Stamps in the Indian Context
Postage stamps: Just quaint relics from the past?
Commemorative postage stamp on general elections issued in 1967, Image Courtesy: Vikas Kumar
Postage stamps might be threatening to become quaint relics from the past, but for over a century and a half they were central to our imagination of long-distance communication. This talk will delve into the fascinating history of postal services in India and explore the world of postage stamps in independent India.
Join Vikas Kumar as he takes us through the history and composition of stamps in Indian postal history — from walking through MAP’s exhibition Hello & Goodbye: Postcards from the Early 20th Century, to designing stamps of your own.
About the Speaker
Vikas Kumar is a faculty member at Azim Premji University, Bengaluru. He is the author of Numbers as Political Allies: The Census in Jammu and Kashmir (Cambridge University Press, 2023) and Waiting for a Christmas Gift: Essays on Politics, Elections and Media in Nagaland (Heritage Publishing House, 2023) and the co-author of Numbers in India’s Periphery: The Political Economy of Government Statistics (Cambridge University Press, 2020).
He curated the exhibitions Caste in Modern India: A Postal History (1905−2024) and Counting and Controlling Population: Postal Services, Census & Family Planning in Post-colonial India (1951 – 2011) at the Bangalore International Centre and Baba Saheb: An Extraordinary Philatelic Journey (1966−2022) at the India International Centre, New Delhi.
