Sam Manekshaw - Honours and Post-retirement

Honours and Post-retirement

For his distinguished service to the country, the President of India awarded him a Padma Vibhushan in 1972 and conferred upon him the rank of Field Marshal on 1 January 1973. Manekshaw became one of the only two Indian Army Generals to be awarded this prestigious rank; the other being the late Field Marshal Kodandera Madappa Cariappa. Manekshaw moved out of active service a fortnight later on 15 January 1973 after completing nearly four decades of military service, and settled down with his wife Silloo in Coonoor, the civilian town next to Wellington Military Cantonment where he had served as Commandant of the Defence Services Staff College, at an earlier time in his career. A beloved of Gorkha soldiers, Nepal feted him as an Honorary General of their army in 1972.

In May 2007, Gohar Ayub, son of Field Marshal Ayub Khan claimed that the retired Indian Army Chief Field Marshal Sam Manekshaw had sold some of Indian Army secrets to Pakistan during the Indo-Pakistani War of 1965 for 20,000 rupees, but his accusations were dismissed by the Indian defence establishment.

Following his time in active service in the Indian Army, Manekshaw successfully served as an independent director on the board of several companies, and the Chairman as well, of a few of them. Outspoken that he was, and hardly politically correct, once the government retorted by changing the entire board of a company, a Mr Naik replacing him. "This is the first time in history when a Naik(corporal) has replaced a Field Marshal," he quipped.