It took Sam Hormusji Framji Jamshedji Manekshaw only 14 days to secure his place in Indian history. The career officer, who died June 27 at 94, had a mystique as thick as his silvered mustache, after fighting heroically against the Japanese in World War II. But his defining moment came with the Indian army’s decisive victory in the two-week 1971 war against Pakistan. For a country that had been mired in seemingly endless battles on its borders for most of its history, his triumph became one of India’s crowning military achievements. Manekshaw’s winning strategy began with patience. As army Chief of Staff, he advised Prime Minister Indira Gandhi to wait rather than intervene after a declaration of martial law in East Pakistan threatened to destabilize the region. He organized a coordinated army, air force and navy offensive that began on Dec. 3, 1971, and repeatedly went on the radio to warn the West Pakistani troops that they were surrounded. Overwhelmed, their commander surrendered within two weeks. The subsequent Simla Accords eventually led to the creation of Pakistan and Bangladesh. Shortly before he retired in January 1973, Manekshaw became field marshal of the Indian army, one of only two people ever to hold that title. His strategy had its critics, who said faster action could have headed off a major refugee crisis. But his reputation as a soldier’s general survived. He personified the old-fashioned, scotch-in-the-officers’-club army culture that India inherited from the British. Manekshaw will be remembered, according to retired Lieut. Colonel Anil Bhat, as “a person who made India stand tall.”
