The car that sparked India’s automobile revolution

You couldn’t make it up if you tried. A plane crash, a mother’s (and also a Prime Minister’s) love for her son, a brilliant bunch of bureaucrats who had no clue of the car business they led, a dogged and feisty Japanese entrepreneur willing to take a huge gamble, a twist of fate and lots of luck. Sounds like a Hollywood script laced with intrigue but this is the true, fairy tale story of how Maruti came to be.

It became the car company that put India on wheels with the dinky Maruti 800, in much the same way the Ford Model T did in America in the early 20th century and the Volkswagen Beetle in Europe after World War II. Harpal Singh and Gulshanbeer Kaur of Delhi became the first proud owners of the first Maruti 800 car in 1983. The couple bought the car for ₹ 47,500 and its keys were handed to them by the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.

The Maruti 800 fuelled a car revolution in the country and became a symbol of status for the Indian middle class in the 1980s. Maruti was conceived in unique circumstances and that’s what makes its story utterly fascinating. The company was born out of the late Indira Gandhi’s desire to establish a national car company as a monument to her son.

Sanjay Gandhi unsuccessfully tried his hand at the car business before he tragically died in a plane crash in 1980. But his death made his mother determined to fulfil her son’s dream of building an indigenous people’s car and yes, it did help that she was the Prime Minister of India at the time. Stay tuned with breaking news on HT Channel on Facebook.

Join Now What if Sanjay Gandhi hadn’t died in that fateful plane crash? It’s likely that Maruti as the car company we know today would never have happened. But it did and in a way that went completely against the national policy. Who could have imagined that the Indian government would get involved in making cars, a glaring symbol of luxury that was at direct odds with the socialist and planned economic environment at the time? In fact, Maruti wasn’t planned at all but a personal project that was close to the Prime Minister’s heart.

Maruti Udyog Ltd was formed in 1981, led by the brightest minds from the public sector but no one had any idea of how to build a car company. Chairman V Krishnamurthy and RC Bhargava, the sales and marketing director who went on to become the MD for 12 years, started as novices with just a book on “World Cars” to guide them in their search for a suitable partner. The quest for a partner is also a story full of drama and eventually a twist of fate.

After knocking on the doors of global auto giants like Fiat, Peugeot, Volkswagen, Renault and Nissan, all of whom turned down Maruti, thinking there was no future in India’s non-existent auto industry, Daihatsu emerged as a front-runner. Osamu Suzuki got wind of the news and immediately sent a team to India to negotiate a deal. Suzuki was willing to gamble on India’s potential and didn’t want to lose the chance of partnering with Maruti and quickly signed a joint venture agreement on October 2, 1982.

And the rest, as they say, is history. In a record 14 months, a brand new factory, supplier base, dealer and distribution network were set up. Clearances were given for Indira Gandhi’s pet project instantly and unlike other public sector companies, politicians and bureaucrats couldn’t meddle with this one.

In fact, thanks to Mrs Gandhi, this is one company that got a red carpet instead of red tape to meet the deadline for the launch of the first car. And that deadline happened to be Sanjay Gandhi’s birthday. Exactly 40 years ago on December 14, 1983, an Indian Airlines employee, Harpal Singh was handed the keys of the first Maruti 800 by former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.

He was not to know, but Indian roads would never be the same again. The Maruti 800 captured the imagination of motorists who until then had to make do with expensive, antiquated and unreliable cars. For the first time, a car was no longer considered a luxury but a right to personal mobility.

Starved of technology after 30 years of enduring Padminis and Ambassadors, car owners were dazzled with basics like floor shift gears, bucket seats and wipers that worked! It felt like the future had landed in their laps. The little 800 was a miracle machine and a bigger hit than the company could have ever imagined. People were willing to pay twice the official ₹ 50,000 price to jump the queue and get their hands on this futuristic little Suzuki.

An increasing number of women took to the wheel for the first time because this little car was so easy to drive and families discovered the joys of driving a reliable and user-friendly car. Though the 800 was originally designed for the well-manicured streets of Japanese cities, it went beyond its brief and was used for long road trips too, packed to the gills with parents, kids, luggage, pets and more. Suddenly, India was on the move.

Some years ago, I picked up the used Maruti 800 (SS80), one of the original 50,000 made, to have a slice of history in my garage. Driving it to celebrate its 40th birthday, of course, felt archaic in today’s digitally driven world but its core value of providing honest transportation for the masses is clear to see. The humble 800 wasn’t just a pioneering car but one that single-handedly steered India’s automobile industry.

No other car has left behind such a legacy. Hormazd Sorabjee is the editor of Autocar India. The views expressed are personal SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Share this article Share Via Copy Link ABOUT THE AUTHOR Hormazd Sorabjee Hormazd Sorabjee is one of the most senior and much loved auto journalists in India, and is the editor of Autocar India.

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