Gopalswamy Doraiswamy Naidu

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It will be a pleasant surprise that the first bus in India was run by late G.D.Naidu between Pollachi & Palani (towns in South India). It was in 1920, he evinced interest in joining the motor industry of Sir Robert Stanes as a fitter, which enabled the latter to discover the granary of innate technical knowledge burning within G.D.Naidu, advised him to start operating a motor bus in which people could sit and travel and gave one such vehicle to him on loan basis.

G.D.Naidu, son of Goplasamy Naidu and Chellammal, was born on March 23, 1893 in Kalangal Village in the district of Coimbatore in a peasant family. He lost his mother when he was a one year old boy. He went to school only till the 3rd Standard, but by then he gave vent to the maximum of his mischievousness and was virtually sent back to his bad to support him in his farm work.

His interest in motor vehicles and machines began when he saw a strange two wheeled vehicle running without the help of the legs of a man, near his farm. Annoyed by the way the vehicle ran, he asked for the price of the same to the then owner of the vehicle Lankashire, a British officer. He worked hard for three years from 1913 in a restaurant in Coimbatore to save Rs. 400 to buy the vehicle, which was later offered to him for Rs. 300 as a token of appreciation of his hard work and effort. The vehicle with the registration number CO – 3, made him the third person to own a motor vehicle in Coimbatore.

It is worth mentioning here that he started almost every business in which he himself worked as a labourer. He worked in a ginning factory in Coimbatore in the 1910s and later started a cotton mill on his own in Tirupur. Using his technical skills he made a huge profit of Rs. 1.5 lakhs by the year 1919 and lost the whole amount in a cotton business which he floated in Bombay. This Himalayan amount, made and lost at an age of just 26 and that too in 1919, can’t be described in words. Not losing heart, he came back to Coimbatore and met Sir Robert Stanes, which was a turning point in his life.

He was not only the owner of the first bus in India but was also the driver, conductor and all-in-all of the bus. He invented a machine in 1920 which was used to issue tickets to the passengers with details of the journey, viz place of commencement of the journey, destination, distance between the two places, fare and the date of journey. This machine also made counting the number of passengers and collections of the day, am easy task! Further, he invented a Vibro Testing Machine to record the vibrations of the bus during the course of the journey.

Due to his tireless efforts and strict self-discipline he invented a number of technologies and set up two factories under the banner United Motor Service (UMS) in 1922 and in another two years he established 23 factories and industries and more than 200 in 1933.

He traveled to many Western countries including Germany, England and America in 1923 to gain mechanical and technical knowledge that prevailed there. He was once offered a job in the USA for $ 3,000 a month, which he cordially rejected, as his mission was only to acquire technical knowledge and not to settle in the West for a mere job.

His inventions numbered more than 80, most of which were not accepted by the Government of India in the post-independence era as he not only refused to pay taxes to the Government due to personal and various political reasons. He wanted his inventions and products to reach the common man, which will not be possible if they were taxed. He was rather ready to reduce the price of his products and make it available to the general public than pay taxes to the Government.

UMS shaving blade, invented by him in 1935, was a unique on priced at 3 paisa and could be used for more than 100 days, creating waves not only in India but also used and appreciated by Adolph Hitler, the Dictator of Germany, in an exhibitions of Indian inventions held in Germany in 1936.

Fascinated by the electronic voting machine in America he made one on his own to put an end to the evils of false voting during elections. The machine was connected to the door of the voting booth which will automatically shut when a person enters the ballot room and open only after the person casts the vote.

G.D.Naidu’s other key inventions include motor cycles and vehicles, time recording machine, radiators which can stand heat for more than 300 miles, distance adjuster, zoom lenses for cameras, electronic shaving razors, a fan which can run on kerosene without electricity, automatic coffee makers and tape recorders which can be operated with a coin, sound recording machine and Magro Plux testing unit to check cracks inside machines. Besides, he invented a number of products for the common man, viz. smallest calculator in the country, refrigerator, washing machine, juice extractor, long lasting gramophone needles, cheap ink pens and radios. In 1941, he announced that he had the ability to manufacture five-valve Radio sets in India at a mere Rs 70/- a set. In 1952, his brainchild - the indigenously built Petrol engine two-seater Car (costing a mere Rs 2,000/-) rolled out. But production was stopped subsequently, because of the Government's refusal to grant the necessary license.

Hailing from a family with a farming background, he also set a mark in the history of agriculture. Some of his noteworthy inventions are seedless tasty papayas and oranges, 9 varieties of bananas in one plant, papayas in the shape of mangoes and jack fruit, corn plants which can live for 7 to 8 years and grow to a height of 18 feet with 26 branches and 39 corns, 15 feet tall cotton plant with 5 times the normal yield and cauliflower which can grow from 3 to 4 feet. On his trips abroad, Naidu always seemed to draw appreciation for his innovations and his personal drive. In 1935, he personally filmed the funeral of King George V in London. Among the Indian stalwarts that GD Naidu's camera captured were Mahatma Gandhi, Pandit Jawarharlal Nehru and Subash Chandra Bose. GD Naidu remained an outsider to Politics, despite having contested and lost in the 1936 Provincial General Elections.

In 1944, Naidu retired from active involvement with his automobile combine and announced several philanthropic measures including grants for Research scholarships and welfare schemes for his employees and the depressed sections of society. He played a vital role in imparting technical education in the minds of the youth, as he started Arthur Hope Polytechnic (now Government Polytechnic College, Coimbatore) and Arthur Hope College (now Government College of Technology) in 1945 to train students in Mechanics, Electronics and Communication. He donated the same to the Government in 1947.

In 1967, the G D Naidu Industrial Exhibition, conceptualised, designed and built by the great man himself, was established. G.D. Museum in Coimbatore has a wide collection of thousands or rather lakhs of technical equipments and electrical goods collected by him from 1935 and used for technical training. This museum has a collection of charts which display good habits and first aid which can be understood even by small children. The ‘stolen tools section’ has on display the articles recovered from a batch of students who stole them when they came there for training in 1971.

For reasons best known to him only, he refused the honour of being called Sir, offered by the British.

G.D.Naidu is referred as the ‘Edison of India’..His contribution spans the fields of electrical, mechanical, agricultural (Hybrid cultivation) and automobile engineering . Mostly at an Industrial level than the Academia. If there is one more name that best symbolizes India’s spirit of entrepreneurship, it is that of G D Naidu.

With his demise on the 4th of January, 1974, India lost its greatest ambassador to the world. There have been several tributes paid to this legend, but none seems as apt as that by Sir C V Raman: "A great educator, an entrepreneur in many fields of engineering and industry, a warm-hearted man filled with love for his fellows and a desire to help them in their troubles, Mr Naidu is truly a man in a million - perhaps this is an understatement!"

He is credited in manufacturing the first electric motor in India. An Industrial Exhibition in Coimbatore is held in his name. He provided employment in engineering and manufacturing sector to many individuals in fifties and sixties (early for a home grown entrepreneur in India). He was considered as a visionary in India and rest of the World as well.

The book by B S Keshavarao, narrates the author's experience with Sri G D Naidu and explains his way of life.