Word: manekshaw
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...courtyard of New Delhi's vast President's House last week, an Indian army band stood smartly to attention. As the national anthem rang out in the crisp winter air, Indian Army Chief of Staff General Sam Hormuzji Framji Jamshedji Manekshaw stepped forward to the presidential dais and saluted stiffly. Then India's President V.V. Giri ceremoniously handed Manekshaw an ornate silver-tipped baton. With that, the military commander who masterminded Pakistan's humiliating defeat in the 1971 Indo-Pakistan war became the first Indian field marshal in his country's history...
...might have been in the era of the Raj. In a singular display of military punctilio, the new field marshal even received a congratulatory cable from the Pakistan army chief of staff, General Tikka Khan, who was military governor of East Pakistan when the war with India began. Like Manekshaw, Tikka Khan is a graduate of the Indian Military Academy, India's equivalent of Sandhurst. It was all, as the British might say, "a jolly good show...
...retained the grand old look are patronized mainly by affluent Indians. A visitor strolling across the manicured lawns of a private club these days is likely to hear an echo of the past in calls for "Jimmy" (short for "Jamshedji"), "Bunty" (a current Indian favorite) or "Sam" (which General Manekshaw prefixed to his string of Parsi names). The use of such Anglicisms dates back to the time when British officers, unable to pronounce Indian names correctly, gave their troops nicknames for convenience. Indians who slavishly follow such British customs have been given the mocking name "brown sahibs" by their countrymen...
Demoralized and in disarray, the Pakistani troops were urged to obey the "soldier to soldier" radio call to surrender, repeatedly broadcast by Indian Army Chief of Staff General Sam Manekshaw. "Should you not heed my advice to surrender to my army and endeavour to escape," he warned, "I assure you certain death awaits you." He also assured the Pakistanis that if they surrendered they would be treated as prisoners of war according to the Geneva convention. To insure that the Mukti Bahini would also adhere to the Geneva code, India officially put the liberation forces under its military command...
...Parsis have traditionally influenced In dia well out of proportion to their numbers. Prosperous, cosmopolitan, literate, they dominate today the business community of Bombay. Industrialist J.R.D. Tata, whose steel mills constitute India's largest privately owned enterprise, is a Parsi; so are General Sam Hormuzji Framji Jamshedji Manekshaw, one of India's top military leaders, and Zubin Mehta, conductor of the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra. Parsi girls for the last three years have won the title of Miss India...