A Delhi exhibition on stamps from the postmaster general of Hyderabad's last the nizam

They may seem irrelevant, or insignificant in the present world – who writes letters these days? – but stamps are a fascinating study of times, places and people long past, or largely forgotten.

For instance, it's hardly known now that Hyderabad, the former princely state in British-ruled India, had contributed majorly to the Allied Powers' war efforts during World War II, with both men and money – the Nizam sponsored two Royal Air Force squadrons. But a one anna "victory commemoration" stamp issued by the Nizam on

December 6, 1945, soon after the Allied victory, bears evidence to this historical fact. The blue stamp shows a soldier returning home to his wife and children – a testimony to how despite their miniature sizes, stamps are carefully designed to effectively get the message across.

These and other stamps issued primarily in the Raj era by Hyderabad, and a few early British specimens, are on show currently at Bikaner House in the capital in an exhibition, titled Property of a Gentleman. The 'gentleman' here is Nawab Iqbal Hussain Khan, who was the postmaster general in the government of Mir Osman Ali Khan, the last Nizam. But Iqbal Hussain Khan's descendants, known by their family name of Ewari, have greatly expanded his collection, and it now consists of about three million stamps, including some rare ones issued by the Indian princely states. In fact, Feroze Gujral, founder and artistic director of The Gujral Foundation, which has organised the festival, is an Ewari herself.

The prize exhibit here is the Penny Black, the first prepaid postage stamp in the world, issued on May 6, 1840. The stamp takes its name from the black background against which the profile bust of Queen Victoria is engraved in white. In contrast, the first postage stamp issued in Hyderabad on September 8, 1869, does not show the Nizam. Instead, in keeping with Islamic injunctions, it has an exquisite calligraphic design in the Persian script. Though the first Indian postal stamp – the Scinde Dawk, as it is called, because it was issued in Sindh – came out in 1852, Hyderabad was one of the first Indian princely states to be given the right to issue and print its own stamps.

Over the decades until 1950, when Hyderabad joined the Republic of India, its government issued many stamps of various denominations, and in various colours. While the early stamps were calligraphic, later designs incorporated important buildings such as the Char Minar, Daulatabad Fort, Osmania University, Ajanta Caves, and so on. Human figures, however, are absent – barring the 'victory commemoration' issues.

In other ways, too, the stamps bear witness to changing times – the advance of technology, for one, which is marked by the advent of colour, the variety of colour used, and the use of two colours. Interestingly also, while the early stamps were engraved and printed in London, later stamps such as those issued in February 1937 to mark the silver jubilee of the Nizam's reign, were designed locally by Nawab Zain Yar Jung, the Nizam's chief architect, and printed at the Indian Security Printing Press in Nasik.

Also included in the exhibition are a wide range of postal ephemera – envelopes with wet stamps, embossed stamps, revenue or fiscal stamps, letters with monograms and family crests, postcards and official seals. All of these evoke a modernising state, which was using the postal paraphernalia to mark its ascendance in the Raj and among other princely states.