Scinde Dawk () was a

postal system The mail or post is a system for physically transporting postcards, letters, and parcels. A postal service can be private or public, though many governments place restrictions on private systems. Since the mid-19th century, national postal sy ...

of runners that served the

Indus Valley The Indus ( ) is a transboundary river of Asia and a trans- Himalayan river of South and Central Asia. The river rises in mountain springs northeast of Mount Kailash in the Western Tibet region of China, flows northwest through the disp ...

Sindh Sindh ( ; ; , ; abbr. SD, historically romanized as Sind (caliphal province), Sind or Scinde) is a Administrative units of Pakistan, province of Pakistan. Located in the Geography of Pakistan, southeastern region of the country, Sindh is t ...

, an area of present-day

Pakistan Pakistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of over 241.5 million, having the Islam by country# ...

. The term also refers to the first adhesive

postage stamp A postage stamp is a small piece of paper issued by a post office, postal administration, or other authorized vendors to customers who pay postage (the cost involved in moving, insuring, or registering mail). Then the stamp is affixed to the f ...

s in

Asia Asia ( , ) is the largest continent in the world by both land area and population. It covers an area of more than 44 million square kilometres, about 30% of Earth's total land area and 8% of Earth's total surface area. The continent, which ...

, the forerunners of the adhesive stamps used throughout

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

Burma Myanmar, officially the Republic of the Union of Myanmar; and also referred to as Burma (the official English name until 1989), is a country in northwest Southeast Asia. It is the largest country by area in Mainland Southeast Asia and ha ...

, the

Straits Settlements The Straits Settlements () were a group of British territories located in Southeast Asia. Originally established in 1826 as part of the territories controlled by the British East India Company, the Straits Settlements came under control of the ...

and other areas controlled by the

British East India Company The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company that was founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to Indian Ocean trade, trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (South A ...

. The name derives from the words "Scinde", the British spelling of the name of the province of Sindh, and "Dawk", the anglicised spelling of the Hindustani word "Dak" or Post.

Origins

The Dawk, or Dak, was a very old postal system of runners. The runners were paid according to their distance of travel and the weight of their letters. This was a local Indus Valley system, inefficient and inadequate for the military and commercial needs of the

after their conquest of Sindh in February, 1843, following the

Battle of Miani The Battle of Miani or Meeanee () was a battle between forces of the Bombay Army of the East India Company, under the command of Charles Napier and the Baloch army of Talpur Amirs of Sindh, led by Mir Nasir Khan Talpur. The battle took ...

Reform of the postal system

Sir Bartle Frere of the East India Company became the Chief Commissioner of Sindh in 1850. Following the English example set by

Rowland Hill Sir Rowland Hill, KCB, FRS (3 December 1795 – 27 August 1879) was an English teacher, inventor and social reformer. He campaigned for a comprehensive reform of the postal system, based on the concept of Uniform Penny Post and his solu ...

, Frere improved upon the postal system of Sindh by introducing a cheap and uniform rate for postage, independent of distance travelled. In 1851 the runners were replaced with an efficient system using horses and camels, following routes through Scinde province, generally along the valley of the

Indus River The Indus ( ) is a transboundary river of Asia and a trans-Himalayas, Himalayan river of South Asia, South and Central Asia. The river rises in mountain springs northeast of Mount Kailash in the Western Tibet region of China, flows northw ...

. The mail was carried quickly and efficiently, connecting government offices and post offices from

Karachi Karachi is the capital city of the Administrative units of Pakistan, province of Sindh, Pakistan. It is the List of cities in Pakistan by population, largest city in Pakistan and 12th List of largest cities, largest in the world, with a popul ...

through Kotri and

Hyderabad Hyderabad is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Telangana. It occupies on the Deccan Plateau along the banks of the Musi River (India), Musi River, in the northern part of Southern India. With an average altitude of , much ...

up to

Sukkur Sukkur is a city in the Pakistani province of Sindh along the western bank of the Indus River, directly across from the historic city of Rohri. Sukkur is the List of cities in Sindh by population, third largest city in Sindh after Karachi and H ...

in the north.

The stamps

Stamps were required for the prepayment of postage, a basic feature of the new system. These stamps, first issued on 1 July 1852, bore the Merchants' Mark of the British East India Company in a design embossed on wafers of red

sealing wax Sealing wax is a wax material of a seal (emblem), seal which, after melting, hardens quickly (to paper, parchment, ribbons and wire, and other material), forming a bond that is difficult to break without noticeable tampering. Wax is used to verify ...

impressed on paper. Because they cracked and disintegrated, they were soon replaced by a colourless design embossed on white paper which was hard to see in a dim light. The last stamps were a blue embossing on white paper. All of these had a value of only one-half anna each, but today they rank among the rare classics of

philately Philately (; ) is the study of postage stamps and postal history. It also refers to the collection and appreciation of stamps and other philatelic products. While closely associated with stamp collecting and the study of postage, it is possibl ...

Forgeries

Forgeries of these rare stamps are plentiful. The most easily detected fakes are not embossed on paper. Other crude fakes show a misalignment of the second letter 'A' of ANNA with the 'K' of DAWK; and in other fakes the '1/2' is not separated from the central heartshaped emblem.

Later developments

After the Scinde Dawk, Colonel Forbes of the Calcutta Mint came up with an essay for a postage stamp depicting a lion and

palm tree The Arecaceae () is a family of perennial, flowering plants in the monocot order Arecales. Their growth form can be climbers, shrubs, tree-like and stemless plants, all commonly known as palms. Those having a tree-like form are colloquially c ...

. This, and several other essays, were never printed because Forbes could not ensure an adequate supply with the limited machinery at hand. Soon after, new, lithographed stamps printed by the Survey Office appeared in several denominations valid for use throughout

British India The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance in South Asia. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one form or another ...

as part of sweeping postal reforms.
First Issues Collectors Club (Retrieved 25 September 2006) The British East India Company's posts are important, because the "Great Company" held sway over so much of the world's commerce in those days, extending across Asia and

East Africa East Africa, also known as Eastern Africa or the East of Africa, is a region at the eastern edge of the Africa, African continent, distinguished by its unique geographical, historical, and cultural landscape. Defined in varying scopes, the regi ...

. It had its own armies, coinage, and postal service; constructed railways and public works; and acted like an imperial force long before the

Empire An empire is a political unit made up of several territories, military outpost (military), outposts, and peoples, "usually created by conquest, and divided between a hegemony, dominant center and subordinate peripheries". The center of the ...

was established.

References

Literature

* Robson Lowe, ''Encyclopaedia of British Empire Postage Stamps'', v.III, 1951: The Sind District Dawk, pp. 149–152. * H.D.S. Haverbeck, "The Sind District Dawk", ''The Collectors Club Philatelist'' v. 44 no. 2 (March, 1965) pp. 79–85. * Mohini Lal Mazumdar, The Imperial Post Offices of British India. Calcutta, Phila Publications, 1990. * B. B. Misra, "Postal Communications in India, 1773–1834", reprinted from ''The Central Administration of the East India Company 1773–1834,'' pp. 415–449. Robson Lowe, Manchester University Press, 1939.

External links

History: A Brief History of the Subcontinent's Mail

Dawn (newspaper) ''Dawn'' is a Pakistani English language, English-language newspaper that was launched in British Raj, British India by Muhammad Ali Jinnah in 1941. It is the largest English newspaper in Pakistan, and is widely considered the country's newspap ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Scinde Dawk Postage stamps of India Postal system of Pakistan History of Sindh 1852 introductions