Once upon a drive

INDEPENDENCE SPECIAL/ MOTORING

An automotive historian looks back on India's car culture.

Manvendra Singh is a slightly miffed man. He is unhappy that while marques like Chevrolet and Ford have made a comeback in the country, they portray themselves as new brands.

Which is a pity, according to him, because they don't seem to have any use for the rich history that they had built decades back in the subcontinent.

He should know. Manvendra Singh, or more appropriately, Prince Manvendra Singh of Barwani, is not just one of the finest restorers of classic and vintage cars in the country, but is acknowledged as India's foremost automotive historian as well.

He is the only Indian on the board of the international Society of Automotive Historians, but typical of him, he'd rather be known as an automotive enthusiast.

"Chevrolet and Ford have had an immense brand culture in India. I hope General Motors (GM) and Ford understand it. They should use their history for today's marketing. Look at Rolls-Royce which is using it so successfully," he says.

Along with GM and Ford, even Chrysler had a significant presence in the country, and all of them shut shop in the early 1950s when government policies made it difficult to do business.

"Since then, nothing significant happened in the country, till Maruti and Suzuki came along in 1984. So for those 30 years, we were like Cuba!"

The coming of Suzuki was a watershed in Indian automotive history, and it was only afterwards that we started getting a choice of cars, despite initial hiccups like the Fiat Uno, Peugeot 309, Rover Montego, and, as Singh says, "oddballs like Sipani and Standard".

Yes, but we had Hindustan Motors and Premier Automobiles filling up the void to an extent. But that had an effect on our automotive culture.

"We were in a cocoon, we were isolated and we were starved. Take the 1959 Chevrolet Impala for instance. It was radical to look at, it couldn't have been more than Rs 8,000 to Rs 15,000... but it created a sensation. Those who had the money "" industrialists, businessmen, film stars "" bought it for prices ranging between Rs 35,000 and Rs 40,000 from the black market," says Singh.

Well, even if we did have the cars we wanted, we did not have the roads and the infrastructure to support these machines. No wonder, then, that the suspension of a car was the most important factor in making a purchase decision in the late-1940s and 1950s.

"Let alone road quality, until the late 1950s, even long-distance motoring was not so popular in the country. We hardly had any roads that people could travel for 500 miles without having to worry about stopping for food or fuel," he says.

The fallout of not having proper access to service also meant that owners knew their cars inside-out then. Even the car dealers took the time to explain how to carry out basic repairs and maintenance to customers during delivery.

To Singh, it is important to bring back the automotive culture India had in the past.

He says, "We should be glad we have the choice today, but it is unfortunate that the knowledge of the brands and the cars is absent. But I am hopeful "" it is just a matter of time before India will get its car culture back."