Dear Comrades,
When was the last time you posted a letter or sent a postcard? In today’s world, it is all electronic and instant. An early British era letter box in a small village in Odisha was a chance discovery for me recently. The wall mounted letter box was painted in the traditional post office red, but what is unique is the British Royal emblem on it.
The post office at Kaipada is midway between Kendrapara and Jajpur. The post office was of the British era, the building had been constructed way back in 1901.
The post office still dominates the village even after 110 years. The office is tucked about 20 metres from the main road in a thicket of tall trees. It stands on a two acre compound. I cannot give an exact date when the letter box was affixed to the wall, but it must be between 1901 and 1905. This might not be the oldest letter box in India but I am certain it is one of the oldest in Odisha that is still in use.
The wall mounted letter boxes first appeared in 1857 in England. The earliest known use in India is in 1885. All mailboxes shipped out of England bore the royal badge. Whenever there was a change of regime, there happens to be a change in the badge. No wonder, mailboxes bearing royal badge of different regimes on the sides can be found even today in the streets of England.
The front of the letter box usually has the royal cipher, “V.R”, “E.R” or “G.R” denoting Queen Victoria, King Edward or King George. In present day Britain, the letter boxes are all inscribed with the Royal badge of the present Queen Elizabeth the 2nd.
The Kaipada letter box must have started off as a Victorian one and seen the transaction through the Edwardian and then the Georgian ciphers. I had sent the photographs and details of the letter box to a British philatelist friend and postal historian who did a lot of ground work. He told me that this type of boxes were made by the London firm of W.T. Allen and Co. , which manufactured and shipped letter boxes for the post office between 1881 and 1963. Many of them are still found in villages of England.
The letter box stood in one corner, a silent sentinel which saw the world go by. The road from Kendrapara to Jajpur has so much of history attached to it.
In 1934, Gandhiji began his celebrated Padayatra with the mission of Harijan upliftment and abolition of untouchability. In was on the May 31, 1934, while on his way from Kendrapara to Bari, Mahatma had stopped at Kaipada. He had rested under a big banyan tree near the post office. Narayan Chandra Panda, an octogenarian retired postmaster told me of the eventful day.
He was a young lad, just ten years old and had seen the Mahatma. The villagers had all gathered under the tree and Gandhiji had curiously enquired about the post office building which stood by the side of the road. One of the villagers had run to get the post master’s chair, but the Mahatma had refused to sit on it and had sat down under the tree, spending a good one hour. Two other villagers Dadichi Sahoo and Gouranga Dhall told me of the day they had walked with Gandhiji to Bari.
The Sub Post Office of Kaipada with its old letter box played a very significant part in the revolt. The then postmaster, Gobind Chandra Das got wind of the coming action. On the August 20, he packed up all the postal stamps, cash, seals and other important fiscal items and reached Kendrapara where he deposited the items at the main post office. He left the post office to his assistant, Narayan Chandra Panda and warned him of the impending threat.
Popular history says that on the August 22, 1942, the post office of Kaipada was burnt down. It was the only symbol of the British Raj in the vicinity. A crowd of 200 surrounded the post office and set it on fire. As it was a pucca building, only the papers and furniture were destroyed.
The armed police soon arrived but was prevented to enter the village. They later on came in six boats and managed to arrest ten persons. The handcuffed prisoners were being taken to Jajpur, when a mob of a thousand persons attacked the police. The police opened fire killing four and injuring a dozen.
Some of the people told me that even an aeroplane had dropped tear gas shells on the crowd, but I still have to ascertain the veracity of this fact. There is a small martyr’s memorial for the dead in the nearby village.
However, Narayan Chandra Panda, who had been charge of the post office on the fateful day, told me a very different story. I spent a good hour with the old postmaster, the sad and rheumy-eyed man recollected what all had happened. According to him, the post office was not actually set on fire completely, only a few papers were taken to the Verandah, and burnt.
Even the furniture was spared, and the tables, almirah and chairs were left which are still being used. He remembers taking down the portrait of King George VI from above the Postmaster’s Chair (he showed me the nail from where the portrait had been hung, it was still in place!). He had given the crowd many of the postal forms and stationery.
All these were taken to the verandah and a bonfire was made where King Emperor’s portrait was burnt. He says that earlier in the morning he had taken whatever little was left of the records and put in the secret underground safe of the post office. Surprisingly, the present post master did not know anything of the safe and a steel almirah had to be moved for me to see it.
The writer is a philatelist and postal historian Thursday, 02 February 2012 01:30 ANIL DHIR
http://www.dailypioneer.com/state-editions/bhubaneswar/39555-postbox-still-in-use-in-odisha-since-british-era.html
