A Little Known History

Enough is enough - I am giving it a break for a while. No more cries in the wilderness, no more wails of futility. I am changing track. I cannot handle the present because it is a whirlpool. The future is steeped in uncertainty - I am not even sure that I will arrive there because I am not sure that I will survive the present. That leaves me with the past - a period in which I am a child, one in which I have lived, rejoiced, pooh-poohed the idea of leaving for Australia, played tootsie and survived long enough to arrive at the present - a present that is the continuation of the past and the reason for the future. No period in the journey of a nation is antithetical to another. The past, present and future are indivisible - each existing in relation to the other two. 

Lest the present and the future generations of Bhutanese forget the legacy of the past, I would like to present to you a piece of little-known history of Bhutan’s survival as a proud, independent nation. As I wrote in my blog titled “The People’s Pandemic”, this country did not survive by accident.

On 1st of August 1955, in a letter marked “TOP SECRET”, the External Affairs Ministry of the Government of India was made aware of a report that Bhutan intended to print its own postage stamps. In addition, Bhutan hoped to join the Universal Postal Union (UPU).

India was aware that this two-pronged approach was intended to assert Bhutan’s independence. While India was aware of the implications this strategy would have on the long-term relations between Bhutan and India, there was no legitimate grounds on which India could object. Thus India decided that it would help Bhutan in the Himalayan kingdom’s endeavors. Ultimately, Bhutan did print our postage stamps - in 1962. Consequently, it became a member of the UPU in 1969 - Bhutan’s second membership to an international body, the first being the Colombo Plan in 1962, to be followed by membership to the United Nations (UN) in 1971. Today Bhutan’s diplomatic and bilateral/multilateral relations number over a hundred.

From a gingerly taken step in 1949, we have come a long way in our journey of asserting our independence.

The ruse: Set of four fiscals that launched Bhutan's relentless drive towards asserting itself as an independent nation.

Historical records show that Bhutan embarked on making a different statement of independence also in 1949, when we are supposed to have issued our first printed adhesive stamps - called the Revenue Stamps. It is a mystery why a fiscal stamp was issued instead of a postage stamp. The mystery deepens even further upon discovering that the fiscals were authorized to be used as postage stamps on 17th September, 1955 under the authority of the Third King. What’s funny is that we did not even have a postal service in 1955 - we had postal runners! So why the need for postage stamps? Apparently, because Bhutanese officials put out the idea that the country could make lots of money selling its handsome stamps to international collectors. Yet even that explanation does not make sense, since Bhutan’s fiscals were not accepted as postage stamps good for use in international mailing.

From all this, it now becomes clear that the move to issue our own stamps was not intended as an initiative to launch a formal postal service or to make money selling the stamps to international collectors, but as a signal that we were beginning to assert ourselves as an independent nation, with an independent postal system. Unfortunately, it would take years to establish a true postal system.

The next phase of the journey was precisely just that: to create a postal system with postage stamps internationally recognized as belonging to a sovereign nation. To this end, Burt Kerr Todd, an American trailblazer, was enlisted to help Bhutan gain membership to the UPU. Bhutan soon learned that the membership had to be sponsored by a member state, not private individuals or institutions. Additionally, UPU rules required that the stamps carry the monetary value of an independent country, and that the postage stamps and a postal service already be in existence.

Bhutan systematically began fulfilling these provisions. Our first postage stamp was released in 1962. That same year, Bhutan’s first post office was set up in Phuentsholing. The next step was to seek admission as a member of the UPU. Here Indian help was sought. With the help of the giants of the era - Triloki N. Kaul (Tikki Kaul) of India’s MEA and diplomat Apa Pant, two of Bhutan’s staunchest friends - Bhutan finally gained UPU membership in 1969.

In the shaping of the independent nation state of Bhutan, many have contributed - foremost, His Majesty the Second Druk Gyalpo, His Majesty the Third Druk Gyalpo, Her Majesty the Royal Grand Mother Ashi Kesang Choden Wangchuck, His Majesty the Fourth Druk Gyalpo, Sir Basil John Gould, CMG, CIE, a British-India Political Officer, late Prime Minister Jigme Palden Dorji, American Burt Kerr Todd, India’s Tikki Kaul and Apa Pant, and Dr. K. Ramamurti, Bhutan’s first postal advisor.

Bhutan needs to honor all of these transformers. But in an age that seems indifferent to the past, careless about the present, and myopic about the future, I do not know how.

PS:

Sir Basil John Gould (he was the British Political Officer for Bhutan, Sikkim and Tibet based in Gangtok, Sikkim from 1935 to 1945) finds mention because it was supposedly him who first proposed the idea of stamps.

Burt Kerr Todd is credited with making the Bhutanese postage stamps famous and much sought after among the international stamp collectors.

........ With most information sourced from Leo Van der Velden and Aranya Dutta Choudhury.