In an earnest appeal to continue using postcards, Gaurav Dikshit reveals this fascinating bit of history:
A 1951 law held that “should a post card be posted without the postage having been prepaid in full, it will be forwarded to the Dead Letter Office (DLO) to be destroyed forthwith”. A suitably non-violent movement grew against the provision with numerous representations to the Government of India on the matter. In June 1954, the government changed the law, and said that in case of any infringement of rules “the post card shall be treated as a letter and the amount of postage prepaid on a single post card shall be taken into account in assessing the postage to be charged on delivery.” Further, it said, “In no case the addressees shall be given a chance to go through the contents of such postcards before recovering the dues.” [Link]
Anyway, who says postcards are extinct in the internet age?
Hey – I’ll send you a postcard if that’s what you want! It’s got to be worth the 50p at least (that’s pence not paise in this case) for reading the blog alone.
But seriously, postcards have an illustrious history; Anmesty International in the UK at least has long had a campaign of sending Christmas/greetings cards to political prisoners – as well as orchestrating deluges of post to recalcitrant goverments. But even they’ve got hold of the web too: http://irrepressible.info and the web as a place of free speech (seeing your RTI application below).
Am enjoying the posts, as ever, worth the read.
A.L.
angrez larki: wanna meet up for coffee?
;)
Ha ha… Would be a long way to go for a coffee, altho we do a good line in cafe culture in Brighton UK if you’re ever passing(?!). ‘Til I’m in Delhi again (no valid excuses currently), I shall just have to keep reading.
Oh do let me know when you are in Delhi
Not extinct, but definitely endangered.