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ARTICLE
NO: 01 - THE
FIRST STAMP OF ASIA - SCINDE DAWK
In
1st July 1852 India became the first country in Asia and the 10th
country in world to issue postage stamps, issued by the province of
Scinde (a part of India under British rule), by Sir Bartle Frere,
then the Governor of Scinde. The shape was circular, with SCINDE
DISTRICT DAWK around the
rim, leading the common name Scinde Dawk.
This was intended to use Scinde province only. The colour of
the first stamps were red, white and blue and the denomination was ½
anna. This was also among the first circular stamps of the world.
The
history
Scinde
was a province in Western India with an area of about 57000 square
miles and a population of about 2,500,000. Since the 4th
century, Scinde was under several rulers such as Alexander the Great,
Chandragupta, Muhammad Khan, Akbar and Nadir Shah of Persia till the
British came to on the scene in the 1830’s.
Sir
Bartle Frere, son in law of John Arthur, the governor of Bombay, was
assigned with task of bringing postal reforms to Scinde. The postal
administration was directly under the control of Bombay Presidency.
In 1850, there were four post offices in the provinces of scinde, -
Sukkur, Shikarpur, Hyderabad and Karachi. The route between Karachi
to Bombay had important stages ie. Thatha, Bhuj, Ahemedabad, each
route was further divided into small stages ie. 7 to 8 miles apart.
The mails from these places were carried to Bombay by runners called
Kasids. The distance was
covered these runners handling over the dak to the next
runners covering
the entire route by
successive relays delivering the
mail to Bombay. in about nine days time. They were basically the
local tribals.
The
stamp & Design
Sir
Bartle Frere with the help of Edward Coffey, the postmaster of
Karachi, he designed the first postage, which ultimately came to
known as the Scinde Dawk. The set comprised of three embossed stamps,
round in shape, in white, red and blue.
| Scinde Dawk - White |
Scinde Dawk - Blue |
Scinde Dawk - Red |
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The
design of the Scinde Dawk was the same as the mark of East India Company,
composed of '+' and 'P' a very
ancient Christian sign, the first letter of the name of Christ in Greek. The
mystic sign of 4 is found at the head of almost every marine merchant's mark.
The design. more or less of the same pattern is also noticed , in the
watermarks of the contemporary laid, wove and bond papers. There is no doubt
however, that it was regarded as a holy sign. The shape of the embossed Scinde
Dawk is circular. In set is a heart divided into three segments, each segment
containing one of the letters EIC (East India Company) in the center, above
the heart is then figure 4 with the central stroke vertically lengthened to
form one of the partitions in the heart. At the bottom tip is written 1/2 anna.
The entire design is enclosed in a circular belt, forming its border. The
circular belt contains the inscriptions 'Scinde District Dawk' with the belt
buckle at the lower center showing the holes for the buckle grip.
There
is controversy about the original assignment of De LA Rue and Co of London as
printers of the stamps, since the official records in India were destroyed and
no authenticated comtemperary
records exits in London.
The
Scinde dawk stamps were first used on 1st July 1852 and were
suppressed on 30th September 1854 and the remainder were
ordered to be destroyed on October 1854.
After
independence - India
This
Stamp Issued during Asiana'77, First Asian International Philatelic
Exhibition, Bangalore, India, depicting the scinde dawk. This is the only
stamp issued after India's independence which commemorates the scinde
dawk.
The
real facts
In
1952, the Department of Posts of India celebrated the centenary of the release
of the postage stamp by holding an exhibition but neither made any mention of
it on any of its postal stationery nor released a stamp depicting the Scinde
Dawk, may be because Scinde now happens to be a part of Pakistan
and also the political relation between two nations not well on that
time.
On
the other hand Pakistan in 14th August 1952 two stamps of the 3-anna and
the 12-anna denominations and an attractive First Day Cover were issued to
celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Scinde District Dawk stamps, the first
stamps issued in Asia in July 1852.
The design
illustrates the original stamp with a string of camels and airplane
added to symbolize progress in mail transport. The 3-anna stamp is
chartreuse in colour, and the 12-anna stamp is light brown. These
stamps were withdrawn from sale on 1st November 1953.
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