The Hindu Business Line : The last Hussar

With his oversized nose, luxuriant moustache, tilted cap, baton and swagger, Sam Hormusji Framjee Manekshaw, MilitaryCross, could have stepped right out of a Goya or Velasquez. Adored by his men, envied by peers and discomfituring authority, Sam Bahadur epitomised that most British of the Indian institutions, the Indian Army.

As they left India, British officers made no secret of their feelings that the irreverent but brilliant brigadier would one day lead the Indian Army. He had their clipped accent, shared their puckish sense of humour and above all was decorated for exemplary gallantry in the Burmese campaign in the war.

He belonged to the Gorkhas, a regiment of men known for their valour and undying loyalty to their leader who judged their masters by the same uncomplicated but strict standards.

Little wonder that Sam Manekshaw was the most popular figure in the army. At any detachment he visited, he would first make his way to the men waiting to give him the guard of honour, put his arms on each one’s shoulders and enquire about the family back home as if he had known each soldier for a lifetime.

And as he handed over the bottles of rum at the regimental centre to the bandmen at the end of the Bada Khana with a cheery ‘Thakda Karo’ his sway over the hearts and minds of men was complete. At the petrol outlet near the Safdarjung mausoleum in New Delhi, one could see him clad in jeans joking with the attendants as he was being served.

Sam’s humour was as earthy as humour could be. It could be ribald even on a solemn occasion. This writer recalls the first graduation day of the newly set up College of Combat in Mhow in the early 1970s when he shocked the audience, which had a fair sprinkling of ladies, assuring the graduates that they would make up soon what they had lost in celibacy during their training.

In mock anger, he turned to the Commandant of the College, Lt. Gen. Onkar Singh Kalkat and said, “Onkar, why did you invite ladies and civilians to this function? I wished to say more. You have cramped my style.”

True to self, Manekshaw didn’t believe in false modesty. Many years after his retirement, in a public talk on “Leadership” he regaled a large audience at Vigyan Bhavan, New Delhi, by comparing himself to the great generals of the past including the hero of Blenheim, Duke of Wellington. Poking fun at himself, he presented a profile of himself to the audience and wondered whether he owed his greatness to his more than ample nose, a feature he shared with his illustrious predecessors in history. The then Army Chief, Gen. Shankar Roy Choudhary was present on the occasion.

On India’s Republic Day, as the army band marches along the Raj Path playing the soft strains of Sam Bahadur, no one can help recall the debt the nation owes to this great soldier. He was the Last Hussar.

(The author is a former Secretary, Ministry of Environment and Forests, Government of India.)