Saturday, October 11, 2008

Gandhi Was a Stamp Collector

News On Sunday, Port-Louis, Mauritius reports Mahatma Gandhi was a stamp collector.

According to correspondent Indradev Curpen, In The Story of My Experiment with Truth, Gandhi writes how he got the support of children of his village to send his 'green pamphlets' to his supporters."

Gandhi said in his book, “To get these pamphlets ready for posting was no small matter. It would have been expensive too, if I had employed paid help for preparing wrappers. But I hit upon a much simpler plan. I gathered together all the children of my locality and asked them to volunteer two to three hours' labour of a morning, when they had no school. This they willingly agreed to do. I promised to bless them and give them, as a reward, used postage stamps which I had collected.”

After his assassination in 1948, 90 countries, from Antigua to Zambia, issued stamps in his honor. In 1969, to commemorate the birth centenary of the Mahatma, over 40 countries issued stamps on Gandhi.

To read the entire article, click here.
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posted by Don Schilling at 12:01 AM