In 1955, Godrej launched Model M-9 - the first all Indian typewriter, and made Indians proud by being the perfect example of ‘swadeshi’ manufacturing. Prior to that, typewriters were mainly imported or assembled in India and it was the foreign giants such as Remington (USA) and Halda (Sweden) who dominated the typewriter scene. During the 1940s and 50s, typewriters were still considered a luxury good and were more prominently used in government offices and commercial organizations, rather than common households. So when it came to seeking customers for the newly launched Godrej typewriters, the sales and marketing teams at Godrej focused their attention on the public and private companies in India. One such organization was Air India International. Discover the details of a deal between Godrej and Air India International in our ‘Document of the Month’. As for the role and impact of typewriters in the Indian office spaces, note the words of historian David Arnold: “Within the office environment, typewriters did not exist in technological isolation but were part of a whole range of new machines – stenographs, telephones, electric fans, duplicators, calculators – that transformed India’s bureaucratic work-regime and called for new techno-logical and clerical skills. Where writers and clerks had once sat on tall stools and leant against high sloping desks to do their work, pen in hand, now they sat behind machines working at a horizontal desk. Just as bicycles and rickshaws ousted palanquins from city streets and electric fans replaced punkahs, so the typewriter brushed aside many of the traditional instruments and skills of the Indian scribe. While some of India’s old service communities adapted to the needs of the typewriter age, an opportunity was created for new castes and communities, and for women as well as men, to enter the office workplace.” (Excerpt taken from our book “With Great Truth and Regard – A history of typewriters in India”, Ed. Sidharth Bhatia, 2017)

'Phone: 77141 (5 lines) GODREJ & BOYCE MFG.CO.PRIVATE LTD., 'Grams: GODREJSAFE LALBAUG, PAREL, BOMBAY-12.

Ref.No. MAA/TY/Cir/1898 20th May, 1958.

Please address your reply to: 'Sales' Dept.

ALL BRANCHES, BOIALORE, MYSORE, NAGPUR, LUCKNOW, AMITSAR, JULLUNDUR, CHANDIGARH, JAIPUR, INDORE, BHOPAL, AHMEDABAD ) POONA, PATNA ) COCHIN, TRIVANDRUM AND BHAVNAGAR STOCKISTS, and WAUDBY ROAD OFFICE.

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Purchase of our Typewriters by AIR-INDIA International.

We have pleasure in informing you that as a sequel to a very successful demonstration given of our typewriter to AIR-INDIA International ) Bombay)

they have now decided vide their letter No. CSP/175C/00881 dated 22-4-'58 to standardise on the use of our typewriters for all their stations in India.

For your information, we may add here that as a very special case, we have offered our typewriters to them at the Rate Contract price of Rs,640.00 (Rs.sixhundred and forty only) net per machine exclusive of all taxes.

For GODREJ & Boyce Mfg.Co.Private Ltd. rk Stl: May/43

Sd/-R.K. SANJANA

Sales Manager.

Acknowledgment Purchase of our Typewriters by AIR-INDIA International.

Receipt is hereby acknowledged of your circular No.HAA/Cir/1898 dt. 20th May, 1958.

Signature

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