If you were living during the typewriter age in Malaysia, you would have heard of famous brands like Olympia, Adler, Royal, Nakajima, Brother, Olivetti & Kofa, among others.
But you would have unlikely heard about the Godrej typewriter, available in the 1960s.
Godrej Typewriter Background
It was manufactured by Godrej and Boyce in India.
Back in the 1940s, India relied on imported typewriters. Either they were imported directly, or their parts were assembled in India.
A popular model was the Remington.
Remington captured the Indian typewriter market by offering typewriters in such languages as Marathi, Gujarati, Devanagari, Urdu, Arabic, and Gurmukhi as early as 1910, according to The Print.
With nationalism sweeping across the country, India wanted to produce its typewriter.
The idea was mooted in 1948, and Godrej and Boyce were tasked to produce it.
However, the project took off only in 1955, after India’s Independence.
Godrej became the first company in Asia to manufacture typewriters on a large scale. The first released model was called Godrej Prima.
Godrej emerged to be the largest typewriter manufacturer in the world.
However, with the emergence of computers in the 2000s, production slowed down.
The typewriter manufacturing plant in Mumbai closed shop in 2011.
The last manufactured typewriter was sold for INR 12,000. There were reportedly 500 machines in stock when the plant closed.
Godrej Typewriter in Malaysia
The Godrej typewriter in Malaysia was imported by Godrej (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd, operating from Jalan Tuanku Abdul Rahman., Kuala Lumpur.
An advertisement in the Straits Times on May 14, 1969, highlighted the following features of the Indian-made typewriter.
Godrej TYPEWRITER
FOR INCREASED TYPING EFFICIENCY
Godrej Typewriter provides. among other normal features.
• interchangeability of carriages of different widths.
• a spaced-typing key to give automatic double-spacing
• Instant. single-lever tabulation clearance from either side of the carriage
. • choice of eight different typefaces.
Godrej Malaysia also sold other office equipment like chairs, filing cabinets and safes.
They also undertook steel fabrication jobs at the factory in Jalan Asas, Larkin Industrial Estate Johor Bahru.
Godrej Malaysia is still around. However, according to its Facebook page, it only deals with soaps, toiletries and detergents.
Leave a Reply