The Post Office of India and Its StoryClarke, Geoffrey
History
The Post Office of India and Its Story
Clarke, Geoffrey
Postal service -- India
"Postal cards are now a rage all over India. There are men who, to
make the contents of the cards unintelligible, make them altogether
illegible. Some express themselves in hints which are not only
unintelligible to the postal clerk and peon, but to the person
addressed also. Others have got a notion that all letters, to be
sent either through the Post or through private harkaras, must be
written on postcards, that being the hookum[2] of the Sirkar; and it
is not unusual to see a fat and ignorant, though extremely loyal and
law-abiding, zemindar[3] sending his letters to his steward written
on half a score of postcards, one or two not sufficing to contain his
great thoughts. There are others who write their thoughts on postcards
and enclose them in an envelope, and attach a half-anna stamp before
posting. These men have naturally raised a loud complaint against the
unconscionable exactions of Government, and native papers given to
writing sedition should not let slip this opportunity of indulging
their profitable pastime. But the great difficulty is to teach the
people on which side of the card the address is to be written, and
we think it will be some years before they are enlightened in this
respect. But really does it matter much if the address is written on
the wrong side? We think that the people of India living under the
enlightened rule of the British should have the privilege of writing
the address on whichever side they like."
What a merry time the poor sorters would have if the sentiments
expressed in the last sentence were given effect to! But doubtless
the _Amrita Bazar Patrika_, with its enlightened staff, its splendid
circulation and carefully printed addresses would scarcely maintain the
same opinions now.
The Post Office of India must be congratulated upon its good fortune
in never having been regarded by Government as a revenue-producing
Department, and as long as it paid its way with a small surplus the
Powers were satisfied. Any excess was devoted to improvements in the
service, and full advantage has been given to this concession in past
years by the introduction of many reforms destined to meet the growing
needs of the country. Recently, postage rates were reduced to such
an extent that for a few years the Post Office worked at a loss, a
most unsatisfactory state of affairs; however, a marked recovery is
noticeable already and it is again a self-supporting institution, the
gross revenue for the year ending the 31st March, 1918, being more than
416 lakhs[4] of rupees, which gave a net surplus of nearly 50 lakhs on
the year's working.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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