The
Jai Hind postmark was the first commemorative
postmark
A postmark is a postal marking made on an envelope, parcel, postcard or the like, indicating the place, date and time that the item was delivered into the care of a postal service, or sometimes indicating where and when received or in transit. ...
of Independent India, and was issued on the day of independence, 15 August 1947. The post mark was withdrawn on 31 December 1947 but reintroduced at Girdikot
Post Office
A post office is a public facility and a retailer that provides mail services, such as accepting letter (message), letters and parcel (package), parcels, providing post office boxes, and selling postage stamps, packaging, and stationery. Post o ...
,
Jodhpur
Jodhpur () is the second-largest city of the north-western Indian state of Rajasthan, after its capital Jaipur. As of 2023, the city has a population of 1.83 million. It serves as the administrative headquarters of the Jodhpur district and ...
in June 1948. Most of the postmarks issued after 31 December 1947 are from this post office. The mark was withdrawn from Girdikot in April 1949, but was reused in June 1949 in Jodhpur Post Office in a new format of a rectangular box measuring 51 mm x 26 mm which reads "Jai Hind" in English and Hindi in two lines, with the date, time and place in 3rd, 4th and 5th line respectively. The time and date are flanked with 3 wavy lines on each side.
It was used as a
cancellation mark. It remained in use until November 1955.
The term was coined by Major
Abid Hasan Safrani of the
Indian National Army
The Indian National Army (INA, sometimes Second INA; ''Azad Hind Fauj'' ; 'Free Indian Army') was a Empire of Japan, Japanese-allied and -supported armed force constituted in Southeast Asia during World War II and led by Indian Nationalism#An ...
as a shortened version of ''Jai Hindustan Ki'' and apparently first used & popularised by
Chembakaraman Pillai.
The term
Jai Hind was used widely by
Indian National Army
The Indian National Army (INA, sometimes Second INA; ''Azad Hind Fauj'' ; 'Free Indian Army') was a Empire of Japan, Japanese-allied and -supported armed force constituted in Southeast Asia during World War II and led by Indian Nationalism#An ...
. The term itself was adopted by Free India as National Slogan of the country. The alphabets of the word "JAI HIND" in English and Hindi, varies from 61 mm to 67 mm, and the width varies from 11½mm to 15 mm.
See also
*
Azad Hind Stamps
*
Indian Postal Service
The Department of Posts, d/b/a India Post, is an Indian public sector postal system statutory body headquartered in New Delhi, India. It is an organisation under the Ministry of Communications. It is the most widely distributed postal system in ...
*
Indian National Army
The Indian National Army (INA, sometimes Second INA; ''Azad Hind Fauj'' ; 'Free Indian Army') was a Empire of Japan, Japanese-allied and -supported armed force constituted in Southeast Asia during World War II and led by Indian Nationalism#An ...
*
Postal marking
A postal marking is any kind of annotation applied to a letter by a postal service. The most common types are postmarks and cancellations; almost every letter will have those. Less common types include forwarding addresses, routing annotati ...
*
Postmark
A postmark is a postal marking made on an envelope, parcel, postcard or the like, indicating the place, date and time that the item was delivered into the care of a postal service, or sometimes indicating where and when received or in transit. ...
References
{{Reflist
External links
*https://web.archive.org/web/20091025131539/http://geocities.com/indianphilately/chapter1.htm
Jai Hind
Indian National Army
Philately of India