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15/08/24 10:06 AM IST

First postage stamps of Independent India

In News
  • The first stamp of Independent India was finally released on November 21, 1947.
The first stamps of Independent India 
  • Three postage stamps were issued to commemorate India’s independence — all of them featured the date August 15, 1947, and the words ‘Jai Hind’ in the Devanagari script.
  • The first stamp, issued in November 1947, depicted the Indian flag — flying in the sky, among clouds. Its denomination was three-and-a-half annas.
  • The other two commemorative stamps were released in December 1947.
  • One of them depicted the Lion Capital of Ashoka — the head of a column erected by the Mauryan emperor Ashoka in Sarnath in 250 BCE.
  • The stamp carried the image of the sculpture with three Asiatic lions (the fourth being hidden from view), a wheel in relief with a bull on the right and a horse on the left, and a bell-shaped lotus below. It was priced at one-and-a-half annas.
  • Another stamp of a flying Douglas DC-4 aircraft was priced at 12 annas.
Brief History
  • Although the Mughals used a communication system known as “dawk” or “dak” — with “horse runners” for speedy deliveries and foot runners for shorter distances — a more formal postal system in India was established with the advent of the East India Company in India.
  • Initially, in the 1720s, the company set up a postal service primarily for internal communication.
  • In 1766, then Governor-General Robert Clive set up a regular postal system, and in 1774, Warren Hastings took the initiative of establishing the first GPO (General Post Office) in Calcutta.
  • The Madras GPO opened in 1786, followed by the Bombay GPO in 1794.
  • The Post Office Act,1837, gave the government the exclusive right to convey letters in the territories of the East India Company.
  • In 1854, uniform postage rates were introduced across the country.
Stamps in Undivided India
  • In 1852, India became the first country in Asia to issue its own postage stamps. Introduced in the Sindh district and circular in shape, the stamp named “Scinde Dawk” was introduced as part of the postal reforms by the Governor of the district, Sir Bartle Frere.
  • Before the introduction of the stamps, postage was paid by the recipient of the letter, who could decline to accept the post.
  • Valued at half anna, Scinde Dawk bore the Merchant’s Mark of the East India Company with a heart-shaped motif divided into three sections, each containing one of the letters EIC, representing the East India Company.
  • The value, half an anna, was written below. Encircling the design was the inscription “Scinde district dawk” in capital letters.
Source- Indian Express

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