20th Century Hyderabad Through Its Stamps

Hyderabad is known for its rich history and beautiful landscaping, and in modern times, it is famous for its chai and biryani. What it should be known for is its stamps, dating back to decades before India as an independent nation had one.

Hyderabad’s Postal Archive (Source: Wikimedia Commons)

A stamp is not just a piece of paper that adorns our mail, but it is loaded with history and symbolism. To know more about a certain time in history, usually, you would go to the library or internet archives, but have you ever thought of looking at stamps? The study of postage stamps is called philately. Inspecting postage stamps will give you an insight into events, architectural features popular at the time, and rulers while serving as unexpected records of antiquity.

Hyderabad might not be the most well-known place globally, but it should be, at least in India, for its immense contribution to Indian postal history. A few years ago, an exhibition called ‘Property of a Gentleman: Stamps from the Nizam of Hyderabad’s Dominions’ was held in New Delhi. It showcased over 120 stamps that Hyderabad, a Princely state back then, had produced. It had a functioning banking system, administrative and communication apparatus, and even its own autonomous postal service. These stamps are said to have been designed and printed from approximately 1839 to 1949, when Hyderabad formally became a part of the Indian Union. Under the seventh and last Nizam of Hyderabad, Mir Osman Ali Khan, there were many ways in which the state’s postal system flourished. His reign coincided with the printing of stamps as pathways to communication and revenue, which were new developments.

The first Independent India stamp was produced in 1947, whereas Hyderabad had been producing them for decades. The most interesting thing about these stamps is that they reflected the evolving nature of the then Princely state. Seeing as the ruler was Muslim — and Islamic doctrines didn’t allow human figures — the natural choices were architecture, calligraphy, transportation, and other regional features.

What is interesting about these stamps, other than the diverse designs, is the use of four diverse languages - Telugu, Urdu, Marathi, and English. No other state was experimenting with stamps quite like Hyderabad was, playing around with colours, calligraphic styles, and inscriptions, getting its every whim printed in England. One incredible stamp, the Black Penny, was also issued by Nizam’s government and was the world’s first adhesive stamp.

The first pictorial stamps were designed in 1931. A few years later, when Hyderabad supported the British during World War II, their victory was commemorated with a design of the back of a man entering his house while his wife awaits, depicting a soldier’s return home. This fascinating story of Indo-Britain allyship may have remained unknown if not for this stamp. This is also Hyderabad’s first stamp that showed the state’s name, as it generally only printed the ruler’s name, which was considered more than enough.

Looking back today, the biggest takeaway from these Hyderabadi stamps is how the Nizam, in a nod to modernity, depicted architecture to show the greatness of the state. It’s wonderful that we, generations and decades later, can piece together events of a time we weren’t a part of.