Story of Aravind - The first car in India

This article will tell you a bit of history of the Automobiles, and the first car in India.

Ever wondered, which was the first self-inspired and self-made car in India?

Well, if your answer is Hindustan Motors (HM) and Premier Automobiles Ltd. (PAL) then you might be wrong, to some extent as they were inspired by, and hugely based on Foreign Automobile companies. The car 'Ambassador' by HM was as good as a copy of the 'Morris Oxford series' from the UK. On the other hand; PAL, before launching their first car in 1947, had gone on a negotiation with 'Chrysler corporation' for a license to make Plymouth Car.

So, what is the right answer to the aforementioned question?

Well, it's ARAVIND - The first car in India which was self-inspired and came afresh out of the brain of an Indian.

Just like today's industry, wherein innumerable start-ups pop-up and vanish in no time, there were many Automotive ventures, back in those days, who struggled real hard but succumbed to the monopoly of their contemporary Automobile giants. One of those, was ARAVIND AUTOMOBILES.

The company produced 3 cars, out of which, the third one is what you just saw.

BIRTH:

After Goa became a part of India, luxury cars started being on sale. The Maharaja of Travancore, showed his interest to his secretaries, Mr V.P. Tampi and Mr K.A Balakrishnan Menon, to get him a luxury car from Goa.

After touring around the city, searching for a car, they returned to the hotel sad and exhausted as they couldn't find one, that would measure up to the elegance of Maharaja. But, Mr. Menon, who happened to be an Automobile enthusiast wasn't really able to give up on this. So, he himself started sketching schematics of a car on a piece of paper that he thought, would be the best fit for the aristocracy of Maharaja.

Mr. Tampi initially thought, Menon was just doing it out of frustration but, Menon, on a serious note, told him that if he can't find a suitable car, he would just make the whole car on his own.

What's next? Did it just remain, a design?

A strong determination can achieve anything! That's what happened with Mr. Menon. When he presented the idea to The Maharaja, he gave him his old 1939 Cadillac to modify into his brainchild. But, he was given a condition that if he fails, the entire cost of modification and restoration would be on him.

Under tremendous pressure, Menon started working day and night along with some of his known blacksmiths. And guess what! After a hard work of about 10 months, the beauty, the brainchild of Mr. Menon, the Aravind Palace Special was born on 29th of May, 1965.

The Maharaja was flabbergasted to see the birth of a car by his own secretary that was conceived exclusively for him. His happiness had no match and showed immense gratitude to Menon. Also, the press was present at the launch of the car from Aravind Automobiles. Mr Menon was applauded for his impeccable skills which resulted in building a car of its own kind.

How did the company disappear?

Mr. Menon responded to a tender that was advertised by the government of Indira Gandhi, for the small car project and came up with the Model. But, despite so much of appreciation and recognition, why did the company not continue making cars? Well, we all know that such a scalable venture can't just run without a support and hence, the discontinuity. 

Mr Menon tried his utmost to get the support from the government to set up a factory where he could make cars for as low as Rs.5000 in those days. But, ironically, the government which should help the start-ups to grow were more focusing on the companies that were well established already. That's how we lost ARAVIND and perhaps will never be able to call something 'Purely Indian' again, when it comes to Automobiles. But yes, the name of ARAVIND will be second to none whenever we happen to talk about 'The first car in India'.

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