The birth of computers in the 20th century has created a post-industrial revolution excitement that is still being felt all over the world. The dust has yet to settle on this score! Information Technology is now the password for success in every sphere of our lives. Therefore, it should be easy enough to imagine the excitement that must have been initiated by the invention of the steam engine during the earlier half of the 19th century. Industrial revolution had taken the world by storm. Railways were introduced over land, as steam replaced sails at sea. England was the leader in each of these areas. In British India, the changes were brought about by the industrial revolution surprisingly fast, obviously for their own benefits. It was during this very period that the mailing system also, went through a sea of change. In Great Britain, a small piece of gummed paper was introduced on May 6, 1840, as a token and proof of payment of tax towards dispatch of letters. It was used in addition to pre-paid envelopes that had already existed then. This bit of paper was subsequently called the Penny Black - the revolutionary postage stamp for the modern world. In India, the Indian Postal system and postage stamps were introduced on October 1, 1854, although two years earlier, the Scinde Dawk (a forerunner of the Indian stamps) had already been used for similar purposes.
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Introduction
The introduction of India Postage stamps occurred during the reign of Her Majesty the Queen Victoria. Post Offices Act 1854 was issued and brought into force. The management of the postage charged on letters by Her Majesty's PMG, under the name of Steam postage, became easier. At this time, Steam Departments (re-designated as Dept. of Foreign Exchange, in 1870) were constituted in all GPO's in India to deal with 'Steam letters', where additional charges were applicable over normal postal tariff. These letters were mostly foreign mail, though they included mail between our own ports. Steamers carried such letters. Her Majesty's Soldiers and Sailors were the pampered lot. Letters written by, or addressed to, Sailors or Soldiers of her Majesty's Navy or Army were termed as Soldiers' Letters. These letters for Great Britain, as well as between two ports in British India, were charged One Penny, or Nine Pies, provided the postage was prepaid. Postal envelopes costing Nine Pies, carrying a red embossed impression of the Queen's head, were especially overprinted for the use as "SOLDIERS' AND SEAMEN'S ENVELOPE". Probably, this is the oldest artifact in philately related to our modern navy, having been printed in 1874 and onwards.
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Pigeon Mail
Notwithstanding the above, the conveying of messages through pigeons from sea to shore have been recorded in our medieval history, as was also during the regimes of Mogul emperors and Maratha kings. Therefore, it is interesting to note that our navy also considered it during the Second World War, in 1941. This had happened consequent to an idea that was conceived by Vice Admiral Sir Herbert Fitzherbert, the then Flag Officer Commanding Royal Indian Navy, to establish a 'Pigeon Mail Service' exclusively for the naval forces. On 6th April, 1941, two hundred and fifty pigeons were released with copies of a special message from the Governor of Bombay to the Flag Officer Commanding Royal Indian Navy, contained in pre-cancelled envelopes from Kalyan to Bombay. These 2000 envelopes were subsequently sold to the public at a cost of Rs.2/- each to raise funds for donations to the Royal Indian Navy War Purposes Fund. This special cancellation was subsequently depicted on a First Day Cover, which was released on 3rd November, 1989, to commemorate the Pigeon Post. It was unfortunate that its historical background was not mentioned in the brochure issued by the Department of Post. The sketch drawn on the stamp on this occasion (1989) was also a poor representation of a naval officer.
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Defence Theme
The initial set of postage stamps on 'defence' was issued to commemorate the 'Victory' upon the culmination of the Second World War. Major contributions were made by the three services of the Indian Armed Forces. Our men, in uniform, had fought valiantly and decisively, for the allies in many countries and in different fronts spread over Asia, Africa and Europe. A set of four stamps, in different colours and denominations, was issued on 2nd January, 1946.for this occasion. During the post-independent era, two commemorative stamps were issued on 30th April 1958, to mark the Silver Jubilee of the Indian Air Force. Subsequently, two more commemorative stamps were issued titled 'They Defend', on Independence Day, in 1963. The representation of the Indian Navy was conspicuously missing from these stamps. The Navy was also not mentioned in the message released on the occasion by Shri Jawaharlal Nehru, the then Prime Minister. It is presumed that this happened because the Navy was not involved in the 'defence effort' during the 1962 China aggression. The depiction of the Indian Navy's crest on the First Day Cover was, however, the saving grace.
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Indian Navy on Stamp
The Indian Navy was initially depicted on a postage stamp along with other two services. Indian Posts and Telegraphs Department (now, Department of Post) had issued a single coloured commemorative stamp depicting silhouette of INS Mysore, besides Gnats representing the Indian Air Force, and a bust of a soldier in battle dress for the Indian Army. The stamp was released on 26th January 1966, to propagate the theme "JAI JAWAN" as coined by our late Prime Minister, Shri Lal Bahadur Shastri. Thereafter, a single-coloured stamp on INS Nilgiri followed on 15th December 1968, (then, the Navy Day) to commemorate commissioning of the first indigenously built modern frigate earlier that year (23rd October 1968). This was the first stamp to commemorate an event of the Indian Navy, exclusively. The next on the navy had yet another 'first' accredited to it, being the fore-runner among 'multi-coloured' stamps printed by photogravure process, in India. The stamp was issued on the Navy Day, (now, 4th December since 1972) in 1981, to commemorative induction of INS Taragiri (the fifth Leander) into our Fleet in that year.
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Visakhapatnam (Submarine Headquarters) and INS Virbahu
The Submarine Headquarters is based at Visakhapatnam. It is the 'Submarine Authority' to look after the operational and maintenance aspects of various classes of submarines. INS Virbahu was inaugurated by the Defence Minister, Shri Jag Jiwan Ram, on 19th May 1971. This shore establishment was commissioned to provide shore support, to the submarine squadrons - for both technical and logistics in nature. The Submarine Headquarters was then, shifted to this establishment. INS Virbahu has, since, become the alma mater to our submariners. The 11th anniversary of the establishment was celebrated with extraordinary pomp and show. The day also witnessed the release of a beautifully designed special cover and a cancellation for historical posterity. The cover carried a beautiful impression of INS Sindhugosh from an oblique-angled aerial view.
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Indo-Pak War-1971
In 1971, India had to face a new challenge arising from the influx of refugees across the western and the eastern borders, especially from East Pakistan. This figure crossed 10 millions during latter half of that year. It was a big drain on our exchequer to support them. The Indian government had to find resources to raise additional funds. Provisional issues were made by overprinting "REFUGEE RELIEF" on 5 paise denomination stamps of definitive series, as well as on service and revenue stamps. Six variants of such definitive stamps exist. Later, in 1971, an exclusive stamp on this title was released, depicting refugees carrying all that they could on their person. An exclusive stamp was also released in 5 paise denomination for service postal use. Later during the year, the world was witness to Indo-Pak war of 1971, in which INS Kursura and INS Karanj participated in the western front whereas INS Khanderi patrolled the expense of the Bay of Bengal. By December 10th, our front-line squadrons, INAS 310 (Alizes) and INAS 300 (Seahawks), commanded by LCdr(s) RD Dhir and SK Gupta respectively, had strafed and disabled all major ports of the enemy on the eastern front besides damaging and destroying a large number of their ships. They were awarded Vir Chakra and Maha Vir Chakra, respectively, for their contribution. (The award of 'CAPT RAVI DHIR MEMORIAL GOLD MEDAL' every year, for flight safety, was instituted to perpetuate his memory.) These aircraft's had operated from INS Vikrant, in the Bay of Bengal. The presence of our submarines with our fleet had the desired results to deprive the enemy much of his offensive power at sea. They also deterred his friends to come to his aid.
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Naval Philatelic Society
Philately has a cumulative effect on publicity drives. A group of young philatelists got together in October 1979 and founded 'Naval Philatelic Society' (NPS) to popularise the hobby of Maritime Philately, as also to promote Maritime History, through this media. Immediately thereafter, the society held its first Philatelic Exhibition, short titled NAVPHILEX-79. Captain RD Dhir's father, an old veteran of the Second World War as a Major on Burma font, had emotionally and with a lot of care, set up the exhibits for the inaugural day. The exhibition was conducted coinciding with the Navy Week celebrations at Naval Base, Visakhapatnam. It was scheduled for three days, each day being dedicated to an 'arm' of our navy - viz., Surface Forces Day, Submarine Arm Day' and the Naval Aviation Day. Thus, the cover and the cancellation depicting INS Vela released on 30th November, 1979, during NAVPHILEX-79 introduced our silent arm (the submarine arm) to the philatelic world, just short of twelve years after the arm was formed. Incidentally, the cover to commemorate the Naval Aviation Day (1st December) depicted an Alize with the call sign 'IN 13'. This was in memoriam of Captain RD Dhir upon his untimely demise a few weeks earlier, at Naval Park. In 1975, he had flown and brought the aircraft from Toulon, (in France) to INS Hansa (Goa), along with IN 14, an another Alize, to augment the strength of our navy's anti-submarine capabilities. To commemorate the Surface Forces Day, the silhouette of 'Indo-Pak-1971 War' famed INS Kiltan, commanded by Cdr C Gopal Rao, was depicted on the cover and the cancellation, and both were released on 29th November. Incidentally, the ship was christened and blessed by Smt Meenaksi Dhir, a submariner's wife. Cdr MB Kunte was the Commanding Officer upon commissioning of the ship at Vladivostok, on 30th October 1969. Interestingly, INS Kamorta, INS Kadmatt, and INS Kavaratti were also christened thus and commissioned there on 21st November 1968, 23rd December 1968 and 15th December 1969 viz., by Smt Asha Vasudeva (Radm MN Vasudeva), Smt Espinder Sachdeva (Cmde PS Sachdeva) and Smt Daljit Kher (Cdr SS Kher) respectively.
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Submarine Day and Special Cancellation Under water
INS Kalvari, the first submarine of our Navy, was inducted into the service on 8th December 1967. Within the next two years and ten days, three more submarines (including INS Kursura) of the same class (i641 project, and later modified to i641k) were inducted, to form the initial (8 SS) submarine squadron. Obviously, the date has special significance to our Navy and it has since been designated as the 'Submarine- Arm Day' or just 'Submarine Day'. On 8th December 1982, an exclusive function was held to commemorate the fifteenth anniversary of the submarine-arm, onboard INS Kalvari, whilst it was dived off the coast at Visakhapatnam. A temporary Post Office was established onboard to enable the FOC-in-C (EAST), Vice Admiral MK Roy, to release a special cover and cancellation with the silhouette of the submarine. Three interesting aspects of this function happened to be thus: The Chief Guest, Vice Admiral M.K.Roy, was the first Commanding Officer of INAS.310, when it was commissioned in France Incidentally, this squadron, consisting of anti-submarine aircrafts (Alize), had boarded INS Vikrant off Toulon, in June 1961. His visit to the submarine for the unique function was full of nostalgic memories of the earlier part of his career, he having been trained for anti-submarine operations. This was obvious and expected. Secondly, a function of this kind was never heard of, being conducted under water, onboard a dived war vessel. This could well be the first in the world! And lastly, the entourage of the journalists covering the function on-board, consisted of Ms. Mayachar. She won the distinction of being the first lady to be onboard an Indian submarine at sea.
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Sixth Fleet Review and INS Vela
The Review of a Nation's fleet of warships, by the Head of a State, is a ceremonial occasion, which originated centuries ago. Such ceremonies bring into focus the growth of a fleet over the years and develop confidence towards a feeling of national security. The President of India, being the Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces, normally reviews the Fleet of the Republic of India at least once during his tenure in the office. The sixth review of our fleet was conducted on 12th February 1984 off Gateway of India, at Bombay. The President, Giani Zail Singh, released the only se-tenant (Consisting of four stamps joined together to complete its design) on 'defence' during a brisk function on the South Breakwater, in the Naval Dockyard. One of them depicted a submarine exclusively, and it is the only Indian postage stamp to do so. The stamp depicted INS Vela, the fifth submarine that had joined our fleet 10 years earlier (commissioned on 30th August 1973) - (presently, our oldest! And still going strong!). Its pennant number (S 40) can be viewed through a magnifying glass if brought over the stamp. The author, being the designer had encrypted thus, as also being Vela's commissioning Electrical Officer. Subsequently, Philatelic Congress of India judged the first ever 'se-tenant' on defence (and second for India) as the best designed Indian postage stamp for the year (1984).
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250th Anniversary of Naval Dockyard and INS Kursura
The Maritime Philatelic Exhibition-1986 (MARIPEX-86) was conducted at the Prince of Wales Museum, Bombay, spread over a record period of one month. The Governor of Maharashtra inaugurated this exhibition along with the release of a stamp to commemorate the 250th Anniversary of the Naval Dockyard, on 11th January 1986. Against a request by the author, the Minister of Communication had generously given his consent to face value the stamp at Rs. 2.50 to coincide with the '250th Anniversary'. It is, therefore, the first stamp of India, to be issued with a non-tariff rate, the second being on Mother Theresa. Over the period of the exhibition, a maxim card, five special covers and similar number of pictorial cancellations were released, bringing into focus four important aspects of maritime activities viz., 'Ships', 'Flags', 'Marine', and 'Armed Forces', besides the Supreme Commanders of our Armed Forces, in the past. The Department of Posts was also generous to provide most of the theme related previous issues of postage stamps for the benefit of the public and enthusiastic philatelists. The viewers repeatedly visited this exhibition with weekly change of exhibits, coinciding with the theme of the week. The pictorial of Kursura, the dog-shark adopted for the fourth submarine, was selected duly modified for the cover and cancellation. It was released on 28th January 1986, to highlight the Marine Week of MARIPEX-86. Further, it is a historical fact that the American national anthem was composed onboard HMS Minden, (74 guns), during American Revolution, by Sir Francis Key. In addition, HMS Foudroyant (46 guns), is presently the second oldest naval vessel afloat in the world, tied alongside at Portsmouth, UK. Both these vessels were built and launched from this dockyard, in 1810 and 1817 respectively.
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Home-Coming
With the growth of the submarine-arm, three new classes of submarines were inducted into the service: two from the erst-while Soviet Union and one from the Federal German Republic. The first of their respective classes, namely INS Sindhugosh, INS Shishumar and INS Chakra, arrived in India on 17th September, 1986, 23rd September, 1986, and 3rd February, 1988, respectively. Special cancellations were released on the first two occasions to commemorate their homecoming. Subsequently, on the occasion of the twentieth anniversary of the 'Submarine-Arm', a special cancellation was released on 21st December 1987. The cancellation had adopted the logo for the celebrations, whereas the cover had depicted INS Sindhugosh.
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INS Khanderi
INS Khanderi, the second submarine to be inducted in our navy, had a checkered history. On commissioning, she was commanded by Cdr. MN Vasudeva. Later, he was to be the first submariner to reach the flag rank. Though little known, Khanderi, under his command undertook a historic passage successfully up the Congo river crossing 80 miles, through the mountains on either side, right till Matadi, making Indian Navy proud. Enroute, Khanderi had to negotiate currents close to nine knots, to become the first submarine to reach the highest port in the world, on 22nd April 1969. This feat was worth recording in the Guinness Book of Records, wherein earlier attempts by the submarines of US Navy, Royal Navy and a few others including that from Holland had failed. This happened during her maiden passage to India, while sailing around the Cape of Good Hope. Later, she played her role well in the Bay of Bengal, during Indo-Pak War, in 1971, as mentioned earlier. Khanderi was also the first to undergo medium refit in India (at Naval Dockyard, Visakhapatnam). Numerous pioneers of our 'silent-arm' had the honour of serving onboard this beautiful vessel. She was decommissioned on 18th October 1989, after completing almost twenty years of glorious service. A special cover was informally issued on that day at New Delhi, depicting her 'crest'. No special cancellation, however, was released.
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Eastern Naval Command
INS Circars was established during the Second World War at Visakhapatnam on 12th December 1939. This naval establishment provided shore support to the Royal Indian Naval vessels, besides ships belonging to the allied forces then. The currents of the Bay of Bengal washing the shores of this establishment as well as the steel city of Andhra Pradesh proved to be deadly for PNS Ghazi. During the 1971 conflict, these currents encompassed her final place of resting outside the port of Visakhapatnam, just two miles off the submarine museum - Kursura! Eastern Naval Command (ENC) having its headquarters at Visakhapatnam also developed impressively over the years. The Command had provided active logistic support to the Indian Peace Keeping Force at Sri Lanka till March 1990. A special cancellation was released on the eve of Golden Jubilee of the ENC, depicting the three arms of the Navy including frontal silhouette of a submarine, on 12th December 1989.
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Seventh Fleet Review
The largest Indian commemorative stamp on defence theme was issued on 15th February 1989 depicting nine ships abreast of each other. The stamp design had adopted a photograph (taken by Cdr DS Brar, NM) of this unique and complex formation which was led by earlier Flag Officer Commanding, Western Fleet, Rear Admiral Subash Chopra, PVSM' AVSM, NM. No submarine was depicted on this stamp. However, the First Day Cover carried an impression of a SSK submarine along with other major vessels and helicopters. In addition, the lowest among the three arcs in the cancellation represented the Submarine-Arm.
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Corporation Museum
The 'fin' of INS Kalvari is on display at the 'Dutch Bungalow' at Visakhapatnam. It is now a part of Visakaha Museum, a museum of local and regional history relating to the erstwhile 'Vizapatnam District', the largest district of 'Madras Presidency' during the British colonial period. The museum, also known as Corporation Museum, is proud to have this national maritime inheritance as its first participatory outdoor exhibit for the benefit of the citizens of Visakhapatnam and visitors. The Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh had inaugurated it, on 8th December 1998. On the eve of its first anniversary of installation, the Corporation Museum had released a special cover, and the Department of Post had provided an appropriate pictorial cancellation for the occasion.
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Maritime Heritage and INS Satavahana
With the acquisition of the latest submarines and ships during late nineteen sixties and early seventies from the erst-while Soviet Union, the need to establish an Integrated Type Training School was found to be inevitable. It was inaugurated at Visakhapatnam, on 11th March 1974. However, it was commissioned as INS Satavahana on 21st December, the same year. It is of interest to know that the name represents the dynasty that had ruled a major portion of our country for over four centuries, starting from about 230 BC. They were great seafarers, and had established trade links with Mesopotamia and beyond on the west, besides sending missionaries to the Far East. The crest of this training establishment had adopted the face of the famous Satavahana coin with a double mast boat. The same had been reproduced on the set of two 'Maritime Heritage' stamps that were released on the 5th April 1999. Both the stamps had also carried the motto of our navy, being an excerpt from the Rig-Veda. On this occasion, the First Day Cover carried a sculpture of a sailing boat from the panel of Borobadur temple in Java. The cancellation, however, was a reproduction of a scratch impression of a sea faring boat with its prominent rudder, lifted from a pot shard discovered at Mohenjo-Daro (circa 3000 BC).
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International Fleet Review-2001
The above-mentioned scratch impression of the boat was subsequently, adopted as the logo for the International Fleet Review - 2001 with the motto as 'Bridges of Friendship'. It is also represented in one of the four commemorative stamps released on the occasion with international tariff of Rs.15. The other three stamps have Rs. 3 each as face value, representing Pal and Galbat of a bygone era of Maratha Navy, and sailing vessel Tarangini presently in use with our navy. The cancellation had adopted the naval crest whereas the First Day Cover carried a graphic representation of participation of over 30 foreign navies in the review. Our countrymen were indeed touched by the gesture of some of the participating ships for bringing along relief material for the Gujarat earthquake victims. It was also believed that their participation would indeed go along way towards fostering lasting friendship and goodwill.
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First South East Asian Submarine Museum
INS Kursura was christened thus, by Meena Bindra, wife of Cdr SC Bindra (later retired as Rear Admiral), Deputy Naval Attache (Moscow) on a cold blistering morning of 18th December 1969, at Riga, with temperature freezing at minus 20 degree Celsius. She was commissioned under the watchful command of Cdr Arun Auditto NM, with a few additional officers joining the fourth and the last Russian trained submarine batch. She had always been considered as the cornerstone of our fledging arm then, bringing 8th SS to full strength. Her contribution to our navy has been too many. A few among them, however, includes working-up of all the three fleets, immediately on arrival in home waters, without missing a serial. And then, her patrolling off the coast of Marakan blocking Karachi harbour just preceding to Indo-Pak war, would always be embedded in the minds of commissioning crew. Interestingly, the National Ship Design & Research Centre at Visakhapatnam achieved a rare feat by hauling up INS Kursura with all her equipment onboard, over the sandy Rama Krishna Beach. On 27th February 2001, she was decommissioned and converted to hold the distinction of being the first submarine museum on this sub-continent. She stands majestically for one and all to see what a submarine looks like from outside and from within. She is there to serve as a beacon of inspiration, pride and continues to foster maritime traditions of our navy and the nation. A special cover depicting the dogfish earlier released on 28th January 1986, during MARIPEX-86 was adopted to commemorate the occasion.
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Conclusion
Philately is a wonderful multi-facet media that appeals to a layman and those interested, alike. It is indeed a wonderful hobby and its resources and qualities are there to be tapped, probably, by each generation among the submariners too! It also serves as a record that can preserve the submarine history, as well as that of the other 'arms' for our navy, in most unusual way. It is demonstrated, thus, in this article.
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About the Author:
Cmde A K Dhir (Retd) I.N. has had the privileged of designing eight postage stamps related to the Indian Navy and a set of two on Maritime Heritage as mentioned above, besides first day covers and numerous special 'covers' and related 'cancellations' on naval theme. He was part of the commissioning crew of both INS Kursura as well as INS Vela, as the Electrical Officer. He is the only officer who has served in all the three arms of the Indian Navy, a feat extremely difficult to be repeated. He had started his active career as an Air-Electrical Officer, and served onboard INS Garuda, INAS 310 & 550 and erst- while NARO, besides INS Vikrant & Talwar. His contribution towards indigenisation of materials against Soviet specifications, including the ship borne and submarine cables as well as enamels and varnishes for rotating machinery's are well known. He is the first technical submarine officer to retire from the Indian Navy on superannuating.
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