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Which car was known as the pearl of the East?
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One of the oldest cars seen in India was a Serpollet, a French car, named after its inventor. It was noticed by one Peter Moore, a Professor of mechanical engineering at the University of London, while he was wheeling through India on his worldwide tour.
The first car was imported by the sixth Nizam of Hyderabad in 1895. The first Rolls Royce, known as the pearl of the East, was brought into the country in 1908 by the then Maharaja of the Gwalior State, Madhava Rao Scindia, who was the grandfather of the Railway Minister during Mr. Rajeev Gandhi’s government, Mr. Madhav Rao Scindia. However, the market for the cars in India was very limited in those days.
Thus, the Indian market was monopolised by the two domestic manufacturers, who were manufacturing the foreign-designed Ambassador and Premier Cars. This went on for nearly forty years. While the automobile industry in the world had undergone a sea-change, in India, it was still using the obsolete technology.
In 1959, the Government of India appointed on official committee, under the Chairmanship of an able administrator-economist, Mr. L. K. Jha, to study the possibility of manufacturing India’s own low budget car called the people’s car. A similar committee was again appointed under another official, Mr. G. Pande, in 1961.
A big nationwide debate followed as to what type of car India should have, whether it should be manufactured in the public or private sector. Those were the days when the public sector was the most acceptable form of economic system considered in India. Therefore, the general consensus was that the car should be produced in the public sector and it should be priced as to be within the reach of the growing middle class of the country.
Then come the oil crisis of the 1970s. It shook the whole world, especially India and the western developed countries, which were dependent on imported oil. In Europe and the United States, public debates started, actuated by the environmentalists and government economists, whether it was proper to have huge oil consuming big cars or to have small economical family cars which would not be petrol-guzzlers. The consensus, therefore emerged that India should manufacture a small fuel efficient car, which should be within the reach of the growing middle class of the country.
Thus, the debate, which had started during the time of India’s first Prime Minister Pt. Jawahar Lal Nehru came to fruition in the late 1970s. The decision to set up the project to manufacture a small fuel efficient car was quickened because the late Sanjay Gandhi, the younger son of the former Prime Minister, Mrs. Indira Gandhi, took active interest in this project. He set up a company in the private sector to manufacture the car, named Maruti, in collaboration with the Japanese automobile market leader Suzuki.
After Mr. Sanjay Gandhi’s untimely death in an aircrash, the government took over the company, and thus the Maruti Udyog Limited was born in 1984. And ever since the Maruti car appeared on the Indian roads during the last few years, the automobile scene has witnessed a sea change. Now, nearly 70 percent of India’s domestic market is served by the Maruti Car. Maruti has become the status symbol for India’s burgeoning middle classes. Estimated to be 150 million, this segment of population is larger than Europe’s combined market, which emerged after the European community came into existence legally in 1992. The car has also brought about quality consciousness among the automobile consumers as well as dealers. The automobile sector, which was almost negligible earlier, has started expanding.