Page 199 - Leadership in the Indian Army

doesn’t drink, he doesn’t…that man doesn’t make a good leader. He may
make a mahatma, he may make a saint, and he may make a priest, but he
doesn’t really make a leader.’ He went on to add, ‘Julius Caesar was a great

leader. He had his Calpurnia, and he had his Cleopatra. And when he came
to Rome and walked down the streets, senators used to lock up their wives.
Take Napoleon Bonaparte. He had his Josephine, he had his Marie Valesca,
Georgette, Ninette and every other vette. And you will agree that he was a
great leader. Take the Duke of Wellington. Do you know, before the Battle
of Waterloo, there were more countesses and marquesses with luscious
proportions in his ante chamber than staff officers and commanders?’

Sam has a very prominent nose, and he often draws attention to it, in his
own inimitable way. After talking about Caesar, Napoleon, and the Duke of
Wellington, he would close with the remarks: ‘All these great leaders had
one special characteristic in common; they all had long noses.’ He would
then turn sideways, presenting the famous Manekshaw profile in a theatrical
pose. This would invariably bring down the house.

Sam’s aversion for the new breed of Indian politicians is well known and
was largely responsible for landing him in trouble when he was the
Commandant of the Staff College. However, this has done little to change
his attitude and he continues to hold the tribe in contempt. During the same
talk, he said,

I wonder whether those of our political masters who have been put in charge of defence of the
country can distinguish a mortar from a motor; a gun from a howitzer; a guerrilla from a gorilla
—although a great many in the past have resembled the latter.

Not surprisingly, there was little love lost between Sam and the political

bosses, who ultimately had their revenge.
After his retirement from active service, Sam settled down in Coonoor in
the Nilgiris, very close to Wellington. In 1962, when he had been sent to
NEFA as Corps Commander, he had left his family at Wellington. Silloo
bought half an acre of land for 18,500 rupees, and designed ‘Stavka’, the
house in which he now lives. The name of the house was suggested by
Sherry, who had recently read Tolstoy’s famous novel, War and Peace. In

the book, ‘Stavka’ was the headquarters of the highest military commander
in the land.
Until about 15 years ago, when he gave up driving, student officers in
Wellington often ran into him, filling his car at the college pump and he
would linger on to chat with them. He still has several Gorkhas working for