ABSTRACT

Postage stamps are a significant visual text of an issuing state. In 1947, British India was divided into independent states of India and Pakistan. The successive new regimes in both countries got the freedom to design, print, and circulate the official visual iconography through postage stamps as a symbol of sovereignty for its citizens and the world community. This article explores how India and Pakistan visualized the narrative of national identity and discourse on development through postage stamps in the first two decades of their independence. The article does not intend to retell the narrative of the postcolonial nation-building process in the subcontinent. Instead, the objective is to introduce postage stamps as a primary visual resource for exploring the contours of public history of India and Pakistan by arguing that stamps retain its importance as excellent visual archives for postcolonial scholarly analysis in the age of new media.

摘要

邮票是发行国的重要视觉文本。1947年，英属印度分裂为独立的印度和巴基斯坦国家。两国接连不断的新政权通过邮票获得了设计、印刷和传播官方视觉图像的自由，作为其公民和国际社会主权的象征。本文探讨了印度和巴基斯坦在其独立后的头二十年如何通过邮票将民族身份的叙述和发展话语形象化。本文无意重述次大陆后殖民国家建设过程的叙述。反而，