In the 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.
The ceremony was as determinedly British as it might have been in...
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