If there is a success story of Make In India, it should be told through the life of Brijmohan lall Munjal, the legendary founder of Hero Honda, whose motorcycles gave wheels to an emerging India and continues to impact the lives of ordinary Indians to this day
Historian Ramachandra Guha’s highly acclaimed and readable volume called the Makers of Modern India is an excellent primer on the leaders of the Congress who fought and died for India’s independence. However, modern India is not what we inherited in 1947; it is the India we live in today. On November 1, India lost one of its greatest sons who created a company that connected hundreds of millions of people through the products that it manufactured and continues to manufacture. You cannot exclude Brijmohan lall Munjal from the list of makers of modern India.
It seems almost ironic that Hero MotoCorp, the erstwhile Hero Honda, recently revived its legendary 1980’s ‘Fill It, Shut It, Forget It’ tagline. Hero Honda was not the first manufacturer of two-wheelers in India; it was, however, one of the first companies to make extremely reliable two-wheelers in India that were economical and affordable. Its advertising on Doordarshan on Sunday mornings showcased the frugality of these motorcycles in a resource-deprived and poor 1980s India.
Of course, some may argue that the Munjal family, whose tie-up with Japanese major Honda, approved by the Indira Gandhi Government of the 1980s, lucked into a fortuitous collaboration with the most successful two-wheeler manufacturer in the world. However, Bajaj tied up with Kawasaki, TVS with Suzuki, and Escorts with Yamaha — the other members of Japan’s big four motorcycle manufacturers.
Also, despite the Hero group being one of the world’s largest bicycle manufacturers by the early 1980s, Munjal, his brothers and his sons were not assured of success. India was going through a tough time, the economy was dominated by a cozy club of businesses known as ‘the Bombay club’ who were not going to let a Punjabi from Delhi, a Johnny-come-lately, break their monopolistic manipulation of the bureaucratic red tape.
During an emotional interview back in 2007, to mark the 60th anniversary of India’s independence, Munjal mentioned the number of sacrifices he had to make. As a young man in his early 20s, he had to abandon his ancestral home in west Punjab, during the communal violence that preceded Partition. Some of his family members were abducted and possibly even killed by mobs. Yet, a young Brijmohan lall Munjal found himself on the lawns of Rajpath (then Kingsway) hearing Jawaharlal Nehru deliver his ‘Tryst with Destiny’ speech.
Munjal and his brothers, including Om Prakash Munjal, who passed away months back, set up a cycle repair shop in Chandni Chowk, as young India dealt with one of the worst refugee crises in recorded history. The shop, given to the brothers as part of a programme to help refugees find their feet, was to become a tryst with two-wheelers for the Munjal brothers. From repairing cycles, the brothers started making parts for cycles and, eventually, after shifting to ludhiana, they started manufacturing cycles, and despite intense competition, became a leader in the space.
Brijmohan lall Munjal and his sons felt that the company had more to offer than just being regular cycle manufacturers. A decade before the reforms of 1991, the Indira Gandhi Government overturned three decades of extreme socialism and allowed Indian companies to tie-up with foreign partners. Japan was the only large developed economy to jump at the chance — the famous Maruti-Suzuki tie-up was also born at this juncture.
But while Maruti was a quasi-monopoly, success was not assured for Hero Honda. Munjal spoke about the hours spent in Government offices such as in Shastri Bhawan. “Even if you required a few more sacks of cement, you had to get a Joint Secretary to sign off”, Munjal had wistfully mentioned. Also, his old rival Rahul Bajaj of Bajaj Auto had bet on the scooter, which was through the 1980s and early 1990s, the preferred mode of transportation for urban Indians.
However, a relentless focus on building relationships, not only with the Government but also with dealers, paid off handsomely for Hero Honda. As tastes changed, the reliability and efficiency of Hero Honda’s products began to pay-off. This, coupled with an intensive dealer network and excellent dealer relationships, made Hero Honda a global leader, allowing the company to overtake Bajaj in 2002, as India’s largest two-wheeler manufacturer.
A measure of Hero Honda and Munjal’s success is evident from the fact that a Rs2,000 investment in the company at the share offering in 1985 is worth over Rs62.5 lakh today. A return of 3,100 times in 30 years, no matter how one spins this fact, is a no mean feat. Hero Honda did not only give millions of Indians mobility, but it also created an immense amount of wealth.
Well before India’s mobile phone revolution, Hero Honda connected millions of Indians, not just in cities but also in the villages. In a country, plagued by poor public transport connectivity, and one where cars remained the privilege of a few, Hero Honda gave wheels to India. Villages and towns between which transit often took hours on buses and trains were brought closer. The four-stroke motorcycle, championed by Munjal, played an outsized role in connecting India, and for this alone Munjal ought be remembered as one of India’s greatest industrialists and a son who gave back more to the country than he took.
But tragedy never left Munjal’s life. His eldest son Raman Kant passed away in the prime of his life, a memory that the old man could never forget. When in 2011, Hero and Honda parted ways, after almost three decades of partnership, Brijmohan lall sat on the stage, as cold speeches were being delivered at a Press conference, his eyes wet with sadness.
Munjal and his other sons, Pawan Kant and Sunil Kant, have taken the company forward, building new factories and are now developing a large research and development centre on the outskirts of Jaipur. The company is also following Bajaj Auto in building a comprehensive global sales and manufacturing network, with outposts both near and far — opening a manufacturing unit in Colombia just a month ago.
If there is a success story of Make In India, it should be told through the story of Brijmohan lall Munjal — a Maker of Modern India and a man whose products touched almost every Indian and continue to impact the lives of Indians today. His was a truly rags to riches story.