February was a dull month for philatelists, after a spate of stamp releases in the past few months, with only one commemorative stamp issued on February 25. As a policy the Department of Posts issues 40-45 special commemorative stamps in a year. Last year being the golden jubilee year of India's Independence many personalities associated with freedom struggle were felicitated with commemorative stamps. Also institutions, services which their golden jubilees in the same year were similarly felicitated.From October 97 to Jan 98 almost three dozen stamps were brought out and the government security printing press at Nasik, where all the stamps are printed, felt an acute burden and lagged behind in meeting schedules.
Philatelists complained of non-availability of commemorative postage stamps, especially a set of four stamps on the theme of Mahatma Gandhi and other series of special stamps issued on the occasion of World Philatelic exhibition. To catch up with the demand, only one stamp was released in February. The other reasons for the lack of releases were that there were no major events to celebrate or birth or death anniversaries of prominent figures.
February's release commemorated the hundredth birth anniversary of Sardar A. Vedaratnam. True, not many of us have heard of him. But he was more than a local hero. Vedratnam was the man behind carrying on the Salt satyagrah started by Gandhi in Gujarat to the southern belt of India. His outstanding contribution lies in leading the march in Vedaraniam at great personal risk. The march was the first and unique. It involved the people of the southern parts of the country in the nationalist movement.
Vedaratnam joined the national movement at the age of 19 and he closed his textile business so that he could adopt khadi, and also impel the masses to boycott foreign cloth. He was also a social reformer who worked for the amelioration of women by raising funds for Kasturba Gandhi Memorial Fund organising various women's welfare centres and child welfare centres.
Vedratnam was a freedom fighter, politician, humanist and social reformer, all rolled in to one. He wanted Hindi to be national language and vehemently opposed regionalism.
Brahmo Mehta, secretary of the Philatelic Association of India, is against too many stamps being issued at one go. ``How can students, who have been initiated into the hobby, afford to purchase all the special stamps issued''. Mehta also felt that the quantity of commemorative stamps being printed were far less compared with the number of philatelists in the country. ``Only 0.5 million commemorative stamps are printed for a country of crores are printed, which is a small number to meet the demands and promote philately.''
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
