In an article on the symbolism of postage stamps from 1984, historian Donald Reid wrote that stamps are a brilliant primary source to the symbolic messages that various governments try to communicate to their citizens and to the world. If Reid is correct, the BJP government’s recent decision that Indira and Rajiv Gandhi will no longer appear on the regular Indian postage stamps is a clear message that the dynasty’s days are over.
The first postage stamps released by independent India were filled with symbols that evoked the recently won national independence. The Pillar of Ashoka, the national flag, and a four-engine airplane were among the earliest motives, all accompanied by “Jai Hind” in Devanagari. Mahatma Gandhi, of course, was also a favoured motif from the outset.
They were soon joined by the temples in Bodh Gaya and Bhubaneswar, and in 1952, a full series of “Saints and Poets” was realised, with Tagore, Tulsidas, and Kabir among others.
In 1955, a comprehensive range of subjects related to the five-year plan was depicted, and in 1957, two stamps commemorating “the Indian mutiny” saw the light of day.
All such motifs are, of course, loaded with a strong historical-political and nation-building sub-text, and in this regard the early Indian postage stamps were far from unique.
Then newly created Pakistan, for example, used comparable motifs such as the Karachi airport and the national parliament, even if the turbulent creation of that country meant that the first postage stamps used in Pakistan were simply the well-known “King George the Sixth -- India postage” stamps used in colonial India before partition.
The first Bangladeshi postage stamps similarly had “Bangladesh liberated” printed on them, accompanied by outlines of the new-born nation, the green and red of the national flag or Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.
Over time, the motif became more diverse, and India created a tradition of publishing postage stamps with famous (deceased) Indians. International celebrities also appeared, including the likes of Max Muller, Eleanor Roosevelt, Lincoln, Martin Luther King, Lenin, Chaplin, and Gorky.
In light of this, there is nothing particularly sinister about the BJP government’s decision to add several new names to the existing pantheon of celebrities appearing on Indian postage stamps. There is a plan afoot to launch a new series of “definitive stamps” -- regular stamps for everyday use -- titled “makers of India,” which, incidentally, in name, resonates nicely with the government’s much-touted “make in India” program.
This new series ostensibly includes the likes of SP Mukherjee, Deendayal Upadhyaya, Sardar Patel, Shivaji, and Vivekananda. It is, of course, noteworthy that these are people whom the BJP and its sister organisations admire, but they have, in fact, all appeared on postage stamps in the past, including on so-called commemorative stamps. And in any event, the socialists and the revolutionaries will also get their quota of the new series of definitive stamps, which will also include Netaji, Bhagat Singh, Ram Manohar Lohia, and JP Narayan.
The new series has been finalised following the advice of the Indian Philatelic Advisory Committee and replaces the old series called “builders of modern India,” which had existed since 2008, and which in name perhaps had too much of an out-dated air of the Nehruvian ethos of “nation-building” and secular “modernity” to it.
What is controversial, however, is the exclusion of Indira and Rajiv Gandhi -- who were both part of “builders of modern India” -- from the new series. It was the BJP’s Communications Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, who, some time back, explained that the time was now ripe to launch a more “inclusive” series of postage stamps because it was not fair that one family should corner all the attention and glory.
The new series would, he said, depict all the great personalities who deserved to be honoured for their contributions to the nation -- including Nehru and Mahatma Gandhi, by the way -- and independently of ideology.
The underlying message is, of course, that, while Nehru, Patel, and Netaji were great nation-builders, Indira and Rajiv Gandhi were just perfectly ordinary prime ministers. The Congress party has, as expected, reacted strongly to this. Party spokesman Anand Sharma has, for instance, called the decision “an insult to history” and demanded an apology.
Although a political party running on dynastic principles -- both in South Asia and beyond -- would be mad not to jump to the defence of its great leaders of the past, Sharma’s response may look exaggerated, had it not been for the fact that the postage stamp incident is but the most recent manifestation of the BJP’s more general strategy to remove the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty from the nation’s symbolic map: Prestigious awards such as the Indira Gandhi Rajbhasha Puraskar is now called the Rajbhasha Kirti Puraskar; the Rajiv Gandhi Rashtriya Gyan-Vigyan Maulik Pustak Lekhan Puraskar has become the Rajbhasha Gaurav Puraskar; welfare programs such as the Indira Awaas Yojana may soon enough become the National Gramin Awas Mission; October 31, the day Indira Gandhi was shot, is now commemorated as a “national unity day” in honour of Sardar Patel (who was born on that date), and so on.
Still, it is doubtful if Congress’s knee-jerk reaction to the omission of Indira and Rajiv Gandhi from the new series of postage stamps will be widely interpreted as a just defence of the dynasty’s honour and its legitimate place in Indian philatelic history.
A less munificent observer may well see this as the reaction of a somewhat rudderless and disoriented party that clings to the lost grandeur of the past, but which struggles to find its feet in the opposition and lacks a clear agenda for the future.
