Azad Hind stamps

Five of the different designs used. The high value 1+2 rupee is not shown.

The Azad Hind Stamps are a set of Cinderella stamps in six different designs produced in 1943 in Nazi Germany for Subhas Chandra Bose's Azad Hind (Indian National Army).^[1] The Indian Postal Department includes these six unused Azad Hind Stamps in its commemorative book India's Freedom Struggle through India Postage Stamps.^[2]

Background

A concept of Subhas Chandra Bose, the stamps were designed by Werner and Maria von Axster-Heudtlass^[3] who created many German issues between 1925 and 1949, and show themes depicted on ten denominations.

The stamps

The designs are

• 1+1 Anna design depicting an Indian Sikh soldier firing a German MG34 machine gun.
• 1/2 Anna, 1 Anna and 2+2 Annas design, which shows a plough and a peasant plowing a field in the background.
• 2½, and 2½ + 2½ Annas design, which shows an Indian woman spinning cloth on a charkha.
• 3+3 Anna design depicting a nurse comforting a wounded soldier.
• 8+12 and 12 Anna + 1 Rupee design depicting breaking chains on a map of India.
• 1+2 Rupee, which show three INA soldiers—one clearly a Sikh, the other two presumably a Hindu and a Moslem—with the flag of Azad Hind.

All stamps were printed by photogravure in sheets of 100 at the "Reichsdruckerei", the Government Printing Bureau in Berlin. A million copies of the lower denominations were produced, with a further half million of the higher values, except for the 1 + 2 Rupee stamp, of which only 13,500 were printed in three color varieties.

Each value was printed in a different color. The 1 + 2 Rupee stamp was designed as a multi-color design.

A complete set includes several color varieties of the Mi. VII 1 Rupee + 2 Rupee design.

Catalogue listing

The German Michel catalog lists the seven semipostals first (Mi. I-VII); the surcharge was for the administration of Andaman and Nicobar Islands then under Japanese control. Next come the three regular postal issues with no surcharge (Mi. VIII-X). A set of 21 stamps currently exist, both perforated (10×12) and unperforated.

See also

• Azad Hind
• Indian National Army

References

Sources

• "Pastimes; Stamps" by Barth Healey in the New York Times, 3 December 1989.
• "Indian Legion Stamps and Postal History" in Introduction to Foreign Legion Stamps and Postal History.
• Michel Deutschland-Spezial 1998, Schwaneberger Verlag GmbH, Munich, 1988.