HMT - The General's Choice

As General Naravane retires his HMT watch today, I remember the legacy of this iconic brand.

Indian leadership is high

Back in 1947, the ruling class of India was high. Despite making up a mess of the partition (the conseuences of which will be faced by many generations to come), they were still high.

The world had changed and old Indian thought processes were out of fashion with our elites. One radical ideology grabbed their attention - 'Socialism'. Post WW2, USSR was a strong block and China was also inclined towards Communism. Indian elites though lived and studied in the capitalist west (Cambridge, Oxford etc.), strangely developed a taste for socialism.

Socialism starts with a bang

And so they began setting up a grand Socialist state. While business people had to suffer infinite bureaucratic hurdles (especially if they were not firends with the government), state owned enterprises had the highway for themselves.

Hindustan Machine Tools Limited (popularly known as HMT) was setup under complete government ownership in 1953, with a specific focus on developing tools. Over the time they developed collaboration with major companies around the world and got hold of their technology and knowledge. Their most popular product line was wrist watches, which made them a household name.

Enterprises like HMT had a real chance to succeed and contribute to the growth of India. Very similar to how TSMC (Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corporation) did it for Taiwan. The state owned TSMC ushured Taiwan into modernity and became a global gem that it is today. Its the secret sauce underlying success of American giants like Appple, Nvidia and Qualcomm.

Traditional Vaishya community

India has been a varna and jaati based society from the time immemorial. Businessmen and traders have been very influential in the Indian society all along. They were not just a jaati, they had a dedicated varna for themselves - 'Vaishya'. For thousands of years Vaishya were the most prosperous people in the world.

However, as the great civilization declined, they too declined. For hundreds of years, Muslim rulers collected unfairly huge taxes from them and gave enormous land and market grants to their Muslim friends from Iran and Turkey. Later British dumped their cheap machine made goods into the country and destroyed whatever was left of Indian businesses. Although, still rich and prosperous as compared to others in the country, Vaishya were not in a great position to kick start the revival of an economy comprising of millions of impoverished people who were reproducing very fast.

The socialist dream is shattered

This is why HMT had a great opportunity and a big duty towards the nation. They had no competition, they had the technology and they had the power of the state behind them. They could have ushered India into a modern era where jaati and varna would have been a thing of the past and modern institutions would have become a center of skill, wealth, power and knowledge.

Fast forward a few decades, HMT was not doing very well. Overprotected by the government, they became lethargic. Government still hoped that HMT would fulfill the socialist dream. In the meanwhile traditional business class was suffocating under the bureaucracy and not doing well either, but they were making small efforts.

By the late 1980s, the government went financially broke and Americans forced them to open up the economy for private sector and foreign investment in early 1990s. Suddently HMT had to compete with the best of the world and they were not prepared. In 1990s, the horrors of partition struck again with the revivial of Islamic terrorism in the Kashmir valley. HMTs Srinagar plant closed as skilled migrant workers left Kashmir valley for safer places. HMT could never recover from these blows and became irrelevant.

Fast forward a few more decades to today where if you ask a 15 year old kid about HMT, they will look puzzled. They are likely blackmailing their parents for an Apple Watch right now.

The tradition survives

All along the socialist era to today, the Vaishyas survived. As always they are rich and prosperous. They still own most big businesses in the country. Despite bureaucratic hurdles, they laid the foundation of major businesses during tough socialist times. Some of them ended up being very successful. Recently they have also taken up fancy things like startups and venture capital. Political parties depend on them for electoral funding. Government officials depend on them for bribes that fund American education and vacations for their kids. Honest government officials (though a rare breed) depend on government revenue of which a major chunk comes from taxing business and related activities. Overall, today the government is more dependent on them than ever before.

In the neighbourhood, the Communist China emerged as a superpower. They turned out to be smarter, made a course correction and contrary to the communist ideology, started enabling their private businesses. Core components of many watches sold in India today originate from China. Vaishyas figured out that importing from China, re-branding and selling in India is a great business. Its fair to say that the communist China has created enormous business opportunities in India.

The General moves on

Within the government, the socialist spirit still thrives. HMT is still operational. There is a hope that a socialist avatar will be born, take charge of the leadership, undo all the mistakes of the past and eventually rewrite the history in their favour.

While the wait for the socialist avatar continues, General Naravane has retired his HMT watch today. For now he should try a Samsung watch. Samsung makes great products and I wouldn't shy away from recommending them to anyone. However, I suspect like most contemporary Indian elites, he won't even consider Samsung and will simply buy an Apple Watch. If he fancies European elites, he might have somebody gift him a Rolex or a Tag Heuer. Irrespective of what he choses, it's good to seem him move away from HMT for now. Who knows if the avatar arrives soon and he gets a chance to wear HMT (hopefully a smartwhatch this time) again.