by Blake Stilwell

In 1947, British officer Yahya Khan offered his colleague 1,000 rupees for his spiffy red motorcycle. His colleague, Sam Manekshaw, agreed. But before Khan could pay, he was off to what was going to become Pakistan. The British split its Indian colony, and things on the subcontinent have been pretty tense ever since. To top it all off, Yahya Khan didn't pay for the motorbike.

But he would, even if it took almost 25 years.

Sam "Bahadur" Manekshaw whose moustache game was top notch & Pak despot Yahya Khan

The Partition of India was much more than the splitting of the British Raj into two independent states. It was a catastrophic split that tore apart the country and created millions of refugees, cost millions of lives, and split the armed forces of the country in two, all based on religion. Violence erupted almost immediately between the two groups on such a large scale that much of it has never been forgotten or forgiven. Animosity continued between both sides for decades, and the two have fought war after war because of the myriad issues left unaddressed.

By 1970, Sam Manekshaw was a Field Marshal, the Chief of Staff of India's Army, and war hero known to the people as "Sam the Brave." Yahya Khan was a General who fought for Pakistan against India in 1947 and again in 1965. Now he was the president of Pakistan who had taken power using the Pakistani military. East Pakistani refugees were flooding into India because Yahya would not accept the most recent elections, and India's President, Indira Gandhi, told Manekshaw she wanted Pakistan split into two by force, creating the new country of Bangladesh. Gandhi gave him free rein to do it however he could.

Khan would be deposed and die under house arrest after being stripped of his honours during the rest of the decade.

In Pakistan, the ever-present tensions with India were ready to boil over once again. But the Pakistanis didn't send the Army to India; they sent it into East Pakistan – where the Pakistanis immediately began slaughtering Bengalis in East Pakistan. By 1971 Bengalis in Pakistan declared independence from Pakistan in response. India immediately supported the new country, first vocally, then though training the Bangladeshis, and next with air support. Finally, in 1971, Manekshaw was ready. He had spent much of the year readying and positioning Indian armour, infantry, and air units. On Dec. 3, 1971, he struck.

The Pakistani Navy's fuel reserves were destroyed. The Indian Air Force hit a hapless Pakistan with almost 6,000 sorties in the next two weeks, destroying much of Pakistan's Air Force on the ground as the Indian Army advanced, capturing some 15,000 square kilometres. Within two weeks, Pakistan folded like a card table. All Pakistani forces in East Pakistan surrendered to India, the genocide ended, and Bangladesh was born.

After the surrender agreement was signed, Manekshaw was said to have remarked:

"Yahya never paid me the 1,000 rupees for my motorbike, but now he has paid with half his country."