Like a flag, emblem and anthem, every nation needs a history. And like them, this history seeks to be unique to each nation. As individuals, we draw our identities from multiple macro-cultural coordinates such as language, religion, region etc., and the modern nation-state has to mark its own coordinates to make citizens out of its inhabitants. This story of a shared national past helps citizens of a nation in defining who they are, where they came from, what explains their present predicaments, and most importantly, where they are headed.But this history is also about differences. While they persevere hard to conjure a glorious past for the nation, they are also engaged in defining the inherent distinction of the nation. Put differently, these histories tend to demonstrate to its citizens not only how the nation is blessed with a glorious past, but also how the nation is unique amongst all others. This difference acquires enhanced importance when it comes to inter-national rivalries. When two archrivals come face to face, they tend to emphasise the differences between them. This scenario is especially pronounced in South Asia, where, as Ashis Nandy points out, “most states define themselves not by what they are, but by what they are not”.Arch-rivals India and Pakistan are only too aware of their differences. Born as a consequence of a bloody partition that wreaked havoc on their peoples, they have fought each other in at least three wars and have had hostile ties for decades which to date show no signs of reconciliation. Therefore, the differences in their nationalisms cannot be overstated.Pakistani nationalism is anchored in faith, emphasising that the foundations of Pakistan lie not in language, ethnicity, or territory, but in Islam. The essence of Pakistani-ness, is the community of the faithful. India, on the other hand, sees itself as an old civilisational entity that developed and flourished within the natural contours of geography – the Himalayas in the north and the oceans in the South. The diversity – linguistic and religious, is spoken of as the heart and soul of Indian nationality. ‘Unity in Diversity’ is the mantra for the Indian state.One can say that India is the secular other to Pakistan’s Islamic self and that Pakistan is the communal other to India’s composite and diverse self. While similarities in culture and religion between the two countries are often spoken and written about, an interesting question to ask would be if these competing nationalisms have something in common because of their differences? In other words, what if we take their differences as our point of departure to see whether the official nationalisms of the two countries converge somewhere? To this end, the postage stamps issued by the two countries throw up fascinating insights.Pakistani Rangers and Indian Border Security Force officers lower their national flags at the joint check-post at Wagah border. Photo: Reuters/Mohsin RazaWhile coins are widely seen as a source for scholarly endeavours, stamps have remained by and large overlooked. They are often ignored as tiny, irrelevant objects attached to envelopes to facilitate postal transit. But in fact, they are state-issued documents that tell us a lot about how governments view their country’s histories, whom and what they deem fit for commemoration, what are the milestones in their national histories – through their visual and textual elements.While the movement of messages and postal packages have existed in the region before the advent of European colonisation, stamps arrived in South Asia through colonisation. The first postage stamps in the world were introduced in Britain as part of the postal reforms of 1840. This new system was so effective that within a decade and a half, many countries in Europe and the Americas adopted it. As postage stamps became more and more popular, as with many other things (like the railway), the stamps soon reached the farthest corners of the Empire.The postage stamp first came to the subcontinent in 1852, when the Commissioner of Sind, Sir Bartel Frere, introduced paper stamps, which came to be known as ‘Scinde Dawk’. These were withdrawn two years later when the East India Company introduced a uniform postal system for the subcontinent. The first stamps issued by the Company carried an image of the head of Queen Victoria along with the price of the stamp spelt out in English, and ‘India’ inscribed on the top.‘Pakistan’ stamped in black ink over the portrait of King George VI on stamps issued in India.Queen Victoria and her successors remained on the subcontinent’s postage stamps until Independence in 1947. Since the newly independent countries could not make available their own in sufficient quantities, old stamps continued to be in use for a while. To distinguish itself from the Indian ones, Pakistan began to stamp ‘Pakistan’ in black ink over the stamps with the portrait of King George VI issued in India. In the months that followed independence, the two newly independent countries embarked on designing and issuing stamps that were tailored to their new ethos and identity.These stamps, issued by independent India and Pakistan, reveal how the partition of British India had also caused a partitioning of their histories as well. For instance, in the 1950s, while both India and Pakistan issued commemorative stamps to celebrate 100 years of their first postage stamps, they were issued in two different years, commemorating different milestones. In 1952, Pakistan issued its stamp commemorating the centenary of the Scinde Dawk, and a couple of years later in 1954, India issued four stamps to mark the centenary of the postage stamp. India had chosen to commemorate the adoption of the stamps by the East India Company.Beyond this apparent difference, these stamps were strikingly similar in how they have approached the theme. Both Indian and Pakistani stamps depict a juxtaposition of the old and the new media of moving posts within its frames – from message-carrying birds to airmail, from camels to a postman on a cycle. They were a visual melange of the past and the present, the ‘traditional’ and the ‘modern’. By portraying messenger birds/animals and airmail in the same frame, these stamps convey that while the stamp itself may have been there for only a hundred years, the idea of post goes way back in time. The thrust on a seemingly objective fact of technological progress thus helped the two countries nationalise a history that was almost completely colonial in nature.Commemorative stamps issued by India (top, in 1954) and Pakistan (bottom, in 1952) to mark the centenary of stamps in the subcontinent.In manufacturing their own heroes worthy of commemoration, both India and Pakistan have often come up with common names. This is conspicuous in the choice of certain figures, for example, Mirza Ghalib. The 18th-century poet was born and lived his whole life in what we know today as India. He is now fondly remembered as the doyen of Urdu poetry and is a revered cultural icon in both India and Pakistan. Unsurprisingly, he has been featured on the stamps of both countries more than once. In fact, on the occasion of his 100th death anniversary in 1969, both India and Pakistan had issued commemorative stamps in his honour.Another icon whose legacy is cherished by the two countries is Sir Syed Ahmad Khan. In the aftermath of the 1857 rebellion, Khan had played an active role in initiating educational reforms for the Muslim community of the subcontinent and established what is today called the Aligarh Muslim University. In the nationalist historiography of Pakistan, Khan’s efforts have come to be seen as a landmark in the struggle for Pakistan and he first appeared on a Pakistani stamp as part of the ‘Pioneers of Freedom’ series in 1979. However, Khan’s debut as a philatelic icon was on an Indian stamp in 1973. Another icon featured in this Pakistani series was Tipu Sultan. Although he has been at the centre of historical controversies in India, Tipu has been memorialised by and large as a freedom fighter who fought bravely against the British in the three Anglo-Mysore wars.Top: Pakistani stamps commemorating Sir Syed Ahmad Khan, Tipu Sultan and Mirza Ghalid.Bottom: Indian stamps commemorating Sir Syed Ahmad Khan and Mirza Ghalib.The most striking example is that of the 20th-century poet Muhammad Iqbal. Iqbal is considered the national poet of Pakistan and his birthday is even observed as a public holiday there. Unsurprisingly, both Iqbal and his writings have appeared on Pakistani stamps time and again. Though Iqbal has been pitched as playing a pivotal role in the making of the two-nation theory, it is surprising to note that he too has a place in India’s diverse stampscape. In 1988, on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of Iqbal’s passing, India Post released a commemorative stamp featuring him along with a celebrated and oft-quoted verse from his ‘Tarana-e-Hindi’ – ‘saarey jahan sey acha’, inscribed both in Hindi and Urdu.A commemorative stamp issued by India Post on Muhammad Iqbal’s 50th death anniversary in 1988.Ghalib, Khan or Tipu were neither related to the geographic contours of today’s Pakistan, nor did they have anything to do with the idea of Pakistan – this idea was born much later, long after they had gone. Similarly, Iqbal’s political inclinations would have made him an antagonist in the story of the Indian freedom struggle. However, they have been commemorated by two rival countries that see themselves as radically different.Resemblances often lie at the heart of differences, they are intimate to each other. Looking through the apparently pronounced divergences could also lead us to convergences. Ghalib, Iqbal, Tipu and Khan are not simultaneously Indian and Pakistani icons because of the seemingly irreconcilable conceptualisations of Indian and Pakistani nationalisms. Instead, they are both Indian and Pakistani icons because of the difference in the two nationalisms. It is these nationalisms, differently defined, that make these icons at once Indian and Pakistani, notwithstanding the fact that they lived to see neither.Sridhar Krishnan is currently a doctoral research scholar at the Department of International Relations, South Asian University, New Delhi.
