Postal History of Bangladesh

First Stamp of Bangladesh

Prior to our independence eight postage stamps were released with different motifs by the then Revolutionary Government of Bangladesh on July 29, 1971 simultaneously from the Mujibnagar Mission located in Calcutta, London and India. Mr. Biman Mallick, a Philatelist and stamp designer of international repute made the designs of these stamps. They were printed by Format International Security Printing Press, London. A British politician and MP, John Stonehouse actively worked for printing and auctioning the stamps from London. Since Bangladesh were not yet liberated at that time these stamps were referred to as propaganda issues. But later, after liberation they became the first issues of Bangladesh postage stamps.

 

These stamps had tremendous impact in the international lobbying for recognition of Bangladesh. I would like to mention one article written by Mr. David Lidman (who was the stamp editor of New York Times) captioned "Bangladesh: Tread with Caution" which was published in the September 1971 issue of the periodical "The American Philatelist". I quote here some of his writings from the article “On July 29, in London socalled stamps of Bangladesh appeared. A'First Day' ceremony was staged for this so‑called 'definitive' series. The site was the House of Commons and John Stonehouse, MP, until recently Britain's Postmaster General and Abu Sayeed Chowdhury, Vice Chancelor of Dacca University, in East Pakistan, were the principles involved. **** Someday, if there ever is a Bangladesh, they may be recognized as the first definitive stamps of the Bengal Nation; There are so‑called 'first day covers' available in New Delhi, Calcutta and London." Further report of a British journalist Anthony Lewis was, “A spokesman for the Steering Committee of Bangladesh, United Kingdom observed that the stamps were a symbol of the authority of the Bangladesh Government over the territories they hold. They claim 78 percent under their control." Such had these stamps effect in our war of liberation and gave us a tremendous boast to earn the recognition that we badly needed from the world.

 

The war for the independence of Bangladesh ended on December 16, 1971 with the unconditional surrender of Pakistan to the combined forces; of India and Bangladesh. Guns were finally silenced, tanks were surrendered, and the country emerged into freedom. The "Shapla", national flower of Bangladesh, bloomed in the hearts of the 75 million people of the new country after the longest and most cruel struggle in human history.

 

During the course of fierce fighting millions of people wandered, lost and without homes within the country, and millions of men, women and children immigrated to India for their honor and safety, with many in their families left behind. These emigrants anxiously awaited the news of the safety of their dear ones before they could return to their liberated country.

 

Two days prior to liberation of Bangladesh a meeting was called at the mobile capital of Bangladesh, Mujibnagar by the Secretary General of Postal Service, Mr. Ruhul Quddus, to discuss ways and means to reopen the Post and Telegraph offices. The special officer of Bangladesh Post and Telegraph Department, M.A. Aziz, was deputed to arrange for the reopening of the post offices and to negotiate with Indian postal officials for resumption of mail service between Bangladesh and India, which had been officially suspended since March 1971. Upon the reopening of post offices in Bangladesh on December 20, 1971 the eight stamps issued earlier were given a special first day cancellation of the Philatelic Bureau at the Dacca General Post Office. Additionally, that same day three values of the Liberation Overprint on these stamps (10 pa., 5 Tk., 10 Tk.) were released. Although in a very limited quantity since only ten sheets of each values were available in the country which arrived by helicopter the previous day in the hands of John Stonehouse, former MP of Britain who originally helped in printing of these stamps. These three additional stamps were also given the same first day cancellation and can be said to be the first issues after liberation of Bangladesh. Also first day cancellation on hand printed stamps were made on December 20, 1971 on only three sets of covers.

 

From December 20, 1971, continual shortage of postal materials occurred at many post offices throughout the country. Due to this, instructions were issued to the individual post offices to handstamp "Bangladesh" on all existing Pakistani postage stamps and postal stationeries and to use these for postal duty. This emergency measure was adopted to expedite communications within the shortest possible time. During that time Communication was very difficult, as during the struggle for independence most of the bridges were blown, roads cut off, and railway lines uprooted by both the Pakistani and Bangladeshi forces.

 

While instructions were issued to handprint all existing postage stamps and stationeries, machine overprint was banned; however prior to the order, the postmaster at Jessore had most of his stock of Pakistani stamps overprinted by lefter‑press. The use of these was allowed until late in January 1972, after which they were invalid for postal duty.

 

In the beginning there were no hard and fast rules to govern the sale of postal materials. They were sold from postal counters with no handstamps since at some counters no rubber stamps were available and handstamping by rubber dies was even replaced with hand manuscript until the dies were obtained. Rubber stamp dies of many different sizes or types in Bengoli, English or various combinations are known in several different colors of ink. Mr. Salam, an imminent philatelist of Bangladesh told me that he found the Tangail postmaster using alta of his daughter as dye for rubberstamping. Many banks, large commercial users and government offices had their own rubberstamp dies. It was legal to post stationeries and stamps bearing these private‑die‑handprints. Since private individuals were not precluded, much confusion arose initially relative to origins of the handprints and as to whether or not they were truly post office originated.

India for their honor and safety, with many in their families left behind. These emigrants anxiously awaited the news of the safety of their dear ones before they could return to their liberated country.

 

Two days prior to liberation of Bangladesh a meeting was called at the mobile capital of Bangladesh, Mujibnagar by the Secretary General of Postal Service, Mr. Ruhul Quddus, to discuss ways and means to reopen the Post and Telegraph offices. The special officer of Bangladesh Post and Telegraph Department, M.A. Aziz, was deputed to arrange for the reopening of the post offices and to negotiate with Indian postal officials for resumption of mail service between Bangladesh and India, which had been officially suspended since March 1971. Upon the reopening of post offices in Bangladesh on December 20, 1971 the eight stamps issued earlier were given a special first day cancellation of the Philatelic Bureau at the Dacca General Post Office. Additionally, that same day three values of the Liberation Overprint on these stamps (10 pa., 5 Tk., 10 Tk.) were released. Although in a very limited quantity since only ten sheets of each values were available in the country which arrived by helicopter the previous day in the hands of John Stonehouse, former MP of Britain who originally helped in printing of these stamps. These three additional stamps were also given the same first day cancellation and can be said to be the first issues after liberation of Bangladesh. Also first day cancellation on hand printed stamps were made on December 20, 1971 on only three sets of covers.

 

From December 20, 1971, continual shortage of postal materials occurred at many post offices throughout the country. Due to this, instructions were issued to the individual post offices to handstamp "Bangladesh" on all existing Pakistani postage stamps and postal stationeries and to use these for postal duty. This emergency measure was adopted to expedite communications within the shortest possible time. During that time Communication was very difficult, as during the struggle for independence most of the bridges were blown, roads cut off, and railway lines uprooted by both the Pakistani and Bangladeshi forces.

 

While instructions were issued to handprint all existing postage stamps and stationeries, machine overprint was banned; however prior to the order, the postmaster at Jessore had most of his stock of Pakistani stamps overprinted by lefter‑press. The use of these was allowed until late in January 1972, after which they were invalid for postal duty.

 

In the beginning there were no hard and fast rules to govern the sale of postal materials. They were sold from postal counters with no handstamps since at some counters no rubber stamps were available and handstamping by rubber dies was even replaced with hand manuscript until the dies were obtained. Rubber stamp dies of many different sizes or types in Bengoli, English or various combinations are known in several different colors of ink. Mr. Salam, an imminent philatelist of Bangladesh told me that he found the Tangail postmaster using alta of his daughter as dye for rubberstamping. Many banks, large commercial users and government offices had their own rubberstamp dies. It was legal to post stationeries and stamps bearing these private‑die‑handprints. Since private individuals were not precluded, much confusion arose initially relative to origins of the handprints and as to whether or not they were truly post office originated. 

Many dies originated in countries outside Bangladesh, most of which never were used in Bangladesh. These dies were hand‑stamped on postal items of Pakistan for fraudulent philatelic purposes.

 

To render opinions on the genuinity of post office originated handprints, the Bangladesh Philatelic Society founded its Expect Committee on February 25, 1972 at the office of the Director General of Post Offices of Bangladesh, Mr. A.M. Ahsanullah. This committee of five individuals was well versed in the field of handprints and Bangladesh philately in particular, namely Abdus Salam, M.A. Salam, M.A. Malick, Charles W. Drake and Rahid Khan. Opinions rendered by this committee could be relied on as to genuinity of post office handprints. This was necessary since many of the basic stationeries and stamps are rare and command high prices in the world stamp market. Compounding this factor with the difficulty of obtaining examples of the scarce, hard‑toget post office‑die handprints on these basic Pakistani stationeries and stamps resulted in many genuinely rare philatelic items.

 

Among these founder philatelist of Bangladeshi postal items was Charles W. Drake, an American philatelist living in Bangladesh during the period of independence. I came in contact with Drake a few years back. Drake told me his story of how he visited various places of Bangladesh to collect genuine handstamps from different post offices of Bangladesh. He spent huge amount of money to build his collection of handstamps used by different post offices of Bangladesh during that time. Since there was no hard and fast rule hundreds of varieties of dies existed of different post offices. This made our postal history a mystery to the world of philately. Drake provided me much valuable information to understand the actual situation and to write more authentically of this undisclosed chapter of our history.

 

Unlike overprinted material produced elsewhere for specific internal and local service, these Bangladesh handprints were used for international postal service as well as internally. A bewildering variety of basic Pakistani stamps and postal stationaries exist with genuine handprints. The last day of official and legal use of hand‑overprinted Pakistani stamps is April 29, 1973. Since this was a Sunday, the previous day is the actual last day of use for all post offices except a few that were open on Sunday. Likewise, the last day for Pakistani stationaries was October 6, 1974, again a Sunday, resulting in the actual last day for most post offices being October 5, 1974.