50th Anniversary of Dandi March 1980 India Stamps

The Salt March, also known as the Dandi March and the Dandi Satyagraha, was an act of nonviolent civil disobedience in colonial India initiated by Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi to produce salt from the seawater in the coastal village of Dandi, as was the practice of the local populace until British officials introduced taxation on salt production, deemed their sea-salt reclamation activities illegal, and then repeatedly used force to stop it.

The 24-day march began from 12 March 1930 and continued till 5 April 1930 as a direct action campaign of tax resistance and nonviolent  protest against the British salt monopoly, and it gained worldwide attention which gave impetus to the Indian independence movement and started the nationwide Civil Disobedience  Movement.

The march was the most significant organised challenge to British authority since the Non-cooperation movement of 1920–22, and directly followed the Purna Sarajevo declaration of sovereignty and self-rule by the Indian National Congress on 26 January 1930.

Gandhi led the Dandi March from his base, Sabarmati Ashram, near the city of Ahmedabad. 78 people began the march with Gandhi, who intended to walk 240 miles (390 km) to the coastal village of Dandi, which was located at a small town called Navsari in the state of Gujarat.

As Gandhi and the others continued on what would become a 24-day march to Dandi to produce salt without paying the tax, growing numbers of Indians joined them along the way. When Gandhi broke the salt laws at 6:30 am on 6 April 1930, it sparked large scale acts of civil disobedience  against the British Raj salt lawsby millions of Indians.

The campaign had a significant  effect on changing world and British attitudes towards Indian sovereignty and self-rule  and caused large numbers of Indians to join the fight for the first time.

Department of Posts has issued 2 nos of postage stamps on the 50th Anniversary of Dandi March

Issued Date 02.10.1980

Denomination : 35 & 35 Paise

Baburao Puleshwar Shedmake 2009 India Stamp

British started trade by asking Emperor Jahangir for permission to do business through Gujrat’s Porbandar and Surat. Emperor Jahangir was much delighted to get England’s fine wine, diamonds, fine gems etc. and Britishers got permission.

Then  in sixteenth century, the southern and eastern states like East Bengal, Madras, Cochin, Travancore, became ports for the ships coming from England. Gondwana region at the centre was rich and prosperous.

By this  time British rule began with their control  putting Marathas in front. Bahamani of Pune, they attacked, destroyed and occupied many fortresses in Gondwana kingdoms.

By 1751 entire Gondwana was taken over by Marathas and changed its culture, language,  religion were destroyed and Sanskrit was imposed in two districts Satara and Rantagiri. In place of Gondi language and script, Marathi was promoted in each and every village by Brahmins from Pune. British managed to take over Gondwana by 1853 British Empire was fully established.

Baburao Puleshwar Shedmake was born on 12th March, 1833. He was the eldest son of Poolaisur Bapu and Jurja Kunwar. Poolaisur Bapu was Up Zamindar of Molampalli of Ghot Zamindari under District Chanda OP and Berar, Maharashtra. As per the tradition of Gond tribe, Shedmake got his initial education from Ghotul Sanskar Kendra where he learnt Hindi, Gondi and Telugu along with music and dance. English was getting prominence Shedmake’s father sent him to Raipur, Chhatisgarh for learning English. After completing his education at Raipur, Shedmake came back to Molampalli. He was 18 years old when he as per his tribe tradition got married to Raj Kunwar.

During 1857, when entire India declared war of independence against the British rule, Shedmake consolidated 500 tribal youth from the region and prepared an army and with this army he was able to capture Rajghad area. When this information reached Chandrapur, the Deputy Collector, Mr.Krikton sent British army to curb it, but near Nandgaon Ghosari the British army was defeated. Mr.Krikton sent another troop which fought battle at Sanganapur and Bamanpet but they also lost the battle.

These two victories encouraged Shedmake and he attacked telephone camp at Chinchgudi on 29th April, 1858 in which Telegraph Operators Mr.Hall and Mr.Gartland were killed but Mr.Peter managed to escape and reported the incident to Mr.Krikton. Mr.Krikton then used his diplomatic tactics for arresting Shedmake. On one side he asked Captain Shakespeare from Nagpur to assist him and on the other side he forced Rani Laxmi Bai, Zamindarini of Aheri to help them. His tactics worked and Rani Laxmi Bai conspired against  Shedmake which he was not aware of. On 18th September, 1858 Shedmake was arrested. He was brought to Chanda Central Jail. On 21st October, 1858 Baburao Puleshwar Shedmake was hanged at open ground in Chanda.

Baburao Shedmake remains an icon of bravery and leader of his tribe, who did everything to protect his homeland from outsiders. 12th March is celebrated as Birth Anniversary of Vir Baburao Shedmake throughout Gondwana region, and especially in Chandrapur.

On his memory, Department  of Posts  released a commemorative stamp on
Baburao Puleshwar Shedmake.

Issued  Date : 12. 03.2009
Denomination : 500 Paise

National Archives of India 2016 India Stamp

"National Archives of India"

The National Archives of India (NAI) is a repository of the non-current records of the Government of India and holds them in trust for the use of administrators and scholars. Originally established as the Imperial Record Department in 1891, in Calcutta, then capital of British India, the NAI is situated at the intersection of Janpath and Rajpath, in Delhi. It functions as an Attached Office of the Department of Culture under the Ministry of Culture, Government of India.

The Imperial Record Department was set up on 11 March 1891 in  Calcutta  (Kolkata). G.W. Forrest was named as department head. In 1911 it was transferred  to the new capital, New Delhi, and in 1926 it was shifted into its new building. This was one of four museum and archive buildings planned by its architect Edwin Lutyens around 'Point B' in the city plan, the intersection of King's Way and Queen's Way. However, only this one was built. It is a building in late neo classical  style, and originally known as the Imperial Record Office.

Shri K.R. Narayanan, then President of India, declared the "Museum of the National Archives" open to the general public on 6 July 1998. This museum provides a representative overview of the multifarious holdings of the National Archives, and promotes a common man's interest in archival holdings.

The NAI has a Regional Office at Bhopal and three Record Centres at Bhubaneswar,  Jaipurand Pondicherry.

The holdings in the National Archives are in a regular series starting from the year 1748. The languages of the records include English, Arabic, Hindi, Persian, Sanskrit, Modi and Urdu, and their materials include paper, palm leaf, birch bark and parchment. The records are in four categories: Public Records, Oriental Records, Manuscripts and Private Papers.

Department of post issued a commemorative postage stamp  of the 125th Year Celebrations of the National Archives of India, in New Delhi

Issued Date : 11.03.2016
Denomination : 500 Paise

Madhavrao Jivajirao Scindia 2005 India Stamp

Madhavrao Jivajirao Scindia was an Indian politician and minister from the Congress Party. Earlier, in 1961, he had become the titular Maharaja of Gwalior  being a descendant of the  Scindia dynasty of the  Marathas. However, in the 26th amendment to the  Constitution of India  promulgated in 1971, the Government of India abolished all official symbols of princely India, including titles, privileges, and remuneration.

Scindia was born to the last ruling Maharaja of  Gwalior,  Jivajirao Scindia. He underwent his schooling in Scindia School, Gwalior and thereafter went for higher studies in Winchester College and at New College, Oxford.

On his return from the UK, Scindia followed the political tradition set by his mother Rajmata Vijaya Raje Scindia by joining politics. He was elected to the Lok Sabha (the lower house of the Indian parliament) in 1971 from Gwalior. After Indian independence in 1947, the former princely state of Gwalior acceded to the Union of India and became part of the new state of Madhya Bharat, which in 1956 was merged into Madhya Pradesh.

A nine-term member of the Lok Sabha, Madhavrao Scindia never lost an election since 1971, when he won for the first time from Guna constituency at the age of 26. He contested the election on the ticket of Jan Sangh, a party that his family had long patronised. In the 1977 election after the emergency was lifted, he contested from Guna constituency as an Independent candidate and still won the seat a second time in spite of the wave in favour of Janata Party (Bhartiya Lok Dal-BLD). In the 1980 election, he switched allegiance to  Indian National Congress and won from Guna a third time. But in 1984, he was nominated as the Congress candidate from Gwalior in a last-minute manoeuvre to defeat the Bharatiya Janata Party's Atal Bihari Vajpayee, and won by a massive margin. After that Scindia contested from either Gwalior or Guna and won on each occasion...

Madhav rao Sindia died in a plane crash on the outskirts of Mainpuri district of Uttar Pradesh on 30 September 2001.

All eight people on board the private plane died in the crash: this included his personal secretary Rupinder Singh, journalists Sanjeev Sinha (The Indian Express), Anju Sharma (The Hindustan Times), Gopal Bisht, Ranjan Jha (Aaj Tak), pilot Ray Gautam and co-pilot Ritu Malik.

The autopsies were conducted and other legal formalities completed at AIIMS New Delhi by Professor T D Dogra. His son Jyotiraditya Madhav rao Sindia was symbolically anointed as the head of the family.

Department  of Posts released commemorative postage stamp on his 60th Birth Anniversary.

Issued  Date : 10.03.2005
Denomination :500 paise

Devika Rani 2011 India Stamp

Remembering Devika Rani Roerich, the first lady of the Indian screen,

09 - 03 - 1994

She was a performer who defined ‘bold’ when Indian cinema was taking it’s baby steps. Her presence lit up the screen when very few women thought of acting as a career. At a time when women venturing out of their comfort zones to pursue jobs was frowned upon and acting was unimaginable as a career, she stepped into the word of cinema and excelled in it. Devika Rani Chaudhuri was truly a legend of the black and white era.

She was the first actor to ever have a four-minute long liplock onscreen. The record was unbroken for a long time until 2014. Her popularity rose to such levels that it altered peoples’ perspective towards actresses. Today on Devika Rani’s remembers, we familiarise you with her life and her brave decisions:

Rani was born in Vishakhapatnam to an illustrious Bengali family. Her father, Manmatha Nath Chaudhuri was the first Indian Surgeon-General of Madras Presidency.

Her paternal uncles were also famous lawyers in Kolkata High Court and one of them, a very famous Bengali writer. She was also related to the renowned poet and Nobel Laureate Rabindranath Tagore.

A major part of Devika’s childhood was spent in London, where she first studied acting and music then did a course in architecture. She began her career as a textile engineer, but life had something else in store for her.

The turning point came  when  during an event she met Himanshu Rai, a barrister-turned-filmmaker, who insisted that she work with him in production.

They worked on a movie (A Throw of Dice) together where Devika assisted Rai in costume designing and art direction. They got married soon after and Devika left for Berlin to learn film-making. Once she came back, Rai casted Devika in his first film Karma where he himself was playing the lead.

The movie set many precedents  in the ever-evolving Indian cinema. It had the first and the longest liplock on the Indian screen. Interestingly, it was a woman-centric film as it was majorly based on Devika.

It was the first English language movie by an Indian producer. Devika also sang a bilingual Indo-English song in the movie, which became the first India English song.

Devika’s performance in the movie garnered a lot of praise and critical acclamation. She then went on to do many more women-centric movies. One of them was Acchut Kanya which became a landmark in Indian Cinema as it questioned the caste system, depicting an untouchable girl falling in love with a Brahmin boy.

She was paired with Ashok Kumar in this movie, and the pair then went on to do ten films together. Their pairing was a great success and it was said that she completely overpowered Kumar with her persona.

Being the independent rebellious and hardworking woman that she was, after her husband’s death in 1940, she took over the production house and looked after it’s functioning by herself. She was one of the pioneer women of the times before independence.

Never one to shy away from expressing her romantic side, Devika was an empowered woman where she chose her life-partner without anybody’s interference in her life.

She re-married Russian painter Svetoslav Roerich after her husband’s death at the very height of her career and chose to live in solitude

Devika Rani Roerich, the first lady of the Indian screen, died at the age of 87 years in Bangalore

The  department  of Posts released  commemorative postage stamp  on  first  lady  of India screen

Issued  Date :13.02.2011
Denomination : 500 paise

Shyama Charan Shukla 2012 India Stamp

Shyama Charan Shukla  was born on February  20th 1925,  at Raipur and received his early education at  Raipur (Chhattisgarh). He graduated in Technology from Banaras Hindu University and completed his law degree from Nagpur University.

Shyama Charan Shukla got inspired by the freedom movement and participated in the Quit India Movement of 1942. He was the founder editor  of  ‘Mahakoshal’, the first Hindi daily from Raipur.

He was elected Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) for the first time in 1957 from the dual constituency of  Brindranavgarh –Rajim and subsequently in 1962, 1967, 1972, 1990, 1993 and 1998 from Rajim constituency. He was appointed the State Irrigation Minister in 1967 and Chief Minister  of Madhya Pradesh thrice from 1969 to 1972 and later from 1975 to 1977 and 1989 to 1990.

He was elected as a Member of Parliament from Mahasamund in 1999.Shyama Charan Shukla is remembered for his contribution towards irrigation, development of agriculture, tribal welfare, urban planning and development as well as environmental conservation.

He made special efforts for the expansion of canals as well as small irrigation projects, rural electrification, land consolidation, recognition and protection of farmers’ rights over land, distribution of surplus land to the landless.

It was his significant efforts which made green revolution a success in Madhya Pradesh. Shyama Charan Shukla is also remembered for his contribution to the field of professional education.

He introduced pre entrance examination and emphasized the importance of research and development in medical education. He was also a pioneer in implementing  Panchayati Raj in the state of Madhya Pradesh. Recognizing the benefits of environmental conservation     

Shyama Charan Shukla, in his second tenure as Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh in 1975, introduced the concept of social forestry in his state.Shyama Charan Shukla’s public life spanning over five decades was marked by simplicity, ethical conduct, integrity and discipline.

He died  on February  14, 2007 at Raipur  Chhattisgarh, 

Department of Posts is happy to commemorate this great son of India by releasing a postage stamp.

Issued Date : 09.03.2012 
Denomination : 500 Paise

Parijat tree 1997 India stamps

The Parijat tree is considered to be a divine tree which blooms occasionally (usually after Ganga Dusshera) with flowers that are white on blooming and turn yellow on drying. The tree is unique in more than one aspect. It is a unisex tree which cannot be grown by plantation of its offshoots and it does not produce either its seeds or fruits. The leaves of the tree in the lower portion have five tips like the fingers of our hand and the upper portion having seven. The flower from the tree is referred to as the Parijat flower and the perimeter of the trunk of this tree is around 50 feet and its height is close to 45 feet. The tree is believed to be more than 1000 years old.

In Botany, the Parijat tree is named as Adansonia digitata, due to its resemblance to the Adansonia class of trees. This class has eight members with six being found in the African continent and the other two in the Arabian Peninsula and Australia respectively. Trees of this class reach heights upto 100 ft and their trunk diameters range from 23 to 36 ft. The other common name for Adansonia digitata is Baobab.

The Parijat tree is located in the Kintur village which is near Barabanki, a district about 30 km from the capital city of Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India. Kintur is about 38 km from Barabanki and was named after Kunti who was the mother of the Pandavas in the epic Mahabharata. There are several temples around the place and the tree is located near one such temple that was established by Kunti.

There are a number of legends associated with this tree. The common ones are listed below:

Number (1)

It is believed by some that the tree originated from the ashes of Kunti. Some say that Arjun brought this tree from the heavens and Kunti used to offer its flowers to Lord Shiva.

Number (2)

It is also said that Lord Krishna stole a branch of this tree from Indra’s kingdom and brought it to the earth. The Parijat tree was planted in Indralok, being one of the many gifts from the Samudra Manthan. Narada brought some flowers from the tree and gave them to Lord Krishna. Lord Krishna gifted the flowers to his wife Rukmini. Narada told Satyabhama (Krishna’s other wife) about this and advised her to ask Krishna to get the Parijata tree from Indralok and plant it in her garden.

Satyabhama did exactly that and in the meantime, Narada went back to Indralok and warned Indra that someone from the earth might attempt to steal the tree from Indralok. An angry Indra confronted Krishna while he was leaving with a branch of the tree. This led to a battle which Indra lost. However, he put forth a curse on the branch that it will never bear fruit even though it may produce flowers. Since then, the tree does not bear any fruits.

Once Krishna brought the tree to Dwarka, another conflict arose between his two wives, with both insisting to have the plant in their respective gardens. So, Krishna planted the tree in such a manner that although it was planted in Satyabhama’s garden, its flowers would fall in Rukmini’s garden. In this way, Rukmini got the flowers and Satyabhama got the tree. 

Number (3)

In the Harivansh Puraan, the tree is referred to as a “KALP-VRAKSH”, or wish bearing tree which apart from this one can only be found in heaven. Newly-weds visit the tree for blessings and a fair is held every Tuesday when people worship the tree.

 The tree stands tall as evidence of the strong cultural backdrop India has and being the only one of its kind also supports the Hindu mythology. It has been the center of attention of botanists over the years and several efforts have been made to prevent it from dying. In 2010, there was a committee formed by the Uttar Pradesh government to save the tree from attacks from moths and insects.

Being located in a remote village does not help its cause as it hinders the importance it deserves. It would not be surprising to find that most of the people in the country may not be aware that a grand symbol of Hindu mythology exists in this remote village of Uttar Pradesh. The site should be actively promoted and maintained by the concerned department of the Government of India. It would be grossly inappropriate to leave it at the mercy of the state government and the village locals. We should not allow such symbols of our glorious past to fade away from our memories.

A stamp of the tree has been issued by the Indian Postal Department.

Date of Issue : 08 - 03 - 1997
Denomination : 500 &  600 paise