STAMP STORY

Press, Volume CV, Issue 31007, 12 March 1966, Page 12

STAMP STORY

group of five “convention states,”—each using normal Indian issues but with a special oveirprint. These had full postal validity. The policy of India when independence was secured was to integrate all these princedoms into a unified State; and this task fell to Sardar Vallabhbhai' Patel, whose memory was honoured by the stamp illustrated here, issued on October 31, 1965, on the 90th anniversary of his birth, Sardar Patel was born in? 1875 of peasant stock. He chose law as his profession, and qualified as a barrister in Landon before returning to India to establish a flourishing practice as a crimi na l lawyer. But a meeting with Gandhi in 1917 made a lasting impression. He took part in the nationalist movement, and at Karachi in 1931 was elected president of the Indian National Congress. After independence he became a leading member of the Indian Government, serving as Home Minister, and lived to see India unified as never before in her history. He died, still in office on December 15, 1950. In 'that same year the last of the princely state posts were suppressed, and a fascinating chapter of Indian philately came to an end.