech on Leadership, highly recommend watching : Leadership Lecture Sam Manekshaw — YouTube