Colonization Through Brand Names and Commercial Language
Walk down any high street in urban India. Look at the signboards. Coca-Cola, Pepsi, Britannia, ITC, Nestlé, Samsung, Apple. English names dominate the landscape. Smaller shops are also named in English, like “ABC Store”. At the bottom, it is sometimes mentioned: “Madan Lal, Proprietor.”
This is the most pervasive form of colonization. It operates through commerce rather than government, and works through desire rather than physical force.
Commerce is far more powerful than media. It colonizes at an aspirational level. Consumers willingly choose English-named brands. Parents buy such brands for their children. Professionals must use brands to project competence. In this way, English becomes tied to modernity, sophistication, and progress. It is a colonization that citizens internalize and actively defend.
The Rule of English Names
Almost all major Indian brands historically adopted English names. Kingfisher uses English. Titan uses English. Asian Paints uses English. The Government of India was once selling wristwatches under the brand “HMT,” which was an acronym for “Hindustan Machine Tools.” Thus, products deeply rooted in Indian daily life wear Western clothing.
For decades, the market signaled a clear hierarchy: English meant quality, global standards, and success. Local-language branding was relegated to the cheap, local, and backward. This bias was never spoken aloud, but it was taught daily through the languages on packaging, menus, and shopfronts.
A neighborhood restaurant calls itself “The Food Plaza” instead of Bhojnalaya. A beauty salon names itself “Style Studio” instead of Sundariyon Ka Sansar. Medical prescriptions are written in English and Latin, and doctors use English terms even in regional clinics. This visual and lexical landscape forces a young mind to conclude early: English is the language of value, while local languages are merely for utility.
For the less educated or marginally educated, it is an unwritten rule etched in the mind which they dare not ignore.
The Sanskrit Disruptors
The tide is shifting. A new wave of brands has challenged the assumption that English is a prerequisite for commercial dominance. These exceptions prove that the rule can be broken, and that Indian identity can be a source of competitive advantage. A brand selling Ayurvedic products called itself Himalaya; that was long ago.
1. Patanjali: Reclaiming the Ayurvedic Space
Patanjali, founded in 2006, rejected the English-first corporate playbook. By naming itself after the ancient sage and utilizing Sanskrit terminology, it built an immediate connection with the Indian consumer.
Instead of hiding its roots, Patanjali highlighted them, packaging its products with prominent Hindi and Devanagari script. It boldly pronounced “Made in Bharat,” thus dropping “India” itself.
By FY 2015-16, the company’s turnover exceeded one billion USD, directly challenging multinational giants like Procter & Gamble, Colgate-Palmolive, and Nestlé. This growth only accelerated; by FY25, its publicly listed arm, Patanjali Foods, reached ₹34,157 crore (over $4 billion USD) in revenue, climbing further to ₹40,169 crore (nearly $5 billion USD) in FY26.
Patanjali proved that local-language packaging and naming could match, and even beat, global standards in the fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) sector.
2. Lahori Zeera: The Power of Local Flavor
Launched in 2017, Lahori Zeera chose a regional, culturally resonant name. A cumin-flavored traditional soft drink, it targeted the mass-market ₹10 price segment.
The results were disruptive. By the first nine months of 2025, Lahori Zeera, alongside Reliance’s Campa, doubled their combined market share to approximately 15%, causing the combined market share of global giants Coca-Cola and PepsiCo to fall from 93% to around 85%.
Selling over 5 million bottles daily during peak summers, the brand reported ₹540 crore in revenue for FY25 and closed FY26 at ₹775–780 crore, with a target of ₹1,200–1,300 crore for FY27.
Lahori Zeera succeeded without expensive Western advertising templates or celebrity endorsements, proving that local roots can scale rapidly across regional markets.
3. Bira 91: The Indian Hybrid
When B9 Beverages launched its craft beer in 2015, it chose the name Bira 91. The name is a clever, modern hybrid. Bira is a colloquial Punjabi term for brother (derived from veera or bira). 91 is India’s country calling code.
This naming strategy allowed the brand to feel deeply authentic and familial to young Indians, while the “91” acted as a badge of pride in its domestic origins. By combining a local term of endearment with a modern global brand format, Bira 91 successfully captured the imagination of urban consumers, proving that Indian identity can be cool, premium, and contemporary.
4. Indri Single Malt: Global Acclaim via Sanskrit Roots
The premium spirits market is traditionally dominated by Scotch and English-sounding names; it is difficult to find any regional or local name. A slight departure was Boho Whisky. But a real change was introduced when Piccadily Distilleries launched Indri in 2021–2022.
Named after the town of Indri in Haryana, the word also derives from the Sanskrit Indriya, meaning the five senses. Its expressions carry names like Trini (referring to its triple-cask maturation) and Dru (the Sanskrit word for wood).
Rather than adopting a pseudo-Scottish or Western name to appeal to elite drinkers, Indri embraced its geography and language. The gamble paid off globally. Indri won “Whisky of the Year” at the USA Spirit Ratings in 2024, and its Diwali Collector’s Edition won “Best World Whisky” at the Las Vegas Global Spirits Awards in 2025 with a near-perfect score of 99.1 points. It demonstrated that Sanskrit concepts could define luxury on the world stage.
For the record, the technology of maturation of alcohol, rooted in Ayurveda, traveled to the Arab continent and from there to Europe.
Category Dynamics and Systemic Biases
Despite these triumphs, the landscape remains uneven. Brand names reflect deep-seated category divisions:
- Noodles: Can succeed with foreign or regional names (like the Thai brand Wai Wai, which holds a 28% market share in India, or Patanjali noodles).
- Inverters and Technology: Remain entirely dominated by English names—Luminous, Exide, Microtek, V-Guard, Livguard, Genus, and Genus Power. There are virtually no Indian-language named players dominating Indian consumer technology. Osaka and Sukam remain the only Asian-sounding names.
- Jio launched 4G and then 5G cellphones in India, and has now expanded into FMCG and other technologies. Jio means “live” (as in the command Jio! – to live well) and was branded locally.
- Zomato and Nykaa prove that Indian-rooted names can scale globally. Razzai and Mochi are waiting to succeed.
Earlier, local names were limited to Bharat and Hindustan. Now innovation is taking place and businesses are less apologetic about experimenting.
But the divide exists because the underlying state machinery remains unchanged. A founder can build a successful local language brand, but they must still write business proposals, file taxes, and negotiate with state bureaucracies in English. The administrative structure forces the language of power to remain English, even when the market welcomes the mother tongue.
Bottom Line
Commerce colonizes by making consumers internalize their own subordination, teaching them to associate English with success and regional languages with mediocrity.
The success of Patanjali, Lahori Zeera, Jio, Bira 91, and Indri demonstrates that Indian consumers are ready for brands that speak their language and reflect their identity. These exceptions should become the norm across every industry. Until this happens from FMCG to high technology, commerce will continue to act as a silent pipeline for colonial consciousness.
In Chapter 5 we shall discuss the British pejorative vernacular, a slur some of us have accepted as normal.
References:
- Economic Times / Market Reports (2025): Lahori Zeera and Campa Market Disruption and Growth
- Brand History: Bira 91 Naming Origin and the 91 Calling Code
- Las Vegas Global Spirits Awards (2025) & USA Spirit Ratings (2024): Indri Single Malt Whisky Accolades
- FMCG Sector Reports: Patanjali Ayurved Turnover and Growth Metrics
- Patanjali Foods Limited: Annual Financial Results (FY25 & FY26)