The Hindu Business Line : Progress on wheels

India lives in its villages. And India moves on six wheels, not four. Don’t these two statements hold good even today? Long before the automobile industry acquired the sheen of glamour that the proliferation of new passenger cars brought with it, the sector was dominated by commercial vehicles (CV).

The CV industry was a far better barometer of the health of the economy, hogged all of the policymaker’s attention and was inextricably involved in nation building. No wonder then that The Story of Ashok Leyland reads like the veritable story of independent India itself.

Moving India on Wheels — The Story of Ashok Leyland is quite literally a biography of one of India’s biggest automotive companies. Beguilingly packaged to look like a coffee-table book, it stores between its covers a treasure trove of information on the contributions of Ashok Leyland to the industrialisation and motorisation of India post Independence.

The book chronicles in meticulous detail the story of the transformation of Ashok Motors from a small assembler of Austin cars in 1948 to the conglomerate that it is today.

During the process of narrating Ashok Leyland’s story, amply supported by rare photographs and reproductions from history, the authors also set the record straight on several counts.

Take, for example, our assumption that the success of Chennai (formerly Madras) during the last decade in attracting investments from automobile companies is the reason for it being called the ‘Detroit of India’. Apparently, the attribution is four decades old. Also, we tend to think that the potential of India’s English-speaking population is only now being recognised worldwide. According to the book, “it is related that in 1954, when Donald Stokes, Sales Chief of Leyland UK, had to decide on setting up shop in Brazil or India, he opted for the latter because no one in Leyland spoke Portuguese — necessary for Brazil — whereas India spoke English.”

Moving India on Wheels starts off by talking about the beginnings of motor transport in India, with a special focus on Madras and its neighbourhood. The succeeding chapters however deal with how Raghunandan Saran, the founder of Ashok Motors, started the company to assemble Austin cars and later transformed it into a manufacturer of mass transport.

While it is fascinating to read about the early days of the manufacturer and the joint venture, the travails of the company during the days of the ‘Licence Raj’ is of particular interest. Today, we take for granted the opportunities that companies have in acquiring a global footprint and independently expanding operations to suit market conditions. However, just a little over 30 years ago, the situation was not the same. Sections of the book serve as a stark reminder of the crippling effect of the Licence Raj on India Inc.

Quoting R. Seshasayee, Managing Director of Ashok Leyland, the book says, “In the initial years, it was a question of persuading Government to allow the company to make marginal licensed capacity increases. The company even had to go and answer to the Government why it exceeded industrial engine production beyond licensed capacity. The market was starved of engines, but you had this awkward situation where it had to go and explain its breach of licensing conditions when it produced more to satisfy customer needs! So, the company had to be content selling what it produced at the doorstep and not being able to produce enough for a starving market in the rest of the country.”

The book has been co-authored by S. Muthiah, famously known as the ‘Chronicler of Madras’ (now Chennai), and K. N. Gopalan, who was the Company Secretary of Ashok Leyland from 1956 to 1991. Moving India on Wheels is a highly recommended read for historians, students tracking the Indian automotive industry and for anyone keen on getting valuable insights into the history of business in India.

The book is available for orders online at www.ashokleyland.com

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