Help Desk by Government of India for NRIs

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".
Field Marshal Sam Manekshaw: Outspoken Indian Army chief

http://www.independ ent.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.