Philately · India

Stamps of independent India

A visual guide to the everyday definitive series and the commemorative issues that have recorded India’s people, places, achievements, and public memory since 1947.

India's 1947 national flag postage stamp
National Flag · 1947
First independent issue
21 November 1947
First commemorative set
Gandhi · 15 August 1948
First definitive series
Archaeological · 1949
Definitive series
11 catalogued series

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“Standard” stamps are more precisely called definitive stamps: long-running issues made for ordinary postal rates. Commemoratives are shorter-lived issues created for a particular person, place, event, anniversary, or theme.

Ajanta Panel stamp from India's 1949 Archaeological definitive series Everyday postage Standard & Definitive Stamps Follow all eleven series—from archaeology and development to nature and nation-builders. Mahatma Gandhi stamp from India's 1948 mourning issue Milestones & memory Commemorative Stamps Browse an illustrated era guide and open the complete annual issue lists from 1947 to 2026.

How to read an Indian stamp

Issue date: identifies when a design entered postal use; a series can receive new values and reprints over many years.

Denomination: follows India’s currency history, moving from annas and pies to naya paisa, paise, and rupees.

Series or occasion: separates regular postal workhorses from time-specific commemorative releases.

Printing clues: watermark, perforation, paper, colour, and printing method can distinguish otherwise similar varieties.

Reference desk

  1. India Post: Definitive and Special Definitive Stamps — official issue names, dates, denominations, and series categories.
  2. India Post: Mahatma Gandhi philatelic exhibit — definitions of definitive, service, and commemorative stamps and confirmation of the eleven definitive series.
  3. List of postage stamps of India — chronological overview and links to the annual catalogues.
  4. Images on these pages are locally served copies of files from Wikimedia Commons; every illustrated entry links back to its individual source page and licence record.

Scope: postage stamps of independent India. British India, princely-state issues, service stamps, revenue stamps, postal stationery, miniature sheets, and first-day covers are outside this introductory catalogue.