The British rule in India robbed India of its own industries to a very large extent. The British were never intersted in industrialisation India sent raw materials to Britain and imported British manufactured goods . In stead of installing manufacturing facilities in India they preferred to depend on imports from Britain and other European countries for the own benefits. Even ordinary use item like pencils , nibs for cheap holder pens , biscuits, tinned food items and so many other things were imported from other countries.
When India become independent it had to protect its economy. Therefore it became necessary to introduce very heavy custons duty on imported items to save foreign exchange and help india's own industries develop. But development of industries takes time. Meanwhile the result was that there was a crisis of availability of consumer products.
Until shaving razor blades were an imported item. There was not a single razor blade manufacturing unit. So when imort was restricted these good quality blades become very expensive in India. . 7 o'clock and Gillette blades were available for a very high price. people used to prolong the life of theses blades by using a blade sharpener (available in blue or light green colour).
As far as I remember the first blade manufactured in India some time in the 1950s was Bharat blade which was available for four Anna's for a pack of 5 blades.
It was a very poor quality blade and one needed alum to rub on the tiny cuts from this blade during shaving.
This was the period when India was in the process of starting industrialisation from a total neglect by British rulers. The first good quality blade became available only in 1966.
I remember that one day in the latter half of 1966 the first good Indian blade hit the market. It was Erasmic Silk Edge blade which was of a quality matching imported blades and it was not expensive at all.
The price was 50 paise for a pack of 5 blates and in the days following there was a big rush to buy these high quality blades.
Similar is the story of wristwatches. After independence, due to high customs duty, wristwatches became a very expensive item. By 1967 one had to part with around Rs.300 rupees to buy a standard imported watch (equal to around Rs. 30000 rupees of today). Good quality popular brands of wrist watches became out of reach of common man.
And then in 1967 came the first Indian watch - HMT Janata watch.
There was initially a huge rush at the sales points and I remember I purchased my first HMT Janata watch for a family member for rupees 107 and 50 paisa by standing in a long queue at the Patel Chowk GPO building in Delhi.
Today very good quality battery watches are dirt cheap.
The first refrigerator for home use manufactured by Godrej company was available in 1958 for a price of a little over rupees two thousand which is around 2 lakhs rupees of today. It was very expensive but unlike the fragile refrigerators of today it was an all stainless steel refrigerator and many of the refrigerators of those days of Godrej and other companies were working even after 40 years.
it was only in early nineties that floodgates for imports were opened in India and suddenly the world was our market ! Refrigerator was downgraded from the list of luxury items and taxes were drastically reduced. With cheaper components and low taxes refrigerators gradually became cheaper and cheaper and became part of the essential household items even in lower middle class people.
1971 one dosa
