THE POST OFFICE IN INDIAN STATES
The continent of India is divided into territory of two kinds, namely,
British India and Indian States. There are 652 States with varying
degrees of independence according to the treaties that exist between
them and the British Government. Except in three of these, Mysore,
Travancore and Cochin, no proper postal system can be said to have
existed before the Imperial Post Office of India was established.
In Mysore the Anche, a local post, was a very old institution, and
its extension to the whole Kingdom was one of the earliest measures
of the reign of Chikka Devaraj Wadayar in the year 1672. A similar
system known as Anchel has existed for many years in Travancore and
Cochin, but its origin is not known. Other States had no Post Offices
in the proper sense of the term, and when the Post Office of India
was established it extended its operations to many of these without
any question. From many of the larger States, however, the Imperial
Post Office was rigidly excluded, with the result that there was
great difficulty in maintaining any postal communication between them
and British India. Gradually certain States began to develop postal
organizations of a distinct and independent character with special
postage stamps of their own and others had organizations without any
postage stamps. All kinds of different arrangements existed and the
position is well described by Sir Frederic Hogg, the Director-General,
in his Annual Report of 1878-9:
"In some places the delivery of correspondence proceeding from the
Imperial Post is effected by an agency independent of this Department,
in other places this agency is subject to Imperial Post control;
while sometimes again both descriptions of distributing agencies are
employed. There exists an arrangement under which the Imperial Post
is subsidized for the delivery of correspondence, and there are some
localities in Native territory which are destitute of any postal
organization, and where letters cannot be delivered at all. Nor is
diversity of method the sole difficulty that has to be met. Beyond the
limits of this Department information on postal matters can hardly be
obtained. Native States issue no _Postal Guide_, print no lists of
post offices and publish no postal matters for the information of the
public. Postal information is not available. It is uncertain whether a
letter will ever be delivered. Not only is prepayment to destination
in many cases impossible, but correspondence is subject on delivery
to arbitrary and unknown charges. Registration is often impossible.
Postcards don't exist and the inhabitants of Native States, which
oppose Imperial Post extensions, are debarred from the benefits of the
Money Order, Insurance and Value-Payable systems and other facilities
afforded by the Imperial post office to the public. Restrictions of
correspondence must be the natural consequence of this diversity of
system or absence of system, and the only real remedy lies in the
gradual extinction of all post organizations and their supersession
by the Imperial Post. Such a measure must entail great expense for
several years, but uniformity of postage rates, rules and conditions
would result and the cost involved would doubtless ultimately be more
than covered by increased revenue."
The first case that came prominently to notice was that of the
Patiala State with which there was considerable trouble regarding
postal exchanges. A proposal was made in 1880 to extend the Imperial
Postal System to the State, but it was not acceptable to the Council
of Regency, and after much discussion it was decided to prepare a
Convention according to which a mutual exchange of correspondence could
be arranged. The Convention was ratified in 1884 and similar ones were
made with Gwalior, Jhind and Nabha in 1885 and with Faridkot and Chamba
in 1886, the last four constituting with Patiala the group known as the
Phulkian States. The Conventions with these States are all similar and
to the following effect:--
(1) There shall be a mutual exchange of correspondence, parcels and
money orders between the Imperial Post Office and the post offices
of the Native State, this exchange including registered, insured and
value-payable articles, and being governed by the rules of the _Indian
Postal Guide_, as periodically published.
(2) Certain selected post offices in British India and in the Native
States shall be constituted offices of exchange, and these offices
shall be the sole media of exchange for insured and value-payable
articles and money orders, and shall be entrusted with the duty of
preparing the accounts arising from the exchange.
(3) Indian postage stamps and postal stationery overprinted with
the name of the Native State shall be supplied by the Government of
India on indent at cost price, and shall be used for the purpose of
prepaying inland correspondence posted in the State.
(4) The Government of India shall bear the cost of conveying mails
over British territory, and the Native State shall bear the cost of
conveying mails within the limits of the State.
(5) The Imperial Post Office shall establish no new post offices in
Native State territory without the permission of the Durbar, excepting
at Railway Stations or within British Cantonments, the Durbar
undertaking the establishment of any post offices or letter-boxes
required in State territory by the Imperial Post Office.
(6) On foreign correspondence posted in the State, postage shall be
prepaid only by means of Imperial postage stamps not bearing the
overprint, postage stamps with such overprint not being recognized for
the purpose.
(7) Monthly accounts shall be kept of the amounts due to the Imperial
Post Office by the Native State and vice versa upon the money order
exchange.
No sooner had these Conventions been agreed to than Government began
to regret the step that had been taken, and it was then seen that real
postal unity in the country could only be effected by the abolition of
separate systems in the different States, a policy directly opposed to
that which had been adopted towards Gwalior and the Phulkian States.
When, therefore, the Dewan or Prime Minister of Mysore asked for a
Convention, he was met with a definite refusal, and an alternative
proposal was made to the Mysore Government that the Imperial Post
Office should undertake the postal service of the State. The proposal
was accepted in 1887, and the Mysore Anche was abolished at the end of
1888. This measure of amalgamation, in which the Mysore Darbar rendered
substantial assistance, was carried into effect from the beginning of
1889. The facilities afforded by the Indian Post Office, which were
thus extended to the whole of Mysore, were fully appreciated by the
people and resulted in a great development of postal business, the
number of articles delivered having increased in the first year by no
less than a million.
The case of Mysore was such a striking example of the benefits arising
from the unification of a State Post Office with the Imperial system
that Sir Arthur Fanshawe, the Director-General, used every endeavour
to extend the policy to other States. The result was that the Kashmir
State followed suit in 1894, and shortly afterwards Bamra, Nandgaon and
Pudakottah. The efforts to win over Hyderabad, the premier State of
India, were not successful. Although negotiations were extended over
many years and every inducement was offered, the Nizam steadfastly
refused to surrender the management of his own Posts as a separate
system.
In 1906 Mr. Stewart-Wilson, who succeeded Sir Arthur Fanshawe as
Director-General, started a fresh campaign for the unification of the
Post Office all over India, and he succeeded in getting Indore and
Bhopal to join in 1908. Since then Jaipur asked for a Convention, but
this was refused in accordance with the policy that Conventions were
undesirable as only tending to perpetuate the many diversities which
Government were anxious to abolish. The position at present is that out
of 652 States, 637, including Faridkote which voluntarily abandoned
its Convention in 1904, have cast in their lot with the Imperial Post
Office, The number of outstanding States is thus fifteen, of which
only Hyderabad, Gwalior, Jaipur, Patiala and Travancore are of much
importance.
[Illustration: GENERAL POST OFFICE. MADRAS]
The policy of the Government of India has been clearly laid down in
the correspondence dealing with the unification of the Hyderabad Posts
with the Imperial Post Office. The Government is unwilling to take over
the postal system of any State without the full consent of the Durbar
or State Council, but it exercises the right of opening an Imperial
post office or placing a letter-box anywhere in a State if Imperial
interests require it. As a rule such offices are opened at railway
stations or military cantonments, but they may be opened elsewhere in
cases of real necessity. The aim of the Government is towards complete
unification of the Post Office all over the country. The inconvenience
of separate systems is keenly felt, and the inequality of Conventions
on mutual terms between a great Empire and a small State is obvious.
The principle upon which each country of the Postal Union retains its
own postage on foreign correspondence is based on the theory that for
every letter sent a letter is received, and that the transit charges
are fairly apportioned, and in many cases the difference is slight
when spread over a long period. When the principle is applied to a
small State in a big country like India, the burden of handling
correspondence is very unevenly divided. For every ten miles a letter
has to be conveyed within the State, the Post Office of India may have
to convey it a thousand miles or more at a cost altogether out of
proportion to the postage receipts for half the correspondence handled.
The difference is still more marked in the case of parcels and money
orders and, despite all efforts to make the division of fees correspond
with the work done by each administration, the position has never been
satisfactory.
The postal future of the few States that still refuse to join the
Imperial system is uncertain. All compromises have been rejected, and
the arguments of prestige and prejudice are used to contest those of
uniformity and convenience. As matters stand now the inconsistencies of
small postal systems within the Indian Empire seem likely to continue
until a firm hand on the one part and enlightened opinion on the other
combine to abolish them.