Swatantra Bharat
A commemorative postage stamp on the 50th Anniversary of the Publication of ‘Swatantra Bharat’, the Hindi newspaper :
Issued by India
Issued on Aug 15, 1997
Issued for : The Department of Posts is happy to issue a special postage stamp to mark the 50th anniversary of publication of this newspaper.
Credits :
Stamp & FDC : Based on material supplied by Golden Jubilee Celebration Committee of ‘Swatantra Bharat’.
Cancellation : Alka Sharma
Type : Stamp, Mint Condition
Colour : Multi Colour
Denomination : 200 Paise
Overall size : 3.91 x 2.90 cms.
Printing size : 3.55 x 2.54 cms.
Perforation : 13 x 13
Paper : Imported un w/m Adhesive Gravure Coated Stamp Paper
Number of stamps Printed : 0.7 Million
Number per issue sheet : 35
Printing Process : Photogravure
Printer : India Security Press, Nasik
About :
- ‘Swatantra Bharat’, the Hindi daily newspaper published from Lucknow has a unique history, its publication having begun on 15th August 1947, simultaneously with India’s attaining independence. The first edition of the newspaper, ‘Swatantra Bharat’, appropriately named, signifying its birth in an independent India, carried on its front page a photograph of Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru with the National Flag. This has been reproduced in the stamp being issued to commemorate the occasion. The publication of this newspaper in Hindi itself bore evidence of what the first Prime Minister of the country so eloquently described in the Constituent Assembly on 14th August 1947, as a moment “which comes but rarely in history when we step out from the old to the new, when an age ends, and when the soul of a nation, long suppressed, finds utterance….”
- One of the founders of ‘Swatantra Bharat’ was Surendra Nath Ghosh, who bestowed all his affection on the paper and the people working on it. ‘Swatantra Bharat’ gave expression to the aspirations of a newly created nation. It was not easy to produce a Hindi Daily fifty years ago, when there were few daily newspapers in Hindi, but there was no organised set-up for news-gathering. ‘Swatantra Bharat’, started as a small-sized newspaper with six pages and from its first month of publication, the circulation rose from five to eight thousand. It covered important events from far-flung areas of the state from its inception and one of its popular columns was titled ‘Rajya ke kone–kone se’ (from all corners of the state). It published the established writers in the field of short story, poetry, history, politics, economics, archaeology, and encouraged newcomers. The paper ran a series on painters of Uttar Pradesh and published such detailed descriptions of the history and architecture of Avadh that its pages could serve as reference material for many. Many writers who started their career with this newspaper, are front runners in their fields today and among such stalwarts are writers and thinkers like Pt. Ambika Prasad Bajpai, Dr. A. S. Altkar, Rai Kishan Das, Amritlal Nagar.
- Text : Based on material supplied by Golden Jubilee Celebration Committee of ‘Swatantra Bharat’.
