Abstract

"Cars and Planes for Empire and Nation: World War II and Walchand Hirachand’s Industrial Ventures in India"

Aparajith Ramnath, Ahmedabad University (aparajith.ramnath@ahduni.edu.in)

This paper analyses the early history of automobile and aircraft manufacture in late-colonial India as an instance of businesses strategically positioning themselves as being in the ‘public interest’, construed in more than one way.

From the late 1930s, the industrialist Walchand Hirachand and his associates tried to establish pioneering factories for the production of cars and aeroplanes in India. Based on an analysis of Walchand Hirachand’s private papers, government archives, memoirs of key actors, and the relevant secondary literature, I show that Walchand positioned his ventures as serving the public interest in two ways, each of them addressing a different constituency. On the one hand, he lobbied the colonial government aggressively for subsidies and patronage, arguing that his proposed companies would provide military vehicles and planes for the Allied war effort. On the other hand, he drummed up support from the nationalist press on the grounds that the ventures would help to establish important industrial capabilities in India.
The results were mixed. Walchand did manage to set up Hindustan Aircraft Limited (1940) in Bangalore, but the factory was taken over during World War II by the colonial government, which bought out his stake. The government then turned it over to its American allies for use as a repair and maintenance centre for aircraft involved in the eastern war front. As for automobiles, the colonial armed forces continued to import cars and trucks from companies like Ford and GM during the war, delaying the start of local production. Nevertheless, the positioning of these ventures as not-merely-business had a marked influence on the two industries.