----- Original Message ----- From: "John Feltham" <wulguru.wantok@gmail.com> To: "iaf" <iafhistory@yahoogroups.com>; "Raj" <INDIA-BRITISH-RAJ-L@rootsweb.com>; "vsdh" <vsdh@lists.blackcatnetworks.co.uk> Sent: Friday, July 04, 2008 10:28 PM Subject: [INDIA-BRITISH-RAJ] Obit - Field Marshal Sam Manekshaw MC (Retd)Chief of Staff of the Indian Army > the Indian Army Staff > Field Marshal Sam Manekshaw, who has died aged 94, played a key role > in India's victory over Pakistan in the 1971 war between the two > nations. When reading the article sent by John which detailed (in some brief) Manekshaw's career as a member of the Indian Army, I could not but help cast my mind back to another time about twenty years before the event of his 'victory' over Pakistan in 1971. If Manekshaw was 94 years when he died this year (2008) then he would have been in his seventies at the time of 'partition' and a member of the then, Indian Army. Here is a para from Charles Allen's "'Plain Tales of the Raj' ( of which I opine, every one of us has a copy ! ) "Nowhere was partition more bitterly resented than in the Indian Army : To us it was the heartbreak of heartbreaks. We felt it beyond credence. We had united these dozens of different castes, creeds, colours, beliefs under one flag. We had united them under one regimental colour. It took us two hundred years to build that up, and for that to go literally at the stroke of a pen - it was something that one will never get over.' Perhaps no one felt this loss more than Claude Auchinleck, whose duty it was to divide the Indian Army into two: 'All Indian Army officers hated the idea but we did as we were told. They had to be split and then all the equipment had to be split with everything else. What it meant was that regiments like my own, half Hindu and half Moslem. were just torn in half - and they wept on each other's shoulders when it happened. " Such the life of a soldier and - Manekshaw's ? Wishes Sally .
----- Original Message ----- From: "Karoo" <karoo4@bigpond.com> To: <india-british-raj@rootsweb.com> Cc: "Email List for Victoria & amp; amp;Dow Hill Schools" <vsdh@lists.blackcatnetworks.co.uk> Sent: Saturday, July 05, 2008 2:18 PM Subject: Re: [INDIA-BRITISH-RAJ] Obit - Field Marshal Sam Manekshaw MC(Retd)Chief of Staff of the Indian Army > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "John Feltham" <wulguru.wantok@gmail.com> > To: "iaf" <iafhistory@yahoogroups.com>; "Raj" > <INDIA-BRITISH-RAJ-L@rootsweb.com>; "vsdh" > <vsdh@lists.blackcatnetworks.co.uk> > Sent: Friday, July 04, 2008 10:28 PM > Subject: [INDIA-BRITISH-RAJ] Obit - Field Marshal Sam Manekshaw MC > (Retd)Chief of Staff of the Indian Army > > > Here is a para from Charles Allen's "'Plain Tales of the Raj' ( of which > I > opine, every one of us > has a copy ! ) > > "Nowhere was partition more bitterly resented than in the Indian Army : To > us it was the heartbreak of heartbreaks. We felt it beyond credence. We > had united these dozens of different castes, creeds, colours, beliefs > under > one flag. We had united them under one regimental colour. It took us two > hundred years to build that up, and for that to go literally at the stroke > of a pen - it was something that one will never get over.' Perhaps no one > felt this loss more than Claude Auchinleck, whose duty it was to divide > the > Indian Army into two: 'All Indian Army officers hated the idea but we did > as we were told. They had to be split and then all the equipment had to > be > split with everything else. What it meant was that regiments like my own, > half Hindu and half Moslem. were just torn in half - and they wept on each > other's shoulders when it happened. " > > Such the life of a soldier and - Manekshaw's ? > > Wishes > Sally > My uncle who was commandant of the R.I.A.S.C. school at Kakul at Partition, said it was the most distressing experience he had in his 30 years in the army. Chris