Stamps, Postal
Stamps, Postal First postage stamp of the subcontinent was introduced in 1 October 1854. Common people were allowed to send a post card to any part of India for only one pie (lowest denomination coin, twelve pies made an ana, which is one sixteenth of a rupee) and an envelope for a half ana. The number of new stamps issued in British India in different periods were: under the rule of east india company (1854-1858) 18 stamps, Queen Victoria (1858-1882) 19, King Edward VII (1882-1911) 24, George V (1911-1935) 67, and King George VI (1935-1947) 52. Of these 180 stamps, only 28 were issued commemorating four occasions.
Since 1947, the people of East Bengal (renamed East Pakistan in 1956) started using postage stamps issued by Pakistan. However, due to delays in decision-making and incompetence of the employees, the stamps could not be issued in time. Existing postage stamps were overprinted to change the word 'India' on them to '. The overprint was done in English and initially, the government allowed to do the overprinting by hand stamping. The official overprinted stamps reached Pakistan by September and were released on 1 October 1947. The postal department of Pakistan started to overprint existing stamps in different printing presses of Karachi, Lahore, Hyderabad, Dhaka and Chittagong. Because of work in different places and with machines varying in types and density of colour ink, the stamps widely varied in appearance.
Pakistan issued its first own stamp on 9 July 1948. On 14 August 1948, 20 more stamps were issued. Only one of these depicted a subject relating to East Pakistan (Salimullah Muslim Hall of the university of dhaka). During the 24 years (1947-1971), Pakistan issued 296 stamps, of which only 51 were with subjects related to East Pakistan. Only one Bengali personality was honoured in stamps of Pakistan. A set of two stamps was issued on 1968 in honour of poet kazi nazrul islam. The stamps were supposed to be issued to commemorate the poet's birth anniversary in May, but the issue had to be postponed after detection of an error. The set was issued in June, but there were some other errors that were detected only after its circulation.
During the war of liberation, the mujibnagar government established field post offices, took control over existing post offices in the liberated areas, and put the postal department under the Ministry of Transport and Communication. John Stonehouse, a member of the British Parliament introduced a Bengali stamp designer Biman Mullick to Dr Enamul Haque, who was the president of the Peoples' Cultural Society of wartime Bangladesh and maintained liaison with the Mujibnagar Government regarding many important matters, including issuance of stamps. Biman Mullick designed eight stamps and these were sent to Mujibnagar government through Dr. Haque in June 1971. Mr. Stonehouse contacted a British agency for issuing the stamps at their cost. The agency was to print, distribute and sell the stamps and also to collect sale proceeds and give accounts to the Mujibnagar government, while Mr Stonehouse himself took the responsibility of popularising the stamps in Europe.
The stamps were printed in lithographic process on white-coated un-watermarked security paper, having 100 stamps per sheet arranged in 10 columns and 10 rows. The perforations on the sides of the stamps were 14 x 14.5 (in 2 cm length). The mint sets of stamps were sold from Bangladesh Mission of Calcutta for Rs 21.80 per set of eight stamps and the First Day Cover (FDC) with the stamps affixed for Rs 22. In England the stamps were sold at 1.09 pound sterling per mint set plus 20p as handling charge. The opening day sales of Bangladesh stamps in England were more than US$23,000. The FDC printed in London on this occasion was of deep green colour and its design depicted the words 'First Stamps of Bangladesh' across the lower end of the cover, 'First Day Cover'in smaller type on the right hand corner, and 'Bangladesh' in large type on the left, lying vertically from bottom to the top. The cover was coloured bright orange-vermilion.
After completion of all formalities, the date of issue of these stamps was set for 29 July 1971. Ambassador Hossain Ali announced the news at a press conference at Calcutta on 26 July. Simultaneously, a press conference was held in the House of Commons, British Parliament. An inaugural ceremony was held on the same day in the Hercourt Room of the House of Commons. The ceremony was attended by John Stonehouse MP, Peter Shore MP and other distinguished guests, who formally expressed their solidarity with the struggle for independence of Bangladesh. Thanks to the ceremony and the role of the international press, the tiny eight pieces of coloured papers shook almost the whole world and contributed significantly to create public opinion in support of the War of Liberation of Bangladesh. These first eight postage stamps Bangladesh issued on 29 July1971 were: Map of Bangladesh (10p, p stands for paisa, a hundredth of a rupee), Massacre at Dacca University (20p), 75 million People (50p), Flag of Independence (rupee 1), Breaking the Chains (Rs 2), the 1970 Polls and the Results (Rs. 3), sheikh mujibur rahman (Rs 5), and Support Bangladesh (Rs 10).
Just before the War of Liberation broke out, a senior officer of the Pakistan Post Office Mr A M Ahsanullah, then DDG (S and E) was on a visit at Dhaka. He could not go back to his duty and was kept under detention. He was released after the independence of Bangladesh and the new government of the country appointed him the Director General of Bangladesh Post Office. He assumed his duties on 19 December 1971. Same day some senior officials of Bangladesh government and Mr John Stonehouse MP came to Dhaka in a special Army helicopter. Mr Stonehouse brought with him a few hundred copies of the first eight-value stamps of Bangladesh, issued on 29 July 1971. He also brought with him three more stamps of value 10p, Rs 5, and Rs 10 overprinted 'Bangladesh Liberated' in both Bangla and English in very small types. All the eleven stamps were put on sale at Dhaka GPO on 20 December 1971.
Some districts bordering India were liberated before 16 December and the head post offices in these districts started functioning immediately. For example, the jessore Head Post Office started functioning on 8 December and since no Bangladesh stamps were available, the postmaster in charge overprinted nine stamps of Pakistan available at his stock and put them on public use. The DG, Bangladesh Post Office banned the circulation of these stamps on 4 February 1972.
Major problems faced by the new government of Bangladesh in printing new postage stamps included the absence of own security printing press and proper technology, and shortage of appropriate material. Getting postage stamps printed from abroad was costly and time consuming. The quantity required was also huge. At the same time, there was a large stock of Pakistani stamps scattered all over the country in various treasuries and post offices. Due to lack of easy, prompt and proper transport and for security reason, the recall of these postage stamps from the post offices and overprinting those with a new name were not practical. But in the prevailing political environment and psychological reasons, it was undesirable to continue use of these stamps without making any change.
On 19 December 1971, a circular was issued to all post offices at descending levels to use their own initiative in making and using rubber stamp to impress on all postage stamps and postal stationary available at their disposal. This was in line with a general government handout that instructed all offices to strike out the word Pakistan from all printed papers, signboards and names wherever applicable and replace it by Bangladesh. The postal authority realised that, it was impractical to instruct about specific or common design, type size of the rubber stamp and colour of prints to be used. The designs of the rubber stamps varied considerably. Colours used were different, but the most common was violet. Green and red colours were also used in some places. The postmark ink supplied by the post office was black. The use of such rubber-print stamps was allowed until an order on 7 April 1973 was issued to effect the ban on their circulation since 30 April 1973, the date when a set of 14 value stamps, namely, lp, 2p, 3p, 5p, 10p, 20p, 25p, 50p, 60p, 75p, 90p, Tk 1, Tk 2, Tk 5, and Tk10 were issued. This was the first regular set of postage stamps issued and circulated all over Bangladesh after the independence.
Since July 1971 to December 2009, Bangladesh issued as many as 1012 different postage stamps. Until the commissioning of the security printing press of Bangladesh in December 1989, the Bangladesh Post Office had to get all its postage stamps printed from abroad (India, England, Australia, Spain, Austria and USSR).
A few notable and prominent graphic designers of home and abroad like Qayuum Chowdhury, Hasem Khan and Nitun Kundu have designed stamps of Bangladesh. Upto 2010, the value of per unit of ticket amounted to 4229.54 taka. [Siddique Mahmudur Rahman]
