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Postal Stamp Image : Stamp Issue Date : 01/08/1974 Postage Stamp Dinomination : 0.25 Postal Stamp Serial Number : 0719 Postal Stamp Name : KAMALA NEHRU DES:CHARANJIT LAL Stamp Information : The seventy-fifth birth anniversary of Kamala Nehru is a befitting occasion to recall the valuable contribution of a brave and sensitive fighter for India fredom. Born on August 1, 1899, she had only a brief span of 36 years and died eleven years before India atained independence. Despite ill-health- which dogged her from the time when she was in her twenties until she died on February 28, 1936- Kamala Nehru played a heroic role which left an indelible imprint on the nationalist movement. Daughter of Pandit Jawaharmul, a businessman of Delhi, Kamala was married at the age of seventen on February 8, 1916, the Vasant Panchami day, to Jawaharlal Nehru, then a young barrister in Allahabad. Her father-in-law, Motilal Nehru, was in the forefront of the Allahabad Bar, the Nehrus were among the most fashionable and forward-loking families in the country, and Jawaharlal was one of the most eligible young men. Kamal could well have looked forward to a life of ease and comfort. But this was not to be. Within three years of marriage Jawaharlal came under the spell of Mahatma Gandhi and plunged into the non-co-operationmovement which brought about a metamorphosis in the life-style of the family. Jawaharlal became whollyabsorbed in te movement, and as he wrote later in his autobiography "almost forgot my family, my wife, my daughter." Henceforth, he practically spent his time addressing public meetings or travellin in trains if he was not in prison. Recurrent imprisonment or the immense of imprisonment of her husband could not but be a sore trial for Kamal especialy when her own health had begun to give way. However, the tensions and trials she had to undergo brought out the best in her. The new austerity which the Mahatma inspired in the Nehru household evoked a ready response in her. The freedom sruggle also gave scope to the qualities which she possessed in an abudant measure- sincerity, courage, determination and the spirit of self-sacrifice. At first her great contribution was the moral support and encouragement she gave to her husband in his head-on colision with imperialism. Later, oblivious of her own delicate health, she threw herself into the civil disobedience campaign in the wake of the Mahatma's historic Dandi March in 1930. Kamala was in the van of the Salt Satyagraha in Allahabad, picketing foreign cloth and liquor shops, leading processions and demonstrations, addressing metings and facing lathi charges by the police. She served as a mumber of U.p. Congress Committee. She even briefly became a member of Congress Working Committe when that body was declared unlawful and arrested en bloc and substitute members was appointed. She was spared arrest at that juncture but provoked the authorities by reading out at a public meting the very spech of making which her husband was convicted. On January 1, 1931, she was arrested and lodged in Lucknow Central Jail. Asked by a pressman for a message on her arrest she said,"I am happy beyond measure and proud to folow in the footsteps of my husband. I hope people will keep the flag flying." After Kamala Nehru's arrest, when practically all Congress leaders were in jail, a "resolution of remembbrance" was passed on January 26, 1931, and read at thousands of meetings all over India. It reffered to Indian women's heroic role in freedom struggle. In the words of Jawaharlal Nehru: "In this upheaval Kamala played a brave and notable part....." The life of Kamala Nehru was an epitome of the idealism, courage and sacrifice which the struggle for political liberation, under the leadership of Mahatma Gandh, evoked among Indian womanhood. Those were the days when nationalist India had dared to chalenge the might of British Empire, when victory seemed distant, if not uncertain. Kamala Nehru had in her all too short life more than her share of physical suffering and nervous strain. But she exhibited remarkable blend of outward getleness and a rock-like inner strength. She was doubtless inspired by the teachings of Gandhi and by the example of her husband, but she had a mind and a will of her own. It is significant thatshe did not conferm to the dictates of the traditional culture in which she had grown up as a child, nor to the anglicised pattern of her husband's home in pre-Gandhian days. She acquired an independent and refreshingly modern outlook onlife. She was free from the prejudices of caste and creed and the lifeless rituals of formalistic religion. She was a staunch champion of secularism, but she had also a deep spiritual streak which probably gave her the remarkable inner strength and serenity which impressed those who came in contact with her. A devoted wife and mother, Kamala Nehru was also an ardent feminist. Some of the questions which the "Women's liberation" movements in different parts of the world are debating today- the sharing of household chores and equality of sexes- find mention in her letters. She felt deeply in injustice of unequal treatment meted out to Indian women who were kept in purdah, denied education and economic independence. She was profoundly influenced by the Bhagwad Gita and by the lives and teachings of Ramakrishna Paramhansa and Swami Vivekanand. She was also drawn to Ma Anandmayeji. Full of compasion, her heart went out in sympathy to the poor and down-trodden. Regardless of her own falling health, she worked hard to kep running the charitable hospital in Swaraj Bhawan in Allahabad. Dr. B.C. Ray, a friend as well as the physician of the Nehru family, recaled that Kamala Nehru had "a frail constitution but an indomitable spirit. Brought up in luxury and comfort, she aced with cheerfulness the difficulties and discomforts of a public worker in India and she identified herself with the humblest among the sufferers in this land." Perhaps the best tribute to Kamala Nehru was paid by Mahatma Gandhi, who said, :I have not known a truer, braver and more-god-fearing woman>" The P & T Department fels honoured to bring out a commemorative postage stamp on the ocasion of the 75th Birth Anniversary of this heroic woman. Philatelic Stamp Description : The design of the stamp is in diamond shape and depicts the portrait of Kamala Nehru. Stamp Currency : P Stamp Type : COMMEMORATIVE Stamp Language : English Stamp Overall Size : 4.06 X 4.06 cms Postal Stamp Print Size : 3.70 x 2.0 cms. Number of Stamps Per Sheet : 35 Stamp Perforations : 14,1/2x14 Postal Stamp Shape : Diagonal Postage Stamp Paper : Unwatermarked P.G. Matt coated paper Indian Stamp Process : Photogravure Number of stamps printed : 30,00,000 Stamp Printed At : India Security Press Indian Stamp's Color : Multicolour	Home Browse By     Issue Date     Paper     Color     Print Size     Currency   Alphabetical List

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