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Journalism of Courage
Sam Manekshaw, India’s beloved war general and the country’s first Field Marshal, is now the subject of a biopic, Sam Bahadur, that releases on December 1.
Manekshaw is a true legend, and the broad details of his celebrated story are widely known. But here are some of the lesser known aspects of his life and distinguished military career.
Manekshaw was a Parsi who was born in Amritsar and raised in the city in his initial years before being sent to study in Sherwood College, Nainital. He was naturally fluent in Punjabi, and Army officers who met Sam in the field areas reported that he would converse in Punjabi with Sikh soldiers whenever he came across them.
The fact that he also served with an Infantry battalion with Sikh troops in the early years of his service also contributed to his fluency in Punjabi. Many of his fellow soldiers from his old Frontier Force battalion would often visit him to seek help and he would readily oblige.
Sam was given the affectionate title of ‘Sam Bahadur’ by the troops of 8 Gorkha Rifles whom he held very close as their Colonel of the Regiment. However, Sam did not serve with the Gorkhas for even a single day.
Sam was commissioned as an officer in a battalion of Frontier Force Regiment which had predominantly Sikh troops. He served in this battalion till the level of Company Commander, and was injured in battle in Burma in World War II.
After Partition, his regiment was allotted to Pakistan and, for a while, Sam was allotted the 16th Punjab Regiment. Later, as Lieutenant Colonel, he was allotted the 3rd Battalion of the 5th Gorkha Rifles to command.
However, since he was holding important assignments in the Army Headquarters in those days of the 1948-49 Kashmir War, he could not be spared for command of his battalion, and hence missed this important milestone in his career.
In 1953, Sam was chosen as the Colonel of the 8th Gorkha Rifles, an association that he cherished for the rest of his life.
A Court of Inquiry was launched against Sam Manekshaw in 1962 to investigate several trumped-up charges against him. At the time Sam was serving as Commandant of Defence Services Staff College in Wellington in the rank of Major General.
Many believed at the time that these charges were instigated at the instance of the then Defence Minister VK Krishna Menon, and certain Generals who were close to the political establishment of the time. The then GOC-in-C Western Command Lt Gen Daulet Singh presided over the inquiry.
Many serving Army officers deposed in that inquiry and most spoke in Sam’s favour while some testified against him. Lt Gen Daulet Singh cleared Sam of all charges.
To his credit, when Sam rose higher in the Army, he displayed no vendetta against the officers who had spoken against him. Incidentally, he replaced Lt Gen Daulet Singh as GOC-in-C Western Command in December 1963, after the General died in an air crash in Poonch in J&K in November 1963.
Sam Manekshaw took over as GOC-in-C Western Command in December 1963.
Shortly before Nehru’s death, anticipating unrest in the national capital in the event of his demise, the then Army Chief planned to have some Army troops deployed in the national capital, and accordingly directions were issued to Sam to move troops from 4 Infantry Division, then based in Ambala, and 50 Parachute Brigade in Agra, immediately after Nehru’s death.
Sam protested at these orders in writing, but complied with them as they were instructions from the Army Chief.
After the new government took charge, it asked the Army Chief for the reasons for the movement of the troops. According to a book written on Sam by his former ADC Maj Gen SD Sood, all blame was laid on Sam’s door, and his eventual posting as GOC-in-C Eastern Command was seen as a result of this misgiving.
After the 1971 Indo-Pak war, Sam Manekshaw took keen interest in how the nearly 90,000 Pakistan Army prisoners of war (PoWs) were being treated in their prison camps. He would often visit these camps to inspect the conditions of the Pak PoWs, and would often get mobbed by them in admiration. On one visit, he asked the Camp Commandant to dispense with the armed soldiers moving with him for his protection.
During a visit to Military Hospital in Delhi Cantonment, he came across a Pakistan Army Colonel undergoing treatment. When asked if he needed anything, the Colonel requested Sam for a copy of the Quran. Sam instructed his ADC to immediately take care of the request and by the same evening, a Quran had been sourced from a local Rajputana Rifles battalion which had some Muslim troops, and provided to the Pakistani officer.
