Satyendra Nath Bose 1994 India

Satyendra Nath Bose was born on January 1, 1894 in Calcutta. His father was employed in the Engineering Department of the East India Railway. Satyendra Nath was the eldest of his seven children.

Satyendra Nath Bose had his schooling from Hindu High School in Calcutta. He was a brilliant student. He passed the ISc in 1911 from the Presidency College, Calcutta securing the first position. Satyendra Nath Bose did his BSc in Mathematics from the Presidency College in 1913 and MSc in Mixed Mathematics in 1915 from the same college. He topped the university in BSc. and MSc. Exams.

In 1916, the Calcutta University started M.Sc. classes in Modern Mathematics and Modern Physics. S.N. Bose started his career in 1916 as a Lecturer in Physics in Calcutta University. He served here from 1916 to 1921. He joined the newly established Dhaka University in 1921 as a Reader in the Department of Physics. In 1924,

Satyendra Nath Bose published an article titled Max Planck's Law and Light Quantum Hypothesis. This article was sent to Albert Einstein. Einstein appreciated it so much that he himself translated it into German and sent it for publication to a famous periodical in Germany - 'Zeitschrift fur Physik'. The hypothesis received a great attention and was highly appreciated by the scientists. It became famous to the scientists as 'Bose-Einstein Theory'.

In 1926, Satyendra Nath Bose became a Professor of Physics in Dhaka University. Though he had not completed his doctorate till then, he was appointed as professor on Einstein's recommendation. In 1929 Satyendra Nath Bose was elected chairman of the Physics of the Indian Science Congress and in 1944 elected full chairman of the Congress. In 1945,

Satyendra Nath Bose was appointed as Khaira Professor of Physics in Calcutta University. He retired from Calcutta University in 1956. The University honored him on his retirement by appointing him as Emeritus Professor. Later he became the Vice Chancellor of the Viswabharati University. In 1958, he was made a Fellow of the Royal Society, London.

Satyendra Nath Bose was an outstanding Indian physicist. He is known for his work in Quantum Physics. He is famous for "Bose-Einstein Theory" and a kind of particle in atom has been named after his name as Boson.

Satyendra Nath Bose was honored with 'Padmabhusan' by the Indian Government in recognition of his outstanding achievement.

On February 4, 1974 he Last  his breath in Kolkata

Department  of  Post issued  commemorative postage stamp on his  birth  centenary

Issued  Date: 01.01.1994
Denomination: 100 paise

TABO MONASTERY 1999 India

A `se-tenant pair' (set of two stamps) was issued on 31stDecember 1999 on TABO MONASTERY. The stamps are in the denomination of 500 and 1000 Paise.

Tabo Monastery is situated in the village of Tabo, in the secluded Spiti valley of the state Himachal Pradesh, Northern India.

Spiti Valley forms one of the Trans-Himalayan frontier regions of northern India with a population of around 10,000 people. It is bounded by Ladakh in the north, Lahaul and Kullu district in the west and south-east respectively, and by Tibet and the Kinnaur district in the east. In the past the region was included within the boundaries of Tibet. Tabo village is at an altitude of 3,280 metres, it is a remote place, with often harsh and extreme weather isolating it from the outside world.

Tabo Monastery was founded in 996 AD. With its original decoration and art images intact, it is considered to be the oldest continuously functioning Buddhist monastery in India and the Himalayas.

The unique beauty of its art and its pivotal historical role in the transmission of Indo-Tibetan Buddhism and culture in the 10th and 11th century makes Tabo Monastery a historically significant site. Within the ancient monastery’s compound are nine temples built between the late 10th and the 17th century and numerous stupas. The main temple preserves an extraordinary wealth of documentation of the history and culture of the period. The iconographic program, dating from the restoration time of 1042, is complete. This includes paintings, sculptures, inscriptions and extensive wall texts.

The Nine temples are following :-

 1.  The Temple of the Enlightened Gods (gTug-Lha-khang)

2.  The Golden Temple (gSer-khang)

3. The Mystic Mandala Temple / Initiation Temple (dKyil-kHor- khang)

4. The Bodhisattva Maitreya Temple (Byams-Pa Chen-po Lha-khang)

5. The Temple of Dromton (Brom-ston Lha khang)

6. The Chamber of Picture Treasures (Z’al-ma)

7. The Large Temple of Dromton (Brom-ston Lha khang)

8. The Mahakala Vajra Bhairava Temple (Gon-khang)

9. The White Temple (dKar-abyum Lha-Khang)

Tabo Monastery  is in need of refurbishing as the wooden structures are aging and the thanka scroll paintings are fading. After the earthquake of 1975, the monastery was rebuilt, and in 1983 a new Du-kang or Assembly Hall was constructed. It is here that the 14th Dalai Lama held the Kalachakra ceremonies in 1983 and 1996. The monastery is protected by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) as a national historic treasure of India.

Mallikarjun Mansur 2014 India

Mallikarjun Bheemarayappa Mansur also know  as  Mallikarjun Mansur was an Indian classical singer of the khyal style in the Jaipur-Atrauli gharana of Hindustani classical music.

He received all three national Padma Awards, the Padma Shri in 1970, Padma Bhushan in 1976, and Padma Vibhushan, the second highest civilian honour given Government of India in 1992. In 1982, he was awarded the Sangeet Natak Akademi Fellowship, the highest honour conferred by the Sangeet Natak Akademi, India's National Academy of Music, Dance & Drama.

Mansur was born on 31 December 1910, at Mansur, a village five km. west of Dharwad, Karnataka.His father, Bheemaraayappa was the village headman, a farmer by occupation and an ardent lover and patron of music. He had four brothers and three sisters. His elder brother Baswaraj owned a theatre troupe, and thus at age nine Mansur did a small role in a play.

Spotting the talent in his son, Mallikarjun's father engaged him to a travelling Yakshagana (Kannada theatre) troupe. The owner of this troupe took a liking to the tender and melodious voice of Mallikarjun and encouraged him to sing different types of compositions during the drama-performances. Hearing one such performance, he was picked up by Pandit Appaya Swamy under whom he had his initial training in Carnatic music. Sometime later, he was introduced to classical Hindustani music under Nilkanth Bua Alurmath of Miraj who belonged to the Gwalior Gharana. The latter brought him to Ustad Alladiya Khan (1855?- 1946), the stalwart and the then patriarch of the Jaipur-Atrauli gharana, in the late 1920s, who referred him to his elder son, Ustad Manji Khan. Following Manji Khan's untimely death, he came under the tutelage of Ustad Bhurji Khan, the younger son of Ustad Alladiya Khan. This grooming under Bhurji Khan, despite having 20 to 25 popular ragas only, had the most important influence on his style of singing.

Mallikarjun Mansur, who breathed his last on September 12, 1992, was a musical phenomenon. Though he was 82 he sang till his last breath. He almost died in harness. He was down with lung cancer. Just 25 days before death he got up from his sick bed, went to Murughamath, Dharwad, and sang raaga Hemant for15 minutes and a vachana. Even when death was stalking him, he didn’t want to miss his musical devotion. It had been his custom for ever so many years to sing at the mathon the third Monday of the month of Shraavana.

The year before, he was admitted to Kidwai Hospital, Bangalore for serious kidney trouble. It was thought his singing days were over. But he bounced back as if nothing had happened to him. Not only that. He gave forceful concerts all over India. Dr. Talwalkar, treating him at Kidwai Hospital said one day "Panditji, you are cured. Now, you can go home". "Wait a minute, doctor; I have a method of testing whether I am cured". Mallikarjun Mansur asked for a tanpura and started singing on the bed itself. After testing himself for 15 minutes he said, "Yes, doctor, I am well now".

Even in the semi-coma condition he was in, he would ask his son Rajasekhar to sing and guide him as to what he should improve. After he came to, he wouldn’t remember a thing. Dr. Talwalkar was all admiration. "It is literally true that music is in his blood. Were it not for his will to live on for music, no doctor on earth could have saved him". As a mark of gratitude, Mallikarjun Mansur gave a free concert to raise funds for the hospital which had given him a new lease of life. 

Mansur has taken all this with equanimity. ‘‘Does the cuckoo sing expecting somebody to appreciate?’’ he used to quip with a glint 

Department of Post issued commemorated postage stamp on this  legend

Issued Date: 03.09.2014
Denomination: 500 Paise

Golden Jubilee I.N.A 1993 India

A commemorative postage stamp on the 50th Anniversary of the Indian National Army

The Indian National Army (INA; Azad Hind Fauj) was an armed force formed by Indian nationalists in 1942 in Southeast Asia duringWorld War II. Its aim was to secure Indian independence from British rule. It formed an alliance with Imperial Japan in the latter's campaign in the Southeast Asian theatre of WWII.

The army was first formed in 1942 under Mohan Singh, by Indian PoWs of theBritish-Indian Army captured by Japan in theMalayan campaign and at Singapore. This first INA collapsed and was disbanded in December that year after differences between the INA leadership and the Japanese military over its role in Japan's war in Asia. It was revived under the leadership of Subhas Chandra Bose after his arrival in Southeast Asia in 1943. The army was declared to be the army of Bose's Arzi Hukumat-e-Azad Hind (the Provisional Government of Free India).

Under Bose's leadership, the INA drew ex-prisoners and thousands of civilian volunteers from the Indian expatriate population inMalaya (present-day Malaysia) and Burma.This second INA fought along with theImperial Japanese Army against the British and Commonwealth forces in the campaigns in Burma, in Imphal and at Kohima, and later against the successful Burma Campaign of the Allies.

After the INA's initial formation in 1942, there was concern in the British-Indian Army that further Indian troops would defect. This led to a reporting ban and a propaganda campaign called "Jiffs" to preserve the loyalty of the Sepoy. Historians like Peter W. Fay who have written about the army, however, consider the INA not to have had significant influence on the war. The end of the war saw a large number of the troops repatriated to India where some faced trials for treason. These trials became a galvanising point in the Indian Independence movement.

The Bombay mutiny in the Royal Indian Navy and other mutinies in 1946 are thought to have been caused by the nationalist feelings that were caused by the INA trials. Historians like Sumit Sarkar, Peter Cohen, Fay and others suggest that these events played a crucial role in hastening the end of British rule. A number of people associated with the INA during the war later went on to hold important roles in public life in India as well as in other countries in Southeast Asia, most notably Lakshmi Sehgal in India, and John Thivy and Janaki Athinahappan in Malaya.

The legacy of the INA is controversial. It was associated with Imperial Japan and the other Axis powers, and accusations were levelled against INA troops of being involved and complicit in Japanese war crimes. The INA's members were viewed as Axis collaborators by British soldiers and Indian PoWs who did not join the army, but after the war they were seen as patriots by many Indians.

Although they were widely commemorated by the Indian National Congress in the immediate aftermath of Indian independence, members of the INA were denied the status of freedom fighter by the Government of India, unlike those in the Gandhian movement. Nevertheless, the army remains a popular and passionate topic in popular Indian culture and in Indian politics.

Issued Date :  31.12.1993
Denomination: 100 Paise

Fifth World Cup Hockey, Bombay 1981 India

India and Pakistan jointly initiated the move to have a hockey competition at world level outside the Olympic tournament.

The International Hockey Federation (FIH) approved the holding of such games and the World Cup Hockey Tournament thus started from 1971.

Pakistan donated a trophy for this competition. The gold and silver trophy comprises a silver cup, carrying an intricate floral design, surmounted by a globe in silver and gold depicting the world, carrying on top of it a ball and hockey stick, perfect in design and symmetry. The current value of the trophy could be in the region of Rs. 20,00,000.

Spain hosted the inaugural World Cup Hockey Tournament in Barcelona in 1971. Ten nations qualified for the competition which was spread over ten days (October 15-24).

The semi-finals were played in Tarrasa, the birth place of Spanish Hockey. Pakistan emerged as the champions with a one-nil victory over Spain, who beat them 3-2 in a pool match. India won the bronze medal.

Issued Date :  29.12.1981
Denomination: 100 Paise

Rajesh Khanna 2013 India

Rajesh Khanna, the first superstar of Indian and Hindi Cinema with 74 Golden Jubilee Hits - (which includes 48 Platinum Jubilee hits and 26 Golden Jubilee Hits) & in addition had 22 Silver Jubilee Hits and 9 average hits, was born on 29 December 1942 in Amritsar, Punjab, India.Rajesh entered Hindi films in the year 1965 when he began shooting for Raaz and did 180 films - 163 feature films and 17 short films.

Rajesh Khanna was a famous Indian Hindi films actor, film producer and a politician. He won 3 Filmfare Best Actor Awards and was nominated 14 times for the same; he also received 4 BFJA Awards for Best Actor and was nominated 25 times.

In 2005, He was honored with the Filmfare Lifetime Achievement Award. Rajesh Khanna is referred as "Hindi filmdom's original superstar". 

Rajesh  Khanna  was adopted and raised by foster parents who were relatives of his parents. He attended St. Sebastian's Goan High School. During school days Rajesh Khanna slowly took interest in theatre and did lots of theater plays in school. In college he won many prizes in the inter-college drama competitions. In the early 60s, he struggled as a newcomer to get work in theatre and films. In March 1973, Rajesh Khanna married Dimple Kapadia and had two daughters. 

In 1966, Rajesh Khanna made his film debut with the film Aakhri Khat. He was noticed for his excellent performances in films like Aurat, Baharon Ke Sapne, Doli, Ittefaq and Aradhana. Through Aradhana he ascended to "instant national fame" and critics referred him as the first superstar of India. In 1971, Haathi Mere Saathi became his biggest hit and also highest grosser at that time. In 1974, BBC made a film on him titled Bombay Superstar. Between 1969 to1971, he had 15 consecutive solo super hits, making it an unbroken record in Indian film history till date. Even today, his trademark style and dialogue delivery remains the favorite of mimicry artists. 

Between 1976 and 1978, Rajesh Khanna appeared in four box office hits and nine films that were not so successful. He continued acting in solo roles in socially decent household films during this era and played a range of characters. After 1978, Rajesh Khanna starred in highly praised commercial movies. In 1985 he turned into a producer. He was the biggest and the most genuine celebrity Bollywood has produced. In 1991, He was awarded a Filmfare Special Award for having acted as the solo lead hero in 101 films. He gave 35 Golden Jubilee Hits and gave 22 Silver Jubilee Hits.

From early 90s onwards he stopped acting and served as M.P. of New Delhi. During that period, he acted in only 10 films and declined a good number film offers. From 2000 to 2009, he did 4 television serials. His successful TV serial was "Raghukul Reet Sada Chali Aayi", he mentioned the lack of good roles for him in the films is the reason he is not appearing in many films. Rajesh Khanna has also been a Member of Parliament for the Congress Party, from the New Delhi constituency from 1992 to 1996.

In 2012, Rajesh Khanna was seen in his last and first television ad. He was happy to be approached after so many years and considered it as a great honour and was delighted to reconnect with his fans once again. In June, 2012, it was reported that Rajesh Khanna's health had been deteriorating for quite some time and he was repeatedly admitted to the hospital due to some complications in health. On 18th July 2012 afternoon, the superstar Rajesh Khanna passed away at his residence in Mumbai as he had been fighting his prolonged illness for quite a long time.

Department  of  Posts  Issued  a Commemorative  Postage  Stamps

Issued Date : 03.05.2013
Denomination : 500 Paisa

Dhirajlal Hirachand Ambani 2002 India

Dhirajlal Hirachand Ambani (better known as Dhirubhai), son of a school teacher in a remote village in rural Gujarat, chose to build his own spectacular dream by hiring as well as using some of the country’s most shrewd and influential minds.

But make no mistake, however shrewd or well-connected his hires or partners were, they were just bit players in the blockbuster of a megastar who dared to dream on a scale unimaginable before in Indian industry

Shri Dhiru Bhai Ambani built India's largest private sector company. Created an equity cult in the Indian capital market. Reliance is the first Indian company to feature in Forbes 500 list Dhirubhai Ambani was the most enterprising Indian entrepreneur.

His life journey is reminiscent of the rags to riches story. He is remembered as the one who rewrote Indian corporate history and built a truly global corporate group. Dhirubhai Ambani alias Dhirajlal Hirachand Ambani was born on December 28, 1932, at Chorwad, Gujarat, into a Modh family.

His father was a school teacher. Dhirubhai Ambani started his entrepreneurial career by selling "bhajias" to pilgrims in Mount Girnar over the weekends. After doing his matriculation at the age of 16, Dhirubhai moved to Aden, Yemen. He worked there as a gas-station attendant, and as a clerk in an oil company. He returned to India in 1958 with Rs 50,000 and set up a textile trading company. 

Assisted by his two sons, Mukesh and Anil, Dhiru Bhai Ambani built India's largest private sector company, Reliance India Limited, from a scratch. Over time his business has diversified into a core specialisation in petrochemicals with additional interests in telecommunications, information technology, energy, power, retail, textiles, infrastructure services, capital markets, and logistics.

 Dhirubhai Ambani is credited with shaping India's equity culture, attracting millions of retail investors in a market till then dominated by financial institutions. Dhirubhai revolutionised capital markets. From nothing, he generated billions of rupees in wealth for those who put their trust in his companies.

His efforts helped create an 'equity cult' in the Indian capital market. With innovative instruments like the convertible debenture, Reliance quickly became a favorite of the stock market in the 1980s.

 In 1992, Reliance became the first Indian company to raise money in global markets, its high credit-taking in international markets limited only by India's sovereign rating. Reliance also became the first Indian company to feature in Forbes 500 list. 

Dhirubhai Ambani was named the Indian Entrepreneur of the 20th Century by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI). A poll conducted by The Times of India in 2000 voted him "greatest creator of wealth in the century". 

*He was fond of quotable quotes, one of these being: “If you don’t build your dream, someone else will hire you to help them build theirs”.*

Dhirubhai Ambani died on July 6, 2002, at Mumbai. There can be no better example of someone walking his talk so convincingly.

Department of  Post Issued a commemorative postage stamp on industrialist and founder of the Reliance Group of Industries, Shri Dhirubhai Ambani in Mumbai.

Issued Date :28.12.2002
Denomination: 500 Paisa

Personalities Series : Bihar 2016 India

Personalities Series : Bihar 2016 India stamps set of 8

Hardayal Municipal Heritage Public Library 2016 India

Hardayal Municipal Heritage Public Library 2016 India stamps

Mirza Ghalib 1969 India

Mirza Ghalib was One of the best-known Urdu poets of all times, Mirza Ghalib is a name that is synonymous with Urdu poetry. Born Mirza Asadullah Baig Khan, *Ghalib* was a pen name he adopted. It is like a pseudonym that most poets and writers adopt in the literary world. The life history of Ghalib is truly interesting and indeed makes a good read. Ghalib was born in Agra, India in Turkish aristocratic ancestry on 27th December 1796. Not much is known about Ghalib's education and it has always confused scholars, as there are no written records of his formal education and early life. However, it is said that his friends were some of the most respected and intelligent people of Delhi.

Ghalib got married at a very young age in a noble family around the year 1810. It is said that Ghalib had seven children, but sadly none of them survived. This pain has found its way into his poetry. His spouse was a contrasting personality when compared to him. She was a god fearing and a very reserved person as compared to Ghalib, who was a carefree and unrestricted person. 

It is said that Ghalib had a weakness for drinking and gambling. These two vices were something that he was truly fond of in his lifetime. Though gambling was considered an offence at that time, Ghalib never seemed to have bothered about it. He himself said that he was not a strict Muslim in the true sense of the term.

Ghalib also had a scandalous affair with a courtesan who was a fan of his poetry. In fact, one can find a record of an FIR filed against Ghalib in a police station in Delhi regarding his affair with the woman. Ghalib never strived for earning a decent livelihood and led his life on the generosity of his friends or state sponsorship. Though no one gave him due importance then, fame came much later. Today, he is the most written about poet and the most read poet in Urdu. On February 15th 1869, this great poet breathed his last.

Ghalib was one of the important court poets in the court of Bahadur Shah Zafar II. He honored Ghalib with the royal titles of *Dabber-ul-Mulk and Najm-ud-daulah*. These titles ensured Ghalibs entery into the nobility of Delhi. He suffixed his name with Mirza after Ghalib because of another title that the emperor added to his honor, Mirza Nosha. Bahadur Shah Zafar was a great poet himself and was very interested in writing and reciting poetry. Therefore at first, he was tutored by Ghalib in the year of 1854 and then Zafar invited him to sit in his court as an honorable court poet. He also tutored Bahadur Shah Zafar IIs eldested son Fakhr-ud-Din. Ghalib was also the royal historian in the court of Zafar. 

It is said that Ghalib was inclined towards poetry since his early years and he wrote him poem for the first time when he was only 11. He knew many languages like Urdu, Persian and Turkish. There was a time in the life of Ghalib, when he was in his young age, when a traveler came from Iran to stay in Agra. This traveler was called Abdus Samad and he stayed with Ghalib and his family for 2 years. During this time, it is presumed that, Ghalib learnt many things from him like: Persian and Arabic language, logic, philosophy, etc. as this traveler was a very learned man. Ghalib liked his work in the Persian language, but his most famous work is in Urdu. A lot many Urdu poets elucidated Ghalib. The first person to elucidate Ghalibs Urdu poetry was Ali Haider Tabatabai from Hyderabad. His poetries did not only depicted his failed loved and its agony but also the philosophy of life and world and the mysticism. 

His poetry is said to have a muddled description of his lover, which is considered to be the most beautiful part of his poetries. Instead of having a definite lover, he depicts an idea of the lover which takes the realism part of the writing away, which essentially gave Ghalib the independence of the idea and expression. He could express his anguish in bigger depths because he made his lover in his poetry less important than the feelings and emotions. His poetry has been translated into English language as well. This was first done by Sarfaraz K. Niazi in India by the publication company calle Rupa & Co and in Pakistan by a company called Ferozsons. This book was called the Love Sonnets of Ghalib and had Roman transliteration alongside English language translation. His poems are considered to be the poems about love and not the love poems

Then  the Indian  Posts & Telegraphs  Department paid it's  homage  to this  distinguished  poet  by issuing  a commemorative  postage stamp in his  honour.

Issued Date  17. 02.1969
Denomination : 20 Paisa

Baba Amte 2014 India

Murlidhar Devidas Amte, popularly known as Baba Amte was an Indian social worker and social activist known particularly for his work for the rehabilitation and empowerment of poor people suffering from leprosy.

Baba Amte was born to Mr. Devidas Amte and Mrs. Laxmibai Amte in the city of Hinganghatin Wardha District of Maharashtra on 26 December 1914. It was a wealthy family. His father was a British government officer with responsibilities for district administration and revenue collection.

He came to be known as Baba not because "he was a saint or any such thing, but because his parents addressed him by that name."

He was among eight children of his father.As the eldest son of a wealthy land owner, Murlidhar had an idyllic childhood. By the time he was fourteen, he owned his own gun and hunted boar and deer. When he was old enough to drive, he was given a Singer Sports car with cushions covered with panther skin. He never appreciated the restrictions that prevented him from playing with the 'low-caste' servants' children. "There is a certain callousness in families " he use to say. "They put up strong barriers so as not to see the misery in the world outside and I rebelled against it. "

After obtaining a degree in Law in 1936, he started practicing as an advocate in Warora. Soon after, deeply moved by the poverty and degradation of the peasantry, he began organizing farmers’ cooperatives. He worked as a volunteer at sites affected by disaster as the Quetta earthquake of 1935 and Bengal famine in early 1940s. Influenced by Rabindranath Tagoreand Mahatma Gandhi, he took an active part in the freedom struggle and was sentenced for organizing the lawyers to represent the imprisoned nationalist leaders.

Baba Amte was also influenced by Sane Guruji, a social reformer from  Maharashtra. He renounced his property and gave up the legal practice to set up a Shram Ashram ( Hermitage  of Labour) with the support of his wife,  Sadhana. He worked wholeheartedly to improve the abysmal social and economic conditions of the social outcastes. It was the sight of a person in advanced stages of leprosy which proved to be the turning point in his life and influenced him to take the pledge to work for the care and rehabilitation of leprosy patients.

In 1949, he attended a six month course on leprosy at the CalcuttaSchool of Tropical Medicine. He started treating leprosy patients in 60 villages around Warora by moving across villages on foot. In 1949, Baba Amte founded the Maharogi Sewa Samiti, a registered charity, which remained a medium for his activities.

He set up a commune for leprosy patients, along with his wife, two sons, and six leprosy patients, called the Anandwan or ‘"Forest of Joy" Anandwan soon became the nerve centre of Baba Amte’s relentless crusade, helping leprosy patients become self-confident persons capable of cooperative and creative leadership. Its inhabitants cultivated the land to become self sufficient, and the establishment grew to include a clinic with two hospital wards, primary school for visually impaired, school for hearing and speech impaired, a college of agriculture, and an orphanage.Baba Amte also worked for improving the health of the tribals. With a view to bring about national integration and check communal violence. Baba Amte undertook the Bharat Jodo Yatra in December, 1985 from  Kanyakumari  to Jammu and covered different states reiterating his plea for checking religious fundamentalism, linguistic and territorial bickering and keeping the country above individuals. He also protested against the displacement of people affected by building of the dam across the river  Narmada.

Baba Amte was conferred the Padma Shree in 1971, 

Padma Vibhushan, and the Welfare of the Disabled award in 1986,

Gandhi Peace Prize in 1999.

Baba Amte also received the Damien–Dutton Award in 1983

 Ramon Magsaysay Award for Public Service in 1985.

Baba Amte worked incessantly for welfare of the society till his death on 9th February, 2008.

Department  of  Post also honoured Baba  Amte  with  postage  stamps

Issued  Date: 30.12.2014
Denomination: 500 Paisa

Pt Madan Mohan Malaviya 1961 2011 India

Pt Madan Mohan Malaviya or Mahamana Malaviya, as he was popularly known, was born on 25th December 1861 at Prayag, in a family of six brothers and two sisters. His grandfather Pt Premdhar and father Pt Baijnath were Sanskrit scholars. His father, Pt Baijnath, was also an excellent Kathavacak (narrator of the stories from Bhagawat). After initial training in Sanskrit, Malaviyaji joined the Saraswati School for study in English. He passed his B.A. from Muir Central College in 1884.

Malaviyaji wanted to be a good Kathavacak like his father. But his dreams were drowned “in the tears of his mother” and the poverty in the house. Circumstances forced him in 1884 to join the Government School as a teacher for a salary of Rs.40 per month. Go To Top Legal Practice : After his graduation and the job of a teacher in 1884, Malaviyaji could pursue his education only from 1889 and passed LLB course in 1891. He first practiced in the District court in 1891 and then in the High Court from 1893. According to Sir Tej Bahadur Sapru “Soon he became a brilliant Civil Lawyer”.

Sir Mirza Ismail said “I have heard a great lawyer say that if Mr.Malaviya had so willed it, he would have been an ornament to the legal profession”. He decided to give up his roaring practice during his 50th birthday and retired in 1913 to serve the country. Gopala Krishna Gokhale said “Malaviyaji’s sacrifice is a real one. Born in a poor family, he started earning thousands monthly. He tasted luxury and wealth but giving heed to the call of the nation, renouncing all he again embraced poverty.

 Raja Rampal Singh of Kalakankar  was impressed by the speech and the personality of Malaviyaji, during the 2nd Congress Session in Calcutta held in 1886. He requested him to edit the Hindi daily ‘Hindosthan’ in July 1887.

Though he was young at that time, Malaviyaji’s earlier writings and speeches helped him acquire the characteristics of a journalist. His poems (sawaiyas) published (sometime in 1883-84) under the pseudonym of ‘Makrand’ in ‘Harischandra Chandrika’ magazine (brought out by the famous Bharatendu), articles on religious and contemporary subjects published in ‘Hindi Pradeepa’, editorial work for the English weekly ‘Indian Union’ (1885), work and speeches in social organizations stood him in good stead. Malaviyaji worked in the editorial of Hindi daily ‘Hindosthan’ (1887-1889), English daily ‘Indian Opinion’ (1889-), started Hindi weekly ‘Abhyuday’ (1907-1909 under his editorship). started English daily with the help of Motilal Nehru ‘Leader’ When the English Government tried to bring in the Press Act and Newspaper Act in 1908, Malaviyaji started a campaign against the Act and called an All India Conference in Allahabad.

He then realized the need of an English Newspaper to make the campaign effective throughout the country. As a result, he started the English daily `Leader' in 1909 with the help of Pt. Motilal Nehru. He was associated with ‘Leader’ as Editor 1909-1911 and as the President 1911-1919. In 1910, Malaviyaji started the Hindi paper `Maryada'. He took active control of `Hindusthan Times' from Delhi in 1924. `Sanatana Dharma', a magazine dedicated to religious, dharmic interests, was started in 1933 from BHU.

Malaviyaji’s firm grounding in the tenets of Hindu Dharma led him to strong beliefs on right attitude, right thinking, right expression and right actions in every field of his activity. A few examples from his early years are:

1) worked as the Secretary of ‘Prayaga Hindu Samaj’ (in 1880),

2) active part in organizing the ‘Madhya Bharat Hindu Samaj Conference’ at Allahabad (in 1885), which discussed about the social good and the welfare of the nation.

3) association and lectures on Hinduism and Indian Culture in ‘Bharat Dharma Mahamandal’, Haridwar (from 1887 to 1902),

4) organizing a conference of ‘Sanatana Dharma Mahasabha’ (Prayag Kumbh in 1906), and in 1936,

5) President of the Education Committee for 10 years of ‘Rishikul Brahmacharya Ashram’ (started in 1906 by Pt Durgadutt Sharma) and many others of later years. 

Malaviyaji was catapulted into the political arena immediately after his first thrilling speech at the Second Congress Session in Calcutta, held in 1886. He served the Congress for almost 50 years and worked with 50 Congress Presidents. He was the Congress President for a record of four times- in 1909 (Lahore), in 1918(Delhi), in 1930 (Delhi) and in 1932 (Calcutta). He was actively involved with the Allahabad Municipal Board till 1916.

He was a member of the Provincial Legislative Council during 1903-1918, Central Council during 1910-1920, elected member of the Indian Legislative Assembly during 1924-1930, Industrial Commission during 1916-1918 and attended the second Round Table Conference in 1931. He bid farewell to active politics in 1937. In politics, Malaviyaji was midway between the Liberals and the Nationalists, the moderates and the extremists, as the followers of Gokhale and Tilak were respectively called.

Malaviyaji visualized the importance of education and the hardships of the students early in life. He set up the ‘MacDonald Hindu Boarding House’ to accommodate 230 students in 1903 in Allahabad, by collecting a public donation of Rs 1.3 lakhs. This appears to be the precursor for his grand vision of the Banaras Hindu University, which he built up from a vision in 1900 to a reality in 1916.

These examples show his keen analysis of a problem, ability to think of a workable solution, motivate a team to work, collect large amount of funds for a public cause and realize the dream. More of BHU separately. Go To Top Service to the Needy/Downtrodden : Malaviyaji encouraged his son Ramakant to start the Yatri Sevadal (in 1912), which became ‘Deen Rakshak Samiti’ (1914), and later became ‘Prayag Seva Samiti’ under the chairmanship of Malaviyaji (1915). By 1918, it took the form of an Akhil Bharatiya Seva Samiti with centers at many places and a broad based objective of service to the needy during Kumbh Mela, floods, earthquakes, other natural calamities. In 1918, a sub unit modelled like the ‘Boy Scouts’ was started under the Akhil Bharatiya Seva Samiti.

The main difference was that a patriotic leader was its Chief Scout and ‘Vande Mataram’ was sung instead of the British National Anthem. During the dreaded plague, he struggled hard to hospitalize the sick, rehabilitate others into safer areas, arrange for mass feeding and shelter for the poor and needy. The above occasion brought out the best of the human kindness in him, a quality which could be seen in his care of the downtrodden. Malaviyaji gave mantra dik„a to the untouchables in Calcutta in 1928, much before the Harijan movement started by Gandhiji on 1st August 1933.

When Gandhiji addressed the varanasi crowd on 1st August 1934, Malaviyaji lent his support. He also carried out the ‘Shuddhi Movement’ by initiating the Harijanas with dik–a mantra on 12th March 1936, on the banks of Godavari. He repeated the initiation ceremony of Harijans, on the banks of Ganga in Varanasi on the Shivaratri day in 1936. The initiation was preceded by a mammoth procession of elephants carrying Vedas and religious books, followed by musical parties, citizens and scholars of Varanasi. Later shuddhikaran and mantra diksha was held in Nasik, Calcutta, Prayag. He worked for the emancipation of women.

He was the President of the Conference in Bombay (1932) for the removal of untouchability. Go To Top Other Social Activities : His keen interest in many social issues can be seen in examples of his involvement in :

1) The Minto Memorial Park not so well-known as it should be, was also the result of his efforts (1910),

2) opposing the construction of a dam across the Ganga in Haridwar as this would have reduced the flow of water in the canal (in 1916), and making the Govt to agree to the public proposal of maintaining an uninterrupted flow of water in the canal,

3) president of the special session of Hindu Mahasabha in Gaya in 1922, in Kashi in 1923 and his leadership till 1927,

4) starting the Cow Protection Society in 1941,

5) starting the Akhil Bharatiya Vikram Parishad in 1942.

His personality can not be condensed in a few words. Mahatma Gandhi called him pratah smaraniyaÌ, a pious person whose name when remembered in the morning would lift one out of the mire of one’s sordid self. Gandhiji compared Tilak to the lofty Himalayas, Gokhale to the deep seas and Malaviyaji to the crystal clear sacred river in which he decided to have ablution! Malaviyaji’s gentle, sweet, soft and graceful nature was a true reflection of his abundant love for humanity.

A British official commented that Malaviyaji ‘wore the white flower of a blameless life’. Edgar Snow, a journalist, wrote that his personality radiated ‘the sweetness and simplicity of a child, yet his words carried the strength and conviction of a man with a settled philosophy of life’. For all his sweetness he could still be tougher than the toughest when occasion demanded it. 

Dr S. Radhakrishnan said “Pandit Malaviyaji is a Karmayogin. He is not only a representative of Hinduism but the soul of Hinduism. He had strived all through his life for the Hindu ideals and we see the combination of idealism and practical wisdom....... While preserving the imperishable treasures of our past, he is keen on moving forward with the times”.

Kashi’s sacredness is usually described in a number of triads. To these sacred triads, we can add one more--the trinity of Ka„i, the Banaras Hindu University and Pt Madan Mohan Malaviya.

Department of  Posts  remembers  this  great  son of India  in gratitude  for  the  services  rendered  to the nation  and issued  two  postage  stamps

1) Then Indian Post & Telegraph department join in paying tribute to this great son of India by issuing  special postage stamp on 24th December 1961

2) Department  of  Post (DOP) On his 150th birth anniversary. 27th December 2011

Denomination: 1st stamp @15 Naya Paisa & 2nd stamp @ 500 Paisa

Veer Chandra Singh Bhandari (Garhwali) 1994 India

Veer Chandra Singh Bhandari (Garhwali):

Veer Chandra Singh Garhwali was born on the 24th of December 1891 in Meason, Patti Chauthan, Tehsil Thalisain District Garhwal. His real teacher was the rich experience that he gathered in his wide and varied travels during his service in the army and the long terms of imprisonment which he faced with care courage and fortitude in his fight for the freedom of the country.

When Mahatma Gandhi came to Uttarakhand than in a public meeting in June 1929 at Bageshwar, Almora the army cap which Chandra Singh Garhwali was wearing attracted the attention of Gandhiji who remarked that he was not afraid of the army cap Chandra Singh Garhwali replied by pointing out that,. if he so wished, Gandhiji could change the cap. When Gandhiji presented him with a khadi topi, the soldier pledged to redeem the honour of the topi one day.

On 20th April, 1930 a civil disobedience movement commenced in the North-West frontier province under the leadership of Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan and a programme of demonstration and Satyagrah was planned for 23rd April 1930 in Peshawar. The British Government in its eagerness to suppress this movement of the Pathans at any cost, decided to deploy the aarmy. Chandra Singh Garhwali and his men of the Garhwal Rifles quietly resolved to resist any order of their British Commander to fire upon unarmed people.

On 23 April 1930 thousands of Pathans had gathered in front of the Kissakhani Bazar Police Chowki in Peshawar and the national flag was flying in their midst. The men of the Garhwal Rifles stood before the Pathans and hundreds of people were looking on from their houses and roof tops. The British Captain warned the non-violent demonstrators to disperse but it had no effect on them. When, in a rush of anger he shouted, 'Garhwali three rounds fire', an equally firm voice was heard saying' Garhwali cease fire', and the Garhwali soldiers lowered their rifles to the ground. Chandra Singh Garhwali's voice rang out once again to declare that they would not fire upon unarmed people even if the Captain were to shoot them down. It was an amazing display of courage. An extraordinary moment in the history of our freedom struggle.

Mahatma Gandhi’s words about Veer Chandra Singh Garhwali were” If I had one more Chandra Singh Garhwali, then India would have become Independent much earlier. ”

DOP  Issued commemorative postage stamp on Chandra Singh Garhwali (Nationalist) on his 15th Death Anniversary

Issued  Date :23-04-1994
Denomination :100 Paisa

Seasons Greetings stamps India 2016

Seasons Greetings stamps from India for year 2016

Merry Christmas 2016 and Happy New Year 2017

Samrat Vikramadittya India 2016

Samrat Vikramadittya India 2016 new stamp release

Chaudhary Charan Singh 1990 India

Chaudhary Charan Singh  was the 5th  Prime Minister  of the Republic of India, serving from 28 July 1979 until 14 January 1980.

Charan Singh was born in a Jat family in 1902 in village Bhadola of Ghaziabad District in Uttar Pradesh Charan Singh entered politics as part of Independence Movement motivated by Mohandas Gandhi. He was active from 1931 in the Ghaziabad District Arya Samaj as well as the Meerut District Indian National Congress for which he was jailed twice by the British. Before independence, as part of the 1937 United Provinces Assembly, he took deep interest in the state of laws that were detrimental to the village economy and he slowly built his ideological and practical stand against the exploitation of tillers of the land by landlords.

He became particularly notable in Uttar Pradesh since the 1950s for drafting and ensuring the passage of what were then the most revolutionary Land Reform laws in any state in India under the tutelage of the then Chief Minister Pandit Govind Ballabh Pant; first as Parliamentary Secretary and then as Revenue Minister responsible for Land Reforms.

He became visible on the national stage from 1959 when he had the strength of conviction to publicly oppose the unquestioned leader and Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru's socialistic and collectivist land policies in the Nagpur Congress Session. Though his position in the faction ridden UP Congress was weakened, this was in a way the starting point of the middle peasant communities across castes in North India looking up to him as their spokesperson and later as their unquestioned leader.

The leader of the Bharatiya Lok Dal, a major constituent of the Janata coalition, he was disappointed in his ambition to become Prime Minister in 1977 by  Jayaprakash Narayanan choice of Morarji Desai, not to seek power for himself but to enable him implement  his revolutionary  economic programs in the interest of the rural economy. Unfortunately, few amongst his rural based part had the intellectual heft to fully comprehend his wide ranging agenda to remake Indian society and economy, and this weakness dogged him his entire career specially in Delhi. Urban intellectuals were mostly beholden to either the communist / socialist models, or were neo-liberal and capitalist and hence looked askance at his uniquely Indian solution.

During 1977 Lok Sabha Elections, the fragmented opposition united a few months before the elections under the Janata Party banner, for which Ch Charan Singh had been struggling almost single handedly since 1974 when the Congress rigged the state elections in Uttar Pradesh in their favour.

It was because of efforts of Raj Narain he later became Prime Minister in the year 1979 though Raj Narain was Chairman of Janata Party-Secular and assured Charan Singh of elevating him as Prime Minister, the way he helped him to become Chief Minister in the year 1967 in Uttar Pradesh. However, he resigned after just 24 days in office since Indira Gandhi's Congress Party  withdrew support to the government. Charan Singh said he resigned because he was not ready to be blackmailed into withdrawing Indira Gandhi's emergency related court cases.

Chaudhary Charan Singh's government did not face the Lok Sabha during his brief tenure as the Indian National Congress withdrew their support from his Government as he refused to agree to the terms of the Congress to protect Indira Gandhi and her associates from prosecution under the laws of the land. Charan Singh resigned and fresh elections were held six months later. He continued to lead the Lok Dal in opposition till his death in 1987.

His association with causes dear to farming communities in India caused his memorial in New Delhi to be named Kisan Ghat (in Hindi, Kisan is the word for farmer). *His birthday on 23 December is celebrated as Kisan Diwas* in Uttar Pradesh.

The Amausi Airport in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh is called as Chaudhary Charan Singh International Airport after him, and the University of Meerut city in Uttar Pradesh, India, was also named Chaudhary Charan Singh University in his honour. A college in Etawah district, Chaudhary Charan Singh Post Graduate College, Heonra-Saifai is also named after him

DOP commemorative postage stamp on the 2nd Death Anniversary (May 29, 1990) of Charan Singh.

Issued Date : 29.05.1990
Denomination: 100 Paisa

Srinivasa Ramanujan 1962 India

Srinivasa Ramanujan was a mathematician par excellence. He is widely believed to be the greatest mathematician of the 20th Century. Srinivasau Ramanujan made significant contribution to the analytical theory of numbers and worked on elliptic functions, continued fractions, and infinite series.

Srinivasa Aiyangar Ramanujan was born on December 22, 1887 in Erode, Tamil Nadu. His  father worked in Kumbakonam as a clerk in a cloth merchant's shop. At the of five Ramanujan went to primary school in Kumbakonam. In 1898 at age 10, he entered the Town High School in Kumbakonam. At the age of eleven he was lent books on advanced trigonometry written by S. L. Loney by two lodgers at his home who studied at the Government college. He mastered them by the age of thirteen. Ramanujan was a bright student, winning academic prizes in high school. 

At age of 16 his life took a decisive turn after he obtained a book titled" A Synopsis of Elementary Results in Pure and Applied Mathematics". The book was simply a compilation of thousands of mathematical results, most set down with little or no indication of proof. The book generated Ramanujan's interest in mathematics and he worked through the book's results and beyond. By 1904 Ramanujan had begun to undertake deep research. He investigated the series (1/n) and calculated Euler's constant to 15 decimal places. He began to study the Bernoulli numbers, although this was entirely his own independent discovery. He was given a scholarship to the Government College in Kumbakonam which he entered in 1904. But he neglected his other subjects at the cost of mathematics and failed in college examination. He dropped out of the college.

Ramanujan lived off the charity of friends, filling notebooks with mathematical discoveries and seeking patrons to support his work. In 1906 Ramanujan went to Madras where he entered Pachaiyappa's College. His aim was to pass the First Arts examination which would allow him to be admitted to the University of Madras. Continuing his mathematical work Ramanujan studied continued fractions and divergent series in 1908. At this stage he became seriously ill again and underwent an operation in April 1909 after which he took him some considerable time to recover.

On 14 July 1909 Ramanujan marry a ten year old girl S Janaki Ammal. During this period Ramanujan had his first paper published, a 17-page work on Bernoulli numbers that appeared in 1911 in the Journal of the Indian Mathematical Society. In 1911 Ramanujan approached the founder of the Indian Mathematical Society for advice on a job. He got the job of clerk at the Madras Port Trust with the help of Indian mathematician Ramachandra Rao.

The professor of civil engineering at the Madras Engineering College C L T Griffith was interested in Ramanujan's abilities and, having been educated at University College London, knew the professor of mathematics there, namely M J M Hill. He wrote to Hill on 12 November 1912 sending some of Ramanujan's work and a copy of his 1911 paper on Bernoulli numbers. Hill replied in a fairly encouraging way but showed that he had failed to understand Ramanujan's results on divergent series. In January 1913 Ramanujan wrote to G H Hardy having seen a copy of his 1910 book Orders of infinity. Hardy, together with Littlewood, studied the long list of unproved theorems which Ramanujan enclosed with his letter. Hardy wrote back to Ramanujan and evinced interest in his work.

University of Madras gave Ramanujan a scholarship in May 1913 for two years and, in 1914, Hardy brought Ramanujan to Trinity College, Cambridge, to begin an extraordinary collaboration. Right from the start Ramanujan's collaboration with Hardy led to important results. In a joint paper with Hardy, Ramanujan gave an asymptotic formula for p(n). It had the remarkable property that it appeared to give the correct value of p(n), and this was later proved by Rademacher.

Ramanujan had problems settling in London. He was an orthodox Brahmin and right from the beginning he had problems with his diet. The outbreak of World War I made obtaining special items of food harder and it was not long before Ramanujan had health problems.

On 16 March 1916 Ramanujan graduated from Cambridge with a Bachelor of Science by Research. He had been allowed to enrol in June 1914 despite not having the proper qualifications. Ramanujan's dissertation was on Highly composite numbers and consisted of seven of his papers published in England.

Ramanujan fell seriously ill in 1917 and his doctors feared that he would die. He did improve a little by September but spent most of his time in various nursing homes. On February 18, 1918 Ramanujan was elected a fellow of the Cambridge Philosophical Society and later he was also elected as a fellow of the Royal Society of London. By the end of November 1918 Ramanujan's health had greatly improved.

Ramanujan sailed to India on 27 February 1919 arriving on 13 March. However his health was very poor and, despite medical treatment, he Last  his breath on April 26, 1920.

DOP Issued  commemorative  stamp on his 75th Birth Anniversary. of Srinivasa Ramanujan

Issued  Date : 22.12.1962
Denomination :15 Naya  Paisa

Pundit Sunder Lal Sharma 1990 India

Pundit Sunder Lal Sharma was born on 21st December 1881 at Rajim, the historical city of Chhatisgarh in Rajpur  district  of Madhya Pradesh. He was the pioneer of the freedom struggle in this area and was called 'the Chhatisgarhi Gandhi'.

He who stood for social justice, equality and non-violence. He founded “Smitra Mandal” at his birth place for the sell of indigenous goods. He was instrumental in founding of political council at Dhamtari in 1918 and he was responsible for organizing district level conference in 1919. In 1921 Mahatma Gandhi came to Raipur the credit for bring him to Chhattisgarh goes to Shri Sundarlal Sharma.

In 1929 he started ‘Canal SatyaGrah’ in the village kandel. He rendered important contribution in developing political awareness in Chhattisgarh region. He was deeply influence by Mahatma Gandhi’s programme of alleviating the plight of the untouchables and it remained a life long aim of Pandit Sharma.

He got an ashram and girls school establish for the upliftment  of the ‘Harijans’. Home for orphan at Raipur is the result of Pt. Sharma inspiration. Gandhi Ji called Pt. Sharma as a political master and thus honored the soil of Chhattisgarh.  The motto of Pt. Sharma’s life was “Do not move away from truth in life or death”. The same motto later on became Gandhi ji’s famous slogan “Do or Die”.

From early child hood Pt. Sharma was interested in languages and literatures and was keen to acquire knowledge and proficiency in them. He was particularly very found of poetry and tried his hand in poetry writing, as early as at the age of thirteenth. Owing to his learning and knowledge of various languages and literatures, he achieved a prominent place among the scholars of Rajim and surrounding region by the time he reached the age of twenty. Being a sensitive person he was very much influence by the political and social conditions of the period, and was deeply affected by the plight of the people.

As a result he entered politics and became an active member of the freedom movement and established the Rajim kavi Samaj in 1898-99. as a literary limunary of Hindi, he shaped the Chhatisgarhi dialect into a language by composing the poetic work named 'Chhatisgarhi Dan-Lila' in 1905. In the same year he initiated the freedom struggle against the British Rule in the area. He started the 'Jungle Satyagraha' by organising the trebles in the inaccessible forests in 1916-17. He led the famous kandel Nahar Satyagraha. He accompanied Gandhiji on his visit to chhatisgarh from Calcutta. He was imprisoned on the charge of sedition for one year in May, 1922. He went to jail, time and again, during Nagpur Flag Satyagraha in 1930 and in 1932.

In, 1927, he started the historical march of 700 Kms from Dhamtari to Kakinada to take part in the Kakinada Congress Session. He donated his entire property and educated himself to the service of the nation,  leaving  behind a legacy of dedicated patriotic fervor and social activism. For his unique contribution to society he is regarded as ‘Ghandhi of Chhattisgarh’. As a mark of respect and gratitude to this great son of the soil A research chair has been instituted in his name in Ravi Shankar University Rajpur and the library there is also named after him. as it humbly puts itself to the task of propagating his message and teachings, cherishing the values and principles he stood for, with a view to create a society where social evils as untochchability, injustice are a thing of the past.

As a Social reformer he opened a new chapter for the scheduled castes belonging to the Satnami castes by offering Janeu (the sacred thread) to them.This revolutionary and courageous task made the Hindus call him 'the Chamar Brahmin'.In a bid to remove untouchability he entered the temple of Rajim along with the so-called lower caste people. He struggled for the welfare of the untouchables, the downtrodden and the exploited classes till his last breath on 28th September, 1940.

DOP Issued Commemorative stamp of Sunder Lal Sharma (Patriot) on his 50th Death Anniversary

Issued Date : 28.09.1990
Denomination: 60 Paisa

Baroda Museum A `se-tenant pair' 1994

A `se-tenant pair' (set of two stamps) was issued on 20th December 1994 to celebrate the centenary of Baroda Museum. The se-tenant stamp had the picture of an ancient 6th century bronze statue of Bhagwan Rishabhnath exhibited in the Baroda Museum. Bhagwan Rishabhnath is regarded as the eighth incarnation of Lord Vishnu.

Maharaja Sayajirao Gaekwad III belonging to the Gaekwad dynasty of the Marathas founded the museum in 1887. The museum building was completed in 1894, when it opened to the public. Construction of the art gallery commenced in 1908, was completed in 1914, but did not open until 1921 as the First World War delayed transfer of pieces from Europe intended for the gallery.

The famous museum was built on the lines of Victoria & Albert and Science Museums of London. Major Mant in association with R.F. Chisholm  who refined some of Mant's finest works to make genuine Indo-Saracenic architecture designed the Building of this Museum.

It preserves a rich collection of art, sculpture, ethnography & ethnology. Several of the paintings are not only original but masterpieces at the picture gallery. The picture gallery which offers an excellent collection of originals by famous British painters Turner and constable and many others attract tourists from every part of the country.

The Egyptian mummy and skeleton of a blue whale are major attractions for those who visit the museum. Other treasure includes the famous Akota bronzes dating the 5th Century AD,
A collection of Mughal miniatures, a full-fledged gallery of Tibetan Art and oils by several European masters.

Issued Date : 20.12.1994
Denomination : 1100 & 600 Paisa

Sashastra Seema Bal 2013 India

Today is Sastara Seema   Bal foundation day

Sashastra Seema Bal or SSB, in English the Armed Border Force is one of India's Central Armed Police Forces. It is currently under the administrative control of the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), Government of India. It was formerly known as the Special Service Bureau.

The Special Service Bureau (also abbreviated SSB) was set up in early 20 December 1963, following the Sino-Indian War. The primary task of the force was to provide armed support for the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), India's foreign intelligence agency, with a secondary objective to inculcate feelings of national belonging in the border population and assist them in developing their capabilities for resistance through a continuous process of motivation, training, development, welfare programmes and activities in the then NEFA, North Assam (the northern areas of the Indian state of Assam), North Bengal (the northern areas of the Indian State of West Bengal) and the hills of Uttar Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh and Ladakh.

The programme was later extended to  Manipur,  Tripura,  Jammu

Its primary purpose was to counter an act of aggression  by the People's Liberation Army. The previous thinking had been that, militarily, the Chinese were "superior" to India and in the event of a war, the Chinese might attempt to overwhelm Indian forces. So, in 1963, a unique force was created, which would, in the event of such an attempt by the Chinese to invade and occupy Indian territory, merge with the border population, donning civilian attire, working a parallel administration and carry out the war of India with the help of guerrilla tactics.

The SSB model proved an enormous success, evident by what it had achieved in training the Mukti Basing  in  Bangladesh and other places, COIN Op's in the north-east and in its ability to provide security at high peaks during the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971 as well as during the Kargil War.

From the Cabinet, the SSB was transferred to the Ministry  of Home Affairs  and assigned the duties of manning the Nepal  and  Bhutan borders. The SSB was renamed the Sashastra Seema Bal, in accordance with its new role, and would come under the administrative  control of the Ministry of Home Affairs in January 2001. This was done after the Kargil War with the adoption of the "one border one force concept".

In the 40 years of its existence, SSB endeavoured to present a benign face of the government among border populace in the far flung and inaccessible areas subscribing to the ETHOS of Service, Security and Brotherhood. The local populace always found SSB standing steadfastly with them during difficult times.

Pursuant to the recommendations of a group of ministers on reforming the national security system, SSB was declared as a Border Guarding Force and Lead Intelligence Agency (LIA) for Indo-Nepal border (June, 2001) and assigned the task of guarding the 1751 km long Indo-Nepal border

Since then SSB was re-christened into Sashastra Seema Bal and reached new heights. SSB is the first border guarding force that has decided to recruit women battalions. It is doing excellent job as Border Guarding Force on Indo-Nepal and Indo-Bhutan Border.

SSB is also engaged in Counter-Insurgency operations in Jammu and Kashmir and Anti-naxal operations in Jharkhand, Bihar and Chhattisgarh. It is also performing internal security duties i.e. Election duties and law and order duties in different parts of India.

SSB celebrated the year 2013 as Golden Jubilee year marking 50 years of its raising. The celebrations have commenced with the Flag-off of a Mount Everest Expedition on 2 April 2013 from Delhi.

The team led by Shri Somit Joshi, Commandant, successfully reached at the peak at about 9.45 am on 21 May 2013 to commemorate  the 50th anniversary.

In 2014 the government of India approved the recruitment of women as combat officers in SSB.

During  SSB in its Golden Jubilee year celebration glorious years of unflinching service to the nation. Department of Posts commemorated the occasion by releasing a postage stamp.

Issued Date : 29.11.2013
Denomination :500 Paisa

Preserve the polar regions and glaciers 2009 India

India post issued two commemorative  Postage Stamps along  with  one Miniature Sheet carrying the message to save Polar Regions is contributing to the effort to sensitise people to leave the Earth a better place for future generations.

Earth’s Polar Regions, also known as Frigid Zones, at the (North Pole and South Pole,) are dominated by the polar ice caps, resting respectively on the Arctic Ocean and the continent of Antarctica.

Polar regions receive less intense solar radiation than the other parts of Earth because the sun's energy arrives at an oblique angle, spreading over a larger area, and also travels a longer distance through the Earth's atmosphere in which it may be absorbed, scattered or reflected, which is the same thing that causes winters to be colder than the rest of the year in temperate areas.

Polar weather influences climates in areas as far  away as the tropics and changes will have effects across the world. Polar sea ice is currently diminishing, possibly as a result of  anthropogenic Global warming.  Some scientists have estimated that the Arctic basin  will  experience  ice-free summers  by 2040 or even sooner, as the ice serves as a moderator of the planets climate, in part by deflecting heat radiation back into space. The breaking down of ice in the polar regions has resulted in an increase in temperature by 2.5 degree Celsius over the past 50 years.

Decline in ice and snow in both the Polar regions is affecting human livelihood as well as local plant and animal life in the Arctic as well as global atmospheric circulation and sea level. Climate change affects various factors of the habitat of animals adapted to live in really extreme conditions and put population at risk.

Several species of living things call the Polar regions their home from tiny lichens encrusting the rocky landscapes of the Arctic tundrato huge blue whales swimming through the frigid water of the southern Ocean. Some animals are only part time residents, migrating to warmer, lower latitudes during the winter months.

Polar bears,  penguins,  seals,  whales and  walrus are just a few of the species living in these very cold regions. They are specially adapted to survive the extreme cold of the Polar regions.

The Emperor penguins the world largest penguins  could  be pushed to the brink of extinction by the end of this century due to the melting of Antarctic Sea ice caused by global climate change. Similarly  Polar bears in the Arctic, the largest bear species, also rely heavily on sea ice. “No man is an island” – said the poet. And today this stands as a scientific reality before us, proved by the interconnectivity of human life across the globe with all animal and plant species, the earth, the climate and the air around us. It is essential that the delicate balance of ecology be understood and maintained with a sense of commitment and responsibility.

Other planets and natural satellites in the solar system have interesting quirks about their polar regions. Earth's Moon is thought to contain substantial deposits of ice in deep craters in its polar regions, which never see direct sunlight. Mars, like Earth, has polar ice caps. Meanwhile, on Uranus, the extreme tilt of the planet's axis leads to the poles alternately pointing almost directly at the Sun.

Issued Date : 19.12.2009
Denomination : 500 + 500 Paisa

The National Museum India 1978

The National Museum  in  New Delhi, also known as the National Museum of India, is one of the  largest  museums  in India.

Established in 1949, it holds variety of articles ranging from pre-historic era to modern works of art. It functions under the  Ministry  of Culture, Government of India. The museum is situated on the corner of Janpath and Maulana Azad Road. The blue–print of the National Museum  had been prepared by the Gwyer Committee set up by the Government of India in 1946. The Museum has around 200,000 works of art, both of Indian and foreign origin, covering over 5,000 years. It remains closed on Mondays.

It also houses the National Museum Institute of History of Arts, Conservation and Museology on the first floor which was established in 1983 and now is a Deemed University since 1989, and runs Masters and Doctoral level courses in History of Art, Conservation and Museology.

The roots of the National Museum begin with an exhibition of Indian art and artefacts at the Royal Academy in London in the winter of 1947-48. At the end of the London exhibition, the exhibition curators had decided to display the same collection intact in India before returning the artefacts to their individual museums. The Indian exhibition was shown at the Rashtrapati Bhawan in 1949, and was so successful that it led to the decision to form a permanent National Museum. On 15 August 1949, the National Museum was formally inaugurated by the then Governor-General of India,  Chakravarti Rajagopalachari.  At that time, it was decided that until a permanent home could be found for the collection, it would continue to be housed at the Rashtrapati Bhawan.

*The cornerstone of the present museum building was laid by Jawaharlal Nehru, the then Prime Minister of India, on 12 May 1955, and the building formally opened to the public on 18 December 1960.*

Today, the Museum is administered and funded by the Ministry of Culture and Ministry of Tourism.

Issued Date: 27. 07.1978
Denomination : 100 Paisa

Family Planning Association of India 1999

The Family Planning Association of India, abbreviated as FPA India, is a registered charity in India. Established in 1949, the organisation has 40 local branches across the country that promote sexual health and family planning. It is the national affiliate of the International Planned Parenthood Federation. Among other issues, the organisation promotes reproductive choices, legal and safe abortion, education about sexually transmitted disease

A small band of devoted and like minded men and women in Bombay establish the Family Planning Committee, to help safeguard the health and lives of women who have too many and too closely spaced pregnancies by educating couple about the health and other benefits of family planning for the family, to inculcate in them a new sense of responsibility  toward parenthood and, on a larger scale, to promote it as a measure that could help balance between population and resources.

This small beginning, although unknown then, was to become a significant first step toward a nationwide  movement for family planning.

*the Committee renames itself the Family Planning Association of India (FPAI) Two of its dynamic volunteers - Smt. Dhanvanthi Rama Rau and Smt. Avabai B Wadia are its President and Hony. General Secretary, respectively*.

The Association sends a Memorandum to the newly-formed Planning Commission of independent India, to include family planning in the country’s First Five Year Plan. *Smt. Rama Rau and Mrs Wadia are invited and serve on its Health and Social Welfare Panels respectively, to speak for this cause.*

India is the largest functioning democracy in the world with the second largest population. On 2.4 percent of the world’s land area she supports 16 percent of its population. The population is increasing by about 17 million + every year. Recognising that the planning of families would enhance individual health and welfare,

*Government of India  was the first in the world to initiate a comprehensive Family Planning Programme  in 1951*. In keeping with democratic traditions of the country, its education, health and family welfare programme, promote the concept of the small family, responsible and planned parenthood. At the time of India’s Independence, there were but few health facilities serving the rural poor.

The past five decades have witnessed significant investments in developing a network of health centres all over India. Through this vast infrastructure of sub-centres, primary health centres and community health centres, the government has been playing the role of a facilitator by providing family planning services for the people to plan their families.In recognition of the strong support lent to the efforts of the Government by various individuals and organisations,

Today, the FPAI as it is popularly known, has 39 Branches, 20 Projects and 3 Area Projects spread across the length and breadth of the country all the statistics given here are at the time of the 50th Anniversary celebration of this cause, i.e. 1999.

Ever since its establishment, FPAI had been in touch with similar organisations in Europe  and  America.  In 1952, it organised the Third International  Conference of Planned Parenthood  in India at Mumbai. At this conference,

The International Planned Parenthood Federation took shape with Hong Kong,  Singapore, West Germany,  UK, USA, Sweden, Holland  and India as the founder members.

The Mumbai Conference  was a landmark in stressing the need to regulate the rapid growth of population for promoting national well-being and progress  through  voluntary Family Planning. As a leading national family planning NGO supporting the Government programme,  FPAI has over the years created awareness of Population, Reproductive and Sexual Health, Youth Concerns, and Women's  Empowerment so as to widen its support and strengthen its base within the country. The ultimate objective of all activities undertaken by the Association is to help improve the quality life of all people.

DOP  issues this  commemorative  postage stamp on the 50th Anniversary  of  the  Family Planning  Association  of India to acknowledge the service undertaken by the Family Planning Association of  India  (FPAI), a Non–Governmental Organisation (NGO).

Issued Date: 18.12.1999 
Denomination :300 Paisa

Greetings India 1990

Greetings to  All 

The modern day greeting card crystalised in 1843 when the first X-mas card with season's greetings was designed in U.K. The commercial production of greeting cards became fully established by 1860's. Though there are several means of conveying greetings, the post remains the most popular and predominant mode of transmission. In India, too, the practice of sending greetings by way of illustrated messages by post was perhaps started by the British. It has become now an established feature as in most other countries. We send greetings on occasions like Birthdays, Wedding Anniversaries and other happy occasions  besides Deepawali, Pongal, Durga Puja, Baisakhi, Bihu, Christmas, Id and other regional festivals. 

To strengthen the spirit of such greetings and make the medium of transmission more communicative, the DOP brought out a set of two stamps on the theme of greetings.

Issued  Date: 17.12.1990
Denomination: 100 Paisa

India's maritime heritage 2000

The India's maritime

India has a rich maritime heritage and the earliest reference to maritime activities is contained in the Rig Veda. Indian mythology has numerous episodes pertaining to the ocean, the sea and the rivers, with belief that mankind has benefitted from the wealth of seas and ocean. There is plenty of evidence derived from Indian literature, art, sculptures, painting and archeology to establish existence of Indian maritime traditions.

A study of the country's maritime history reveals that the Indian sub-continent exercised supremacy over the Indian Ocean from very early times up to the 13th century. Indians took to the sea for trade and commerce rather than for political ends. Thus, the period up to about 16th century witnessed peaceful sea-borne commerce, cultural and traditional exchange between countries. The Indian Ocean has always been regarded as an area of great significance and India is central to this Ocean.

The beginning of India's maritime history dates back to 3000 BC. During this time, the inhabitants of Indus Valley Civilisation had maritime trade link with Mesopotamia. The excavation at Mohenjo-Daro and Harappa has revealed ample evidence that maritime activities flourished during this period.

The discovery of a dry-dock at Lothal (about 400 km Southwest of Ahmedabad) gives an insight into the knowledge of tides, winds and other nautical factors that existed during that period. The dry-dock at Lothal dates back to 2400 BC and is regarded as the first such facility, anywhere in the world, equipped to berth and service ships.

Vedic literature has numerous references to boats, ships and sea voyages. The Rig Veda is the oldest evidence on record that refers to Varuna, the Lord of the Sea, and credits him with the knowledge of the ocean routes which were used by ships. The Rig Veda mentions merchants sailing ships across the oceans to foreign countries in quest of trade and wealth. The epics Ramayana and Mahabharata have references to ships and sea travels. Even the Puranas have several stories of sea voyages.

The discovery of Lothal port and dock (circa 2400-1900 B.C.) bear testimony to this. After the landing of Vasco da Gama in Calicut in 1498 A.D., the Portuguese slowly gained influence and started interfering in the trade. Mohammed Kunjali Marakkar, the first Admiral of Calicut who offered to the Zamorin his sword, ships and services, dedicated his entire energies in fighting the foreign domination of Indian seas. He was the first of the four Kunjalis who played a heroic part in the Naval wars with the Portuguese.

The most famous of the Marakkars was Kunjali IV, who fought the Portuguese more fiercely than his predecessors and with far greater success. However, the initial successes appear to have made him arrogant to the extent of ignoring the authority of the Zamorin. The Portuguese clinched a deal with Zamorin to suppress the 'rebel' Admiral, and in 1600 jointly laid siege of his fort, bringing to an end the long tradition of the legendary Marakkars. Kunjali IV who surrendered to the Zamorin was executed in Goa.

The stamp design shows the war-paroe, a small craft used by the Kunjalis, which, manned by just 30-40 men each, could be rowed through lagoons and narrow waters.

The DOP  honour of these great  Admirals who wrote a heroic chapter in India’s Maritime History.

Issued  Date : 17.12.2000
Denomination : 300 Paisa

Ludwig Van Beethoven 1970

Ludwig Van Beethoven, the German composer who gave to Western Classical   music some of its most creative pieces, was born in Bonn two centuries ago.  In Germany and other  European countries concerts  and festivals were being held to commemorate the bicentenary of this musical genius. 

India, along with the rest of the world celebrates his bicentenary during November-December,  1970. Born in a family of court musicians on December 16, 1770,

Beethoven was subjected to a rigorous musical discipline from the age of four so that he could fulfil his father’s expectation in becoming a piano prodigy and child composer. The great Mozart after  meeting the child prodigy said, “Pay attention to this young man, he will cause a stir in the world one day“.

At 17, he became an  organist  at Bonn‘s Electoral Courtand gave his first composition. In his 22nd  year, he gave a new  expression  to piano, displaying a style that  changed the piano aesthetics. His compositions  too were recognised at this time. In  33 years,

Beethoven enamoured his audiences through concerts and devoted himself to musical compositions. Sieders, quartets, sonatas and  symphonies received his feverish  attention which one estimate places at 7,500  pages of manuscript. Belonging to the age of the French Revolution and  Napoleonic era, he basically acquired a republication disposition. But partly because of the suppression in him due to pedagogical experiments in childhood and because of the dissatisfaction with the times, he was often aloof, grumbling and given to emotional outbursts. Beethoven suffered from  partial  deafness  which later  made   him  unable  to hear   his  own compositions.

A passionate hiker and  lover  of nature,  he wandered  in the countryside taking notes. Yet the musical genius in him endeared him to all. The legendary halo around him was evident at the time of his death when on March 24, 1827, 20,000 commoners, princes and nobles vied with each other to pay him their last respects.

Beethoven was a tone poet and a musical counterpart of Shakespeare. In his approach to music he was a classicist who shaped  humanity in all phases of expression. Goethe once said about him, “I have never seen an artiste more collected and intense.

“Beethoven was by far the most towering personality in Western music. Not only was he a great innovator  and a supreme creative genius whose influence is felt to this day but he was  most deeply occupied with the fundamental problems of the human spirit.

He believed that music was not just a form of entertainment  but  had  a great role to play in stirring the human spirit to its roots and inspiring men to   nobler heights. Unlike any other great composer or artiste of the West,

he was deeply interested in the religious teachings of  India and his working room  was covered with quotations from German  translations of the great Hindu  scriptures.  One such quotation reads :  “Brahma, his spirit is existent in itself. He, the mighty one, is present in every part of space – his omniscience dwells alone by itself and the conception of him  comprehends every other one. Thou alone art the truly blessed one (Bhagavan); Thou, the essence of all laws, the image of all wisdom,  present throughout the universe. Thou sustainest all things. Sun, Ether, Brahma"

Issue Date : 16.12.1970 
Denomination: 20 Paisa