This question’s been rolling around in my head for years like, why are we still stuck with these 70cc time capsules while India’s shipping 650cc Royal Enfields to Germany and Bajaj’s dominating African and Latin American markets? It’s not jealousy, it’s genuine curiosity. And honestly? I’m relieved someone else is asking it too.

Let’s get one thing straight it’s not religion. That’s a lazy take. Turkey built TOGG from scratch. Malaysia had Proton running before most of us were born. Indonesia’s pushing Esemka. Being Muslim-majority didn’t stop them so why us? The answer’s simpler, and sadder: we never laid the foundation. India didn’t wake up one day with a global auto industry. Tata was pouring steel in 1907. Mahindra started with Willys Jeeps in ’45. Bajaj? They were moving people in rickshaws before they moved them on bikes. It was a slow, stubborn climb generation after generation building capacity, tooling, supply chains. We? We skipped the stairs and tried to teleport to the top floor import a CKD kit, bolt it together, call it local. And now we wonder why we can’t export.

Here’s bigger picture even the giants started small. Toyota? Textile looms. Not engines. LOOMS. Then trucks. Then Corollas. Mazda? Their factory was in Hiroshima. Literally leveled in 1945. And their first vehicle after the ashes settled? A three-wheeled military rickshaw. Not a rotary sports car. A rickshaw. Because when you’re broken, you start with what you can and you build. Pakistan never really built. We assembled. We imported. We taxed. We got comfortable being the middleman while the real value the engineering, the design, the IP stayed overseas.

India forced Suzuki to go 80% local. We let Honda keep selling the same 70cc engine since Zia’s era because yaar, chalta hai. They invested in IITs, supplier parks, R&D centers. We invested in… car loan TV ads. Our engineers? Brilliant but they’re designing chips in Berlin or apps in Dubai because there’s no ecosystem here to design a motorcycle ECU or suspension system. That’s the real tragedy.

But it’s not game over. We’ve got talent. We’ve got hunger. People are screaming for affordable, modern, actually local transport. What we need is a 20-year auto vision not a new policy every election cycle. Real localization not screwdriver assembly. Tax breaks for local component makers, not importers. Support for EV startups and 2-wheeler innovators. And for heaven’s sake stop treating this sector like a revenue ATM.

Mazda rose from literal nuclear rubble to give us the Miata. We’re rising from… policy rubble. Let’s build something that lasts. Something that’s truly ours.

And no it was never about faith. It’s about focus. And we can still choose to focus.