THE THINGS THAT MAKE US INDIAN

The story of some of India’s favourite products can trace the history of our nation’s evolution

- Shreevatsa Nevatia and Naorem Anuja

Objects, though inanimate, can sometimes tell our story better than we can. Gandhi’s charkha, for instance, is testament to both the Mahatma’s simplicity and his power to disrupt. From the Amul butter we spread on our toast, to the Bajaj scooter we rode in the 80s, everyday objects—ordinary, sometimes extraordinary, things—have guided our habits and our lives. They have brought us delight, comfort, even emancipation. Our identity, we see, is coded, in part, in our shopping list. As independent India turns 75, we celebrate the things that have been loyal companions in our freedom.

HOW WE COMMUNICATED

Godrej Typewriter (1955–2011)

By 1947, Godrej had already built for itself a solid reputation. Founded in 1897, the company’s popular soaps were free of animal fat; its lockers and steel almirahs had also proven to be sturdy. A few months after Independence, Pirojsha Godrej was visibly excited when his son, Naval, proposed they start manufacturing typewriters. As Pirojsha knew, they’d be the first in Asia to do this.

Having cornered the Indian market, the Remington typewriter had already ushered in a new modernity by having mechanised writing, making it faster and universally legible. Women, too, had started joining the workforce as typists, but the M-9, Godrej’s “all Indian” typewriter, first introduced in 1955, earned vast appeal and was hailed by PM Jawaharlal Nehru as the symbol of an “independent and industrialised” India. Here was “today’s typewriter with a touch of tomorrow”.