Refugee Relief Stamp

S Balakrishnan
Refugee Relief Stamp!? The 2K kids may not have heard of this; why, for that matter even the 80s kids may not be aware of it. Postal stamp, revenue stamp, service stamp and court fee stamp, yes, but what is refugee relief stamp? Was it issued during the 1947 partition of India & Pakistan when Sikhs and Hindus (totalling 7.2 million / 70.2 lakhs) fled from West Pakistan & East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) to India?
No, this pinkish monochrome stamp was issued 24 years later in1971 when East Pakistan proclaimed independence and blossomed as a new nation called Bangladesh. On 26th March 1971, Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh MujiburRahman declared independence and an independent sovereign Bangladesh was born. But the victory came only on December 16, 1971 after long nine months of liberation war. This time the inflow of refugees from across our eastern border was much higher; it was estimated that about 10 million / 1 crore people fled to India. While the EuropeanUnion countries are crying hoarse over the trickle of refugees now, just imagine the magnitude of India’s burden half a century ago! India had to manage and did the situation, and the issue of Refugee Relief Stamp (RRS), an indirect tax, was just one of the strategies to handle the massive inflow of refugees, unprecedented in world history.
The Indian Government, as an immediate measure,levied a 5 paisepostal surcharge with effect from 15th November 1971 on all mails (except the humble post-card, newspapers, articles for the visually challenged, items posted in Field Post Offices [FPOs] meant for armed forces, and theState of J&K), Money Orders, First Day Covers and Telegrams, for the relief of refugees from East Pakistan (now Bangladesh). In order to implement this Postal Tax immediately throughout our vast country with umpteen post offices, the post masters were authorised to overprint existing definitiveseries stamps locally, by using rubber stamp impression.Cost-effective instant solution! Such a new Refugee Relief Stamp could be issued and circulated only from 1st December 1971. Until then rubber stamp impression of ‘Refugee Relief’ was used mainly on the ‘Family Planning’ definitive series stampalready in circulation then; the rubber stamp impression was in English in South India where Hindi language is anathema, and in Hindi in rest of India.
Back in 1971, five Paise was a considerable amount; no easy coming and no easy going. There were coins of 1 paisa, 2 paise, even the odd 3 paise, then 5, 10, 20, 25, 50 and 1 rupee. People used to call the 25 P. and 50 P. coins as quarter anna and half anna respectively, as 1 rupee = 16 annas.  But all these coins, except the 1 rupee coin, have lost their value and totally disappeared. Because, even a cup of the humble tea costs, at the least, 10bucks! So, back in 1971 the Indian government was able to raise a considerable amount through this RR Stamps, though the postal staff had their own headache of separately accounting for this RRS. Even the government departments that use the exclusive Service Stamps had to pay this postal tax for refugee relief by affixing Service Stamps with the special marking of ‘Refugee Relief’.
Out of the 10 million / one crore (I am comfortable with crores than million, billion and trillion) Bangladeshi refugees, who were mostly Hindus, it is estimated that while about 8.5 million (85 lakhs) might have returned to the new nation after its birth pangs had subsided, 1.5 million (15 lakhs) of them might have stayed back in India itself. A considerable number of these families were settled in the various islands of Andaman Group of Islands, particularly in Neil (Shaheed), Havelock (Swaraj) Islands and in Middle/North Andaman Islands. I met a few of them in 1979 during my North Andaman trip and here is a description from my travel jottings of such a settlement of Bangladesh refugees there.
To be contd