Sam’s due

The Bharat Ratna has not been awarded since 2001. This could be a response to several different things: the political furore that frequently accompanies the choice of a nominee, perhaps, or the slight distaste that certain parts of the establishment continue to feel for anything that even vaguely suggests elitism. The only two awardees this century, Lata Mangeshkar and Bismillah Khan, were carefully apolitical choices. There was a time when there was a consensus about the sort of person that could be considered emblematic of what we wanted India to be. That consensus has been replaced by clamour. There is sustained pressure, analogous to the competition for social advancement being played out among previously marginalised groups, to reward figures from the past with which those groups have been traditionally associated: Jyotiba Phule, Karpoori Thakur, or, in one suggestion of truly inspired absurdity, Bahadur Shah Zafar. India’s highest award has become another battleground where constructed identities contend for recognition and respect.

In one way, it is particularly depressing that the suggestion that the Bharat Ratna be given to Sam Manekshaw is being framed in similar terms, as an overdue mark of respect to a military hero — something to gratify the armed forces, who may have felt slighted that his funeral was not properly attended. Framed in this manner, it is too easy to ignore as simply another iteration of an intensely tiresome competition. This would be a mistake. Sam Manekshaw is indeed a genuine military hero, decorated on the battlefield. He is also a unique modern Indian icon, unique in that when we remember him we celebrate success, not just heroism; and also a genuine liberal symbol, who believed in and supported, in or out of uniform, in every way, the best parts of the Indian state’s ideals.

The government should seriously consider Sam Manekshaw as a recipient of the third Bharat Ratna this century. Not to satisfy any constituency or to quiet rumblings of protest, but because honouring individuals such as India’s first Field Marshal is precisely what that award is supposed to do.