FIRST POSTAL STAMPS

4 annas, 1854

The first stamps valid for postage throughout India were placed on sale in October, 1854 with four values: 1/2 anna, 1 anna, 2 annas, and 4 annas. Featuring a youthful profile of Queen Victoria aet. 15 years, all four values were designed and printed in Calcutta. All were lithographed except for the 2 annas green, which was produced by typography from copper clichés or from electrotyped plates. These were issued without perforations or gum. The 4 annas value (illustrated) was one of the world's first bicolored stamps, preceded only by the Basel Dove, a beautiful local issue.

These stamps were issued following a Commission of Inquiry which had carefully studied the postal systems of Europe and America. In the opinion of Geoffrey Clarke, the reformed system was to be maintained "for the benefit of the people of India and not for the purpose of swelling the revenue." The Commissioners voted to abolish the earlier practice of conveying official letters free of postage ("franking"). The new system was recommended by the Governor-General, Lord Dalhousie and adopted by the East India Company's Court of Directors. It introduced "low and uniform" rates for sending mail efficiently throughout the country within the jurisdiction of the East India Company. The basic rate was 1/2 anna on letters not more than 1/4 tola in weight. The stamps were needed to show the postage was prepaid, a basic principle of the new system, like the fundamental changes of the British system advocated by Rowland Hill and the Scinde reforms of Bartle Frere. These reforms transformed mail services within India.

The De La Rue design for the Recess Printed issues: an 1856 color imprimatur

The East India Company already had attempted a 1/2 anna vermilion stamp in April, 1854, known as the "9 1/2 arches essay". This could not be produced in quantity because it required an expensive vermilion pigment not readily available from England, and the substituted Indian pigment destroyed the printing stones.

A new design for stamps, with Queen Victoria in an oval vignette inside a rectangular frame, was inscribed "EAST INDIA POSTAGE". These stamps were recess printed by De La Rue in England (who produced all the subsequent issues of British India until 1925). The first of these became available in 1855. They continued in use well after the British government took over the administration of India in 1858, following the 1857 Rebellion against the East India Company's rule. From 1865 the Indian stamps were printed on paper watermarked with an elephant's head.

The first issue produced in India marks the 'Inauguration of New Delhi' in 1931. This 1 rupee stamp shows the Secretariat and Dominion Columns.

The first pictorial stamps appeared in 1931. The set of six, showing the fortress of Purana Qila, Delhi and government edifices, was issued to mark the government's move from Calcutta to New Delhi. Another pictorial set, also showing buildings, commemorated George V's Silver Jubilee in 1935.

The stamps issued in 1937 depicted various forms of mail transports, with King George VI's effigy appearing on the higher values. A new issue in 1941, constrained by the austerity of World War II, consisted of rather plain designs using minimal amounts of ink and paper. As Indian Post Offices annually required some billions of stamps for postage, as a measure of economy the large pictorial stamps were immediately withdrawn and smaller stamps were issued. Even this did not ease the paper situation and it was thought desirable to reduce the size even more.

A victory issue in 1946 was followed in November, 1947 by a first Dominion issue, whose three stamps were the first to depict the Ashoka Pillar and the new flag of India (the third showed an airplane).

Postage stamps were generally issued separately from the revenue stamps. However in 1906, the set of King Edward VII stamps were issued in two values, half anna and one anna with the caption "INDIA POSTAGE & REVENUE". The George V Series (1911 to 1933) added two more values, two annas and four annas to the Postage & Revenue stamps. These dual-purpose issues were an exception and generally the two types were issued separately.

The Indian Postal Service today

Main article: Indian Postal Service

Today the Indian Postal Service serves the public from 155,000 post offices. India is believed to have the most widely distributed system in the world (China has 57,000, Russia 41,000 and the United States 38,000 offices). This proliferation of offices results from India's long tradition of having many disparate postal systems, eventually unified in the Indian Union after Independence. With its far-flung reach and its presence in remote areas, the Indian postal service provides many services such as small savings banking and financial services.

Gandhi, Nehru and other historic personalities continued on the postal issues coming from the country since Independence, with almost half a century seeing the Gandhi definitive’s of denominations most frequently used in the era concerned, becoming synonymous with a postage stamp to the Indian people of that respective time period. New themes are now finding their place on Indian postage stamps, featuring some stamps issued jointly with postal agencies of other countries, renewable energy sources, the local flora and fauna and even the special annual issues wishing season's greetings.