The Postal Museum Calcutta GPO

Team Chronicle

Gawking at the majestic white structure in the heart of the city, seldom can one say the number of heaves and thrills the General Post Office, Calcutta, has witnessed. A magnanimous building, GPO has indeed stood the test of time. The amazing Postal Museum at GPO takes us through the journey of Indian Postal System till date. Housed in a historic building, the museum with its exhibits narrates a story of the bygone era of the Indian Postal System from foot runners to electronic post.

It is fascinating to learn that the days of Atharvaveda in 1st millennium B.C., marked the beginning of the messenger system in India. While ‘the horse and foot runner’ service dates back to late 13th century during the reign of Ala-ud-din-Khilji, King Akbar gets full credit for the introduction of the postal runners. However, it was only after the first battle of Plassey in 1757 that revolutionary changes took place in the Indian Postal System. And in 1774, a regular postal system was set up by Lord Clive. The postal system since then has been constantly evolving and finally, after India became independent in 1947 all the states merged and gave rise to the Indian Postal System.

The General Post Office (GPO) building, is a class-I heritage structure. Situated in Dalhousie Square, the GPO was designed by Mr. Walter B. Granville and was built in place of the old Fort William. It is one of the finest works of Mackintosh and Burn Company of London.

The museum, with its select collection of numerous antiquities and memorabilia, beautifully chronicles the history of Indian Postal System from times immemorial. There is a main gallery and two small ones adjacent to it – both brightly lit and have several photographs on display. There is a photograph of the Brass Line in the stone, which marks the position and extent of the south curtain of old Fort William that still remains in place behind the GPO building. There are reprints of old photographs during and after the construction of the GPO and other places of old Calcutta.

Interesting historical documents such as the first day cover of Indian Postal System, the ‘special day cover’ used to commemorate an event or an institution, a letter to Deputy Director General of Department of Post from the then Prime Minister of India, Vajpayee, are priceless possessions of the museum.

The museum also pays tribute to luminaries like Sir. C. V. Raman who was appointed as the Accountant General of the Post and Telegraph Department in Calcutta in 1911; Dinabandhu Mitra, the author of Neeldarpan and the supernumerary postmaster of the Serampore Head Post Office; J. N. Mukherjee, the first Indian Post Master General of British India.

There is an unusual oil painting depicting a hoisted triangular white flag having ‘Royal Mail’ inscription and a triangular red flag having three crosses on it. The story behind is rather interesting. The white flag was hoisted on the south eastern tower of the GPO on the day when the main Homeward mail was despatched from Calcutta of the British India. It remained hoisted till the supplementary mail was despatched on the following day. The red flag was hoisted on the north eastern tower of the GPO when the English mail arrived in Bombay. It remained flying till the mail reached Calcutta and was sent out for delivery.

Enamel paintings of ‘Shiva offering quinine tablet to a malaria patient’, is supposed to have been an advertisement with a touch of humour. These were put up in the post offices for awareness, which sold the tablets. This drug was in fact, enforced for consumption at the turn of the 20th century.

Dozens of medallions can be seen hanging on the boards which happen to be the Defence and War medals that were awarded to the members of the Indian Armed Postal Service. In fact, during the World War II, volunteers from the Department of Post and Telegraph were drawn as combatants to run the Field Post Office (FPO).

In those days, post offices operated as serious financial institutions. This is evident from the various Cash Certificates, Savings Bank Journals and Pass books of the late 19th century that are being showcased. The sight of the signature of Rabindranath Tagore in his Savings Bank Account is rather intriguing. The museum carefully preserves the postal stamps, revenue stamps and more importantly the impressed stamps, which were Government duty stamps of value one or two annas. At the rear end of the first gallery, the large free-standing models of two red letter boxes not only arrests your attention but are sure to drive you through the nostalgia lanes.

Earlier, postal runners were the pillars of the postal system. So the museum has not only preserved the various implements and accessories used by the runners but have also taken care to display their exhibits, exclusively, in the adjacent galleries. Here, you can see a vintage double-pan weighing balance, the measuring weights, a coin bag, a parcel bag, a leather casket that was used as cash box and the various weapons and lamps that were used by the runners.

A happening technology then and obsolete now, is the telegraph. It’s nothing short of miracle to be able to see the telegraph key with all the parts of the telegraph assemble, manufactured by Telegraph Workshop, Alipore.

In January 1882, the telephone exchanges were opened for the first time in Calcutta, Bombay and Madras and the exchange at Calcutta was named, ‘Central Exchange’. The telephones used in those times, are on display.

The rare sight of some of the vintage machines such as the coin invalidating machine and the flag raiser which was used to raise the white and red flags, actually reminds us of the museum’s rich collections.

Visiting this museum is incomplete without seeing the scintillating ‘Black Stone’ which marks the Black Hole of Calcutta. This stone was placed by Lord Curzon, to mark site of the prison. History has it that in 1756, the troops of Siraj-ud-daulah captured the old Fort William. On the night of 20th June 1756, around 146 British inhabitants of Calcutta were confined in this dungeon, of whom only 23 came out alive and so it was named the ‘Black Hole’.

The GPO building of Calcutta stands tall, burying beneath it’s dark past and celebrating its golden heritage courtesy of the Postal Museum.