First Indian Car- Aravind

Aravind Car, was built by a great visionary Late Mr. K. A. B. Menon, from Kerala in 1956. Here is a little history. The car is now in Kochi, Kerala. Less than 10 years after our independence, we needed little motivation to build things on our own. The term ‘of the people, for the people and by the people’ was more appropriate to us than anywhere else on the planet. In 1956, we did not need a Make in India movement, it was already understood.

Aravind Automobiles was established with the clear vision of its founder Late Mr. K. A. B. Menon, who believed way back then, that we possessed the ingenuity, hard work and the will to build anything. So he did just that, he built cars. With such fervency that people who saw his Aravind Baby, were proud that we weren’t any less than the West with their Cadillacs and Studebakers. Here was a not just a car, but a limousine built sans dies and hydraulics right here in the little known God’s own country.

It didn’t posses 7.3-litre, gas-gussling, V8 engines nor did we have roads like runways. We couldn’t build automatic-transmissions nor close-tolerance engine blocks. We were only allowed to think since the previous eight years; while the West had had a few-hundred-year head-start by then. While they had the technological prowess, we had muscular power. So Aravind Automobiles beat the sheets with their bare hands, and built the Aravind Baby.

Menon built it to show the country and its leaders way before Obama; “Yes, we can,” he told them, “and here I have”. He asked for support to start production of our own Indian car. He wanted to build a factory that gave jobs to people and something immeasurable – pride and dignity that was lost for centuries since the British. He was ready to have the government own part of it too. He believed he would be able to deliver a car like the Aravind Baby for a mere Rs.5,000.

But the innovation didn’t triumph bureaucracy. They didn’t give him the support. It went to Maruti Motors Limited established in June 1971, with Sanjay Gandhi as the MD. In 1966 (the same year Aravind was released), he built basic tin-cans with Triumph motorcycle engines validating the fact that he had no previous experience, design competence or foresight. Yet under the umbrella of his mother, he was awarded the contract to build the car and the exclusive production license.

Aravind Automobiles’ factory was given to the workmen as a co-operative society after Menon’s death. About eight years later it was liquidated. All that was left was this car that you see here destined to pass on within the family.On behalf of Aravind Automobiles, the heirs would like to stimulate your interest; in first restoring the last of its kind, and if the support is indeed patriotic, perhaps, even revive the brand.