GODREJ ARCHIVES RESTORE | REFLECT | REIMAGINE

Godrej Hospital Furniture Collection (1950s) catalogued

Inside this Issue:

Continue reading about Hospi-tal Furniture in Vignettes from Hospital Furniture Collection (p.2)

Find out about the Godrej Ar-chives Oral History Project and how OH can be used in chroni-cling Institutional histories in Godrej Archives becomes a founding member of Oral His-tory Association of India (OHAI) (p.3)

The once indispensable type-writer gave rise to a prolifera-tion of subsidiary units manu-facturing peripheral equipment. The tumultuous journey of one such unit in Allahabad in Caracter Type: Story behind the Indian ‘face’ of global brands (p.3)

The success of an exhibition, is measured by the reactions it invokes. Catch the reactions in ’Pirojshanagar Then and Now: An Enriching Experience’ (p.4)

July, 2012 Volume 1, Issue 4

temporarily stop the manufacture of a number of standard items. Circulars issued in 1961 indicate that the company planned to discontinue the entire range of prod-ucts as soon as the material in stock was cleared. By mid-1960s Godrej & Boyce had exited the hospital furniture market only to bounce back a couple of years ago under the name ‘Healthcare Solutions’ with iconic products like Chrysalis, Elixir & Vita. Descriptive cata-logues of the afore-mentioned 16 files on hospital furniture are now available for re-search and reference at Godrej Archives. Shweta Sawant

“What? Hospital furniture in 1961?!” exclaimed a young visitor at an exhibition curated by Godrej Archives recently. If that’s news to some of you, then let me confirm it. Indeed, since 1935, Godrej offered a wide range of hospital furniture products like beds, examining and operating tables, Surgical Instrument Cabinets, etc. in a variety of models. While not much is known about our tryst with this product category, a collection of 16 files titled ‘Hospital Miscel lane-ous’(1958-59), comprising correspondence between customers & stockists and Godrej, provide a glimpse into this business vertical. Documents pertaining to enquiries and order bookings reveal an intricate and wide network

of dealers from Srinagar in Kashmir to Thiru-vananthapuram in Kerala and from Bhavnagar in Gujarat to Jorhat in Assam. Besides providing a comprehensive sense of our client base, the col-lection subtly hints at the larger economic situation affecting the country’s manufacturing sector in the late 1950s. A severe steel crisis and a shortage of raw material on the whole, gravely affected our delivery schedules. There are numerous documents carrying complaints of delay in delivery of goods, in some cases the delays amounting to almost one or two years! Looking at the odds, towards the end of 1950s, Godrej had to

Below: “Fowler-Position” Bedstead (HFB-1) and Right: Canteen Trolley Source: Hospital Furniture Catalogue, 1951, MS08-01419-268

Above: Wheelchair (Model HIC—40) and Right: Irriga-tor Stands.

The Archives Times

Vignettes from the Hospital Furniture Collection

June, 2012

An act of Kindness Wendy Simons, a polio victim was distraught when doctors declared that she would never walk again. On a special request made by the Chairman of the Poor Fund Sub-Committee of B.E.R.A. (Bombay European Relief Association), Godrej not only pro-vided for a Folding wheel chair, with specially modi-fied canvas footrests but also gave a 10% discount for the same!

Tackling the steel crisis One of the tactics used to combat steel shortage, espe-cially in the case of bedside lockers, was to replace stainless steel tops with glass tops. See below a circular issued by Manager R K Sanjana, in November 1958, ex-plaining the switch

A Pat on the back! Godrej furniture products owed its popularity to the com-pany’s commitment to ‘Trust’ & ‘Quality’. In 1958, the Di-rector of Industries of Uttar Pradesh, taking into considera-tion the complaints of indentors regarding the poor and flimsy quality of hospital furniture provided by other manu-facturers, awarded the Contract for hospital furniture to Godrej; in spite of the fact that our prices were higher com-pared to others!

Extent of Material on Hospital Furniture Godrej Archives has in its collection 16 files (1958 - 59) exclusively on hospital furniture business and a large number of related circulars scattered across the Circulars Collection (1940s-1970s). Besides, two specific files titled ‘Hospital General Bom-bay’ (1958) and ‘Foreign Hospital Furniture’ (1954), 2 product catalogues and 27 black and white pho-tographs make up the rest of the collection

Files: MS08-01-419-35 to 49 MS08-01-419-129 MS08-01-419-382 MS08-22-8-1 Photographs: PH10-20-17-16 Product Catalogues: CAT-FIG-1 CAT-ALL-5

Text & Research: Shweta Sawant

A legacy of customized solutions Depending on requests, we often modified our prod-ucts to cater to the client’s specific requirements. Modifications ranged from the complicated—like in the peculiar case of special tables for examination of dead bodies - to sometimes downright simple— an additional rod on one side of a Bedside locker for hanging towels!

The Archives Times

Cubic pica, madrid pica... These words were once an inseparable part of the typists' world. With every tap of the key these types left their indelible mark on paper. We may know enough about type-writer manufacturers and the brands, but little do we know about the makers of typefaces. On a recent visit to Allahabad for our forthcoming book on the socio-economic history of typewriters in India, we met Naresh Sagar a type-face manufacturer for the last three decades. His firm ‘Caracter Type’ was in fact the only supplier of typefaces for all manufacturers including Godrej, Remington, Facit and Halda in India. Naresh Sagar narrated the fascinating tale of manufacturing typefaces: His joining the business was purely by accident. In late 1960s Naresh Sagar’s cousin started the busi-ness on the insistence of his father-in-law who was then into type-writer selling and renting business. Indian typewriter manufacturers

around this time imported type-faces from a German company and were initially rather unwilling to switch over to an Indian supplier. As a result, Caracter Type incurred losses for almost a decade but somehow managed to sustain. In 1977 Mr. Sagar joined the fac-tory, around the time, the Govern-ment of India banned the import of types (much to his relief), in spite of strong opposition from typewriter manufacturers. The resistance was short-lived and soon Caracter Types was able to convince poten-tial buyers of their improved prod-uct quality and a steady Indian cli-entele started taking shape. By 1980s, they started supplying type-faces to Godrej as well and it is believed that at their peak, they produced 250,000 types a year.

As the world became increasingly high-tech, the Sagars noticed a steady decline in demand. One after the other, the typewriter companies were closing down. The final nail in the coffin arrived when the last player in the manual typewri ter world—Godrej—decided to wrap up their type-writer plant. It was the ominous warning bell that hinted at the end of an era. But Caracter Type remains stead-fast and has decided to continue for a while in face of a regular de-mand from a Chinese Company supplying to South Asian markets. When we visited the factory, four machines on the shop-floor were busy producing Burmese type-faces. They are aware that they too will soon have to wrap up and that it will be a difficult decision to leave what they have nurtured for dec-ades. Vrunda Pathare

Godrej Archives becomes a founder member of OHAI

July, 2012

Godrej Archives, is the only cor-porate house to join an otherwise eclectic group of academics, film-makers, activists and writers, who met in Bangalore last month to form the Oral History Association of India (OHAI) - the first ever fo-rum of its kind in the country, aiming to encourage and promote a vital although often neglected tool in historical research. ‘Oral history’ or the method of recording an individual’s experi-ence through conversation is an imperative tool in documenting the life-stories of those sections of society whose struggles are strangely absent in official texts. Some of the founding members of OHAI, for instance, are indi-viduals who employ this tech-nique in gender and anthropologi-cal studies while some others have used it in writing the histo-ries of Bhopal Gas tragedy vic-tims and mill-workers of Bombay. In an organisational frame-work too, Oral History can provide a unique window into a company’s

history. Intangible histories in the form of memories and insights of employees and customers are just as valuable a resource as historical documents. Oral History interviews by illuminating smaller stories that would have gone un-heard, fill gaping holes in the his-toric narrative, whenever a dearth of documental evidence is no-ticed. In other words, Institutional Oral Histories seek to piece to-gether the larger history (of the company/institute) by tracing the life-stories of individuals. Godrej Archives, since its incep-tion in 2006, has been using this novel tool in chronicling the his-tory of the company and has so far conducted more than 240 in-terviews. The criteria for selecting an inter-viewee is kept simple i.e. anyone who has had a long association with the company and/or a per-son who has held a position of authority and influence. Our all-inclusive OH collection, therefore

contains interviews of employ-ees across the hierarchy from workmen (in a language of their choice) to plant managers and Business Heads. Likewise, its a deliberate aim to cover a wide range of subjects from depart-ment and branch histories to the inception and development of many Godrej CSR initiatives.

Godrej Archives, the only corpo-rate archives on the forum, brings to the table a very unique set of skills and challenges in the field of Oral History in India. We look forward to our associa-tion with OHAI and hope to learn from the experiences of other founder members. Sanghamitra Sen

Caracter Type: Story behind the Indian ‘face’ of global brands

“Oral History seeks to piece together the larger

history of the company by tracing the life-story of an

Individual”

The Archives Times July, 2012

We’d love to engage in a dialogue. Contact: Godrej Archives, Plant 19A, Pirojshanagar, L B S Marg, Vikhroli West, Mumbai-400079; Tel: 022-67964124/2014/1054; Website: www.archives.godrej.com; Email: archives@godrej.com; Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Godrej-Archives

The Godrej Archives exhibition, “Pirojshanagar: Then and Now”, was enjoyed by more than 1800 visitors from all over Mumbai including students, residents, past and present employees, vendors and contractors.

The reactions were varied: for school and college students, it was an experience to delve into a history quite different from their curriculum while for younger em-ployees the history of the town-ship was inspiring. For Former employees like Mr. Eruch Mistry, Mr. Patrawalla and Senior Citi-zens Group from Hill side colony, the exhibition was an opportunity to rekindle fond memories of the

years gone by. The exhibition proved to be a wonderful way of unearthing new information and soon enough roles were reversed with employ-ees taking on the task of identify-ing and contextualising the mate-rial displayed. Mr. Ravindra Ka-dam, for Instance, made repeat visits to the exhibition to help us identify former colleagues seen in photographs and video footage. Another employee, Mr. Narayan More, who worked as a helper in Pragati Kendra (Welfare Center) in the initial years, remembered the many different ways in which Late Mrs. Soonuben Godrej helped him out in his work. Did you know that Mrs. Sushila, an expert in Batik and other skills was awarded the title ‘Designer of Godrej’ by Lillian Carter (mother of former US President Jimmy Carter)? People indirectly related to the company such as Mr. Sunil Kore of K. C. Industries – Engineers, Fabricators & Powder Coaters also enjoyed it a lot and discov-ered many aspects about Godrej previously unknown. Mr. Irfan

Chauhan, a third generation construction contractor, nar-rated his grandfather’s involve-ment in the construction of Udayachal School and the Per-sian Bull Statue near Gate no. 7.

The exhibi-tion also brought in b u d d i n g a r c h i v i s t s and scholars interested in rather un-usual but poten t i a l l y rich sub-jects—e.g. successive generations of families employed in Godrej.

‘Pirojshanagar: then and Now’ gave us the opportunity to showcase our rich collection; but the unexpected exchange of information between visitors and Godrej Archives, made it an en-riching experience for both. Sudha Sawant

Pirojshanagar Then and Now: An Enriching Experience

Ms. Sulbhaben, seen standing in the photograph was identified by Mrs. Dana Chauhan

Images identified by Mr. Ravindra Kadam: Source: “The Godrej Story”, 1970s-80s, (Image 1) BRO-GOD-8 2. Mr. Govekar 3. Mr. Sawk Shah, Fitter 4. Mrs, Seema, Tailoring Teacher 5. Mr. Shetty, Craft teacher and Mr. Prakash Parab, student 6. Mr. George Eipe

V C Thomas slow-cycling at a company organized sports event, 1970s