Placing urban India under a philatelic lens, this exhibition suggests that post-colonial India has been ambivalent about its urban spaces. The exhibition focuses on the philatelic representation of cities in independent India. It curates a selection of philatelic material that features cities which boast an identity such as Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Chandigarh, Chennai, Cuttack, Delhi, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Kolkata and Mysuru. Most cities are featured in the philatelic space as standalone iconic pre-colonial and colonial monuments. 

Scenes of work and everyday life in cities and contemporary art and infrastructure are hard to find on stamps. Establishing ethnic iconographies for cities within the nation’s cultural map seems to be the guiding philatelic concern. Reminiscent of tourist brochures, the stereotyped representation of cities on stamps has not seen a vision for urban India evolve alongside. 

The exhibition also suggests that the imagination of the postal department does not seem to have room for qasbas (towns) and villages. The rural is imagined as a smaller and leaner version of the urban, while towns are entirely absent from the postal department’s vision of modern India.

Curated by Vikas Kumar