Sam Bahadur or Field Marshal Sam Hormusji Framji Jamshedji Manekshaw, MC, as his full official name went, is undoubtedly independent India’s most popular soldier. He would have been 101 years old today.
Had he stuck to his initial ambition, Sam could have ended up becoming a doctor instead of leading India to its most decisive victory in a battle in the Indo-Pak war of 1971, that also earned him the highest rank the army can give to a soldier - Field Marshal.
Sam died of complications from pneumonia at the Military Hospital in Wellington, Tamil Nadu, on 27 June 2008 at the age of 94.
There is a now growing support for awarding a Bharat Ratna to Sam Manekshaw. Many believe it is long overdue.
The Bharat Ratna is conferred “in recognition of exceptional service or performance of the highest order”. The list of 45 Bharat Ratna recipients includes former PMs, politicians, scholars, social activists, scientists, artistes, even sportspersons.
So why not a soldier?
7,490 supporters sought a Bharat Ratna for the Field Marshal through an online petition at Change.org.
Advocating a Bharat Ratna for Sam last year, veteran journalist Karan Thapar wrote, “This is something our dhoti-kurta politicians owe our men in uniform.” He continues, “Consequently, politicians have got more Bharat Ratnas than they should have. The defence services haven’t got a single one. The Field Marshal would be the right way to start.”
A list of Bharat Ratna recipients:
1) C. Rajagopalachari (1954)
2) Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan (1954)
3) C.V. Raman (1954)
4) Bhagwan Das (1955)
5) Mokshagundam Visvesvaraya (1955)
6) Jawaharlal Nehru (1955)
7) Govind Ballabh Pant (1957)
8) Dhondo Keshav Karve (1958)
9) Bidhan Chandra Roy (1961)
10) Purushottam Das Tandon (1961)
11) Rajendra Prasad (1962)
12) Zakir Hussain (1963)
13) Pandurang Vaman Kane (1963)
14) Lal Bahadur Shastri (1966)
15) Indira Gandhi (1971)
16) V.V. Giri (1975)
17) K Kamaraj (1976)
18) Mother Teresa (1980)
19) Acharya Vinoba Bhave (1983)
20) Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan (1987)
21) M.G. Ramachandran (1988)
22) B.R. Ambedkar (1990)
23) Nelson Mandela (1990)
24) Rajiv Gandhi (1991)
25) Vallabhbhai Patel (1991)
26) Morarji Desai (1991)
27) Maulana Abul Kalam Azad (1992)
28) JRD Tata (1992)
29) Satyajit Ray (1992)
30) Gulzarilal Nanda (1997)
31) Aruna Asaf Ali (1997)
32) APJ Abdul Kalam (1997)
33) M.S. Subbulakshmi (1998)
34) Chidambaram Subramaniam (1998)
35) Jayaprakash Narayan (1999)
36) Amartya Sen (1999)
37) Gopinath Bordoloi (1999)
38) Pandit Ravi Shankar (1999)
39) Lata Mangeshkar 2001)
40) Ustad Bismillah Khan (2001)
41) Bhimsen Joshi (2009)
42) C.N.R Rao (2014)
43) Sachin Tendulkar (2014)
45) Atal Bihari Vajpayee (2015)
46) Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya
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