Centenary of India Postage Stamps - 1st October 1954

On 1st October 1954, India completed 100 Years of the issue of its First Postage Stamp, which also coincided with the placing of the Post Offices under the centralised control of a Director General. India has the unique honour of being the first country in Asia to issue postage stamps. Many fantastic / monstrous ideas were mooted to celebrate the Centenary, by the Director General of Posts, which gave birth to many controversies. Details of such controversies are recorded in India’s Stamp Journal (1954 issues). One of the controversies were, about the venue for the Centenary Exhibition. Calcutta had a claim because the First Indian Stamp was printed at the Surveyor - General’s Office at Calcutta. Bombay had also a claim because Bombay was the hub of philatelic activities in India. But the Government of India decided to hold India Postage Stamp Centenary and International Stamp Exhibition at Eastern Court, Queensway, New Delhi, from 1st to 15th October 1954. Both Bombay and Calcutta were not happy with the decision and decided to hold independent stamp exhibitions at Bombay and Calcutta in October and December respectively.

Before dealing with this Stamp Centenary Exhibition, we should unfold the First Stamp Exhibition of Free India, which was inaugurated in New Delhi - Town Hall on 3rd March 1948 by the then Prime Minister. It housed the very valuable collection of Government of India. No private collections were permitted . The very rare exhibits consist of many Proof Sheets of 1854, a few complete issued sheets with rare retouches and combinations, a set of three rare Scinde Dawk in used condition, Head Inverted of 4 annas lithograph and many many rare stamps of India and Indian States. It was proposed to have similar exhibition in Calcutta, Bombay and Madras after New Delhi, but finally the idea was abandoned.

One of the monstrous idea of the P & T Department of the Government of India was to reprint complete sets of all Indian Postage Stamps from 1854 to 1954 from original dies, during Indian Postage Stamps Centenary celebrations to be held in October 1954. This proposal evoked protests from all leading Philatelists of India and also from British Philatelic Association. After much thoughts, the Indian P & T Department dropped their proposal. Instead the Department issued an attractively bound printed Souvenir Album containing facsimile reproductions in original colours of all postage stamps issued during the last 100 Years The album contains 24 plates housing all 206 stamps issued in between 1854 and 1954, together with a brief write up of stamps. The sale price was Rs.25/- only. This volume was prepared and printed by Nasik Security Press, by the photogravure process. It appears that India is the first country in the world to have produced such a representative record of stamps issued during the past 100 Years.

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