Nehru-era stamps showed past glory, vision of modern India

India’s pre-eminent freedom fighter and first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru has not featured on any stamp issued in the 75th year of Independence. In fact, over the past 25 years, after the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government effectively shunted Nehru out of the philatelic space, he has featured on only three key postage stamps and was mentioned in the information brochures of a few others. This is in sharp contrast to the post-Nehru years from 1964, when he died, to 1998, when he towered over others in the philatelic space and was often the only person shown alongside Mahatma Gandhi in commemorative stamps.

The copious philatelic output featuring Nehru between 1964 and 1998 presented him as an institution-builder. In addition to his role in laying down the foundations of industries and infrastructure projects, postage stamps and their brochures highlighted his contribution to various institutions ranging from the National Savings Organisation to the National Defence Academy.

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The postal department also highlighted his contribution to our public culture. For instance, the brochure of the stamp on 100 Years of Indian Science Congress alluded to his commitment to promote scientific temper when it noted that he attended the annual session of the Indian Science Congress in 1947 as its General President. Another brochure highlighted his role in organising the first Asian Games in New Delhi in 1951. Other brochures noted his keen interest in the Children’s Film Society and the India International Centre.

But all these stamps were issued after 1964 and retrospectively commemorate Nehru and his contributions. It would be interesting to recover the idea of India from the philatelic output of Nehru’s own government from 1947 to 1964.

Modern India

In the stamps issued by the Nehru government, we see a clear recognition of the fact that the material basis of much of what we recognise as modern India was put in place during the colonial period. Some of the major stamps commemorated key colonial institutions such as the Geological Survey of India (1951), railway (1953), telegraph (1953), postal department (1954), universities (1957), air force (1958), the All India Radio (1961), the Archaeological Survey of India (1961) and the High Courts (1962).

On the other hand, his government also commemorated India’s rich pre-colonial cultural foundations. The beautiful stamps on Saints and Poets (1952), the 2500th Buddha Jayanti (1956), Thiruvalluvar (1960), Kalidasa (1960), Tyagaraja (1961) and Purandaradasa (1964) are cases in point.

Amidst the acknowledgement of the linkages with the past, we also see a new India in making in the stamps on Lokmanya Bal Gangadhar Tilak (1956), Mahatma Gandhi (1948), Republic of India (1950), Steel Industry (1958), Jagadish Chandra Bose (1958), Children’s Day (1958-63), Sir M Visvesvaraya (1960), Panchayati Raj (1962), Gauhati Refinery (1962), Swami Vivekananda (1963) and Dadabhoy Naoroji (1963). This new India was engaged with the rest of the world in many ways, including through participation in the Universal Postal Union (1949), Asian Games (1951), International Labour Organisation (1959), the United Nations (1954, 1960, 1963), scientific conferences (1954, 1962) and industrial exhibitions (1959).

Nehru’s Vision

Four commemorative and definitive issues capture Nehru’s broad vision for a modern India rooted in its rich heritage. The First Definitive (Archaeological) Series and Saints and Poets celebrated India’s rich architectural and literary heritage. The Archaeological Series comprising 18 stamps was issued on the second anniversary of Independence. It showcased landmark monuments from across India, including the Golden Temple, Lingaraj Temple, Taj Mahal, Qutub Minar, Gol Gumbaz, Bodh Gaya Temple and Satrunjaya Temple. A set of six stamps issued in 1952 commemorated Kabir, Tulsidas, Meera, Surdas, Mirza Ghalib and Rabindranath Tagore. A beautiful booklet issued with these stamps reproduced quotes by the poets. The one by Ghalib noted: “It is hard for a man to be human.”

The second definitive series on Planning and the stamp on Panchayati Raj highlighted the modern political and economic infrastructure and institutions of the country.

The second definitive series issued on the fifth anniversary of the republic advertised the goals of the Second Five Year Plan with the help of 18 stamps on industry, rare earths, agriculture and multipurpose projects, health, cottage industry, and transport and communication. Its brochure aptly noted that while India’s first definitive series “revived memories of the glory of her heritage in art, architecture and sculpture,” it was “fitting that the second definitive series should express the effort of her people to build a new India” (emphasis added).

The brochure of the stamp on Panchayati Raj issued on the twelfth anniversary of the republic and in the run-up to the third general elections noted that the polity “must draw its strength and sanction from the…people as a whole working in cooperation with self-government bodies at higher levels in an organic setup.”

Three aspects of the limited but very tastefully and thoughtfully designed stamps issued by the Nehru government are noteworthy. First of all, the continuities with the past, from the ancient and the pre-colonial to the colonial, were acknowledged without any inhibition. Further, diversity was not reduced to a catalogue and inclusiveness was not equated with statistical proportionality. There were major lapses though.

For instance, only one Muslim, a few women and no one from the Dalit community featured on stamps during Nehru’s time. But even Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel and Bhagat Singh did not find space in the limited philatelic output of the Nehru government, while Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose was belatedly featured in 1964.

The Nehru government issued about 10 stamps per year, which is far less than the philatelic output of the subsequent governments. But unlike its successors, the Nehru government’s stamps were focused on policies rather than on particularistic identities and personalities. Almost half of the stamps issued under Nehru dealt with policies and institutions, whereas such stamps accounted for less than a fifth of the stamps issued by later governments. The Nehruvian stamps foregrounded our progressive aspirations rather than tie us down to an imagined past. They kept citizens informed about what the government was trying to achieve rather than present them with cherrypicked stories about the past. The brochures released alongside the stamps outlined at length the government’s vision and contained a wealth of information. Nehruvian philately reflects the confidence of a government open to public scrutiny.

(The writer teaches economics at Azim Premji University and is the co-author of ‘Numbers in India’s Periphery: The Political Economy of Government Statistics’ (Cambridge University Press, 2020)