There are lots of those still in use in India, both the short wheelbase version that is in the article posted above and the longer wheelbase "Commander" version. Two weeks ago I was in India and one of the places I visited was the Venkataswara temple in Tirupati (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venkateswara_Temple,_Tirumala). The temple is situated high on a mountain as are many temples, historic forts and palaces in India and large numbers of Mahindra jeeps offer taxi services to bring pilgrims and tourists up to the site from the valley below. In most places, these are mostly open jeeps, and many of them are derivations of the CJ-3b.
The Commanders at Venkataswara were much nicer than the typical well-used jeep taxis I've seen in Rajasthan and other places - all of them were almost new looking. All of them have soft tops and pretty much all of them have luggage racks on top of the soft top (anchored through the fabric to the roll bars). I saw many of these racks in use, like this one:
Notice how clean it is and the gloss finish of the paint. I didn't get a chance to photograph many others, we had to leave our phones in our car because they're not allowed in the temple but all of the Jeeps I saw there were as nice as this one.
A more typical short wheelbase Jeep in tourist service, this one I photographed at the Mehrangarh Fort in Jodhpur, Rajasthan:
There's a bit of history in the article above but for those interested in more detail on the history of Mahindra, this "coffee table book" is a great source of information on Mahindras - it's over 300 pages of Mahindra history and a lot of information on the various models, military use of Mahindra Jeeps, etc.
It might be a little hard to get in the U.S. though - I got my copy on Amazon India (
https://www.amazon.in/dp/9354088449/?tag=wranglerorg-20) and had it shipped to my in-laws who live in New Delhi. But for Mahindra fans it's worth the trouble to find a copy.
The Commanders at Venkataswara were much nicer than the typical well-used jeep taxis I've seen in Rajasthan and other places - all of them were almost new looking. All of them have soft tops and pretty much all of them have luggage racks on top of the soft top (anchored through the fabric to the roll bars). I saw many of these racks in use, like this one:
Notice how clean it is and the gloss finish of the paint. I didn't get a chance to photograph many others, we had to leave our phones in our car because they're not allowed in the temple but all of the Jeeps I saw there were as nice as this one.
A more typical short wheelbase Jeep in tourist service, this one I photographed at the Mehrangarh Fort in Jodhpur, Rajasthan:
There's a bit of history in the article above but for those interested in more detail on the history of Mahindra, this "coffee table book" is a great source of information on Mahindras - it's over 300 pages of Mahindra history and a lot of information on the various models, military use of Mahindra Jeeps, etc.
It might be a little hard to get in the U.S. though - I got my copy on Amazon India (
https://www.amazon.in/dp/9354088449/?tag=wranglerorg-20) and had it shipped to my in-laws who live in New Delhi. But for Mahindra fans it's worth the trouble to find a copy.
