The East India Company received a royal charter from Elizabeth I on 31 December 1600. The city of Madras was founded in 1639 on land purchased; Bombay came to the English Crown in 1660; Calcutta was founded in 1668. The Seven Years War (1756-63) gave Britain mastery over the French and Dutch, and the control of the East India Company was extended to the innumerable separate states, large and small, by successive governors and governors-general. A general rising ('Indian Mutiny') in 1857 was suppressed and on 1 November 1858 the government of India was transferred to the Crown under a viceroy.

In 1947 India was partitioned into a predominantly Hindu India and a Muslim Pakistan and both were granted independence within the British Commonwealth. In May 1949 India became a republic, but remained a member of the Commonwealth while acknowledging non-allegiance to the British throne.

Postal History
Though an overland route operated in the 17th and 18th centuries (most successfully in 1636-68 and 1769-83) through various consular forwarding agencies in Marseille, Leghorn, Venice, Aleppo and Basra, the principal mails to India were carried via the Cape. An organized system regulating carriage of letters by sea between England and the presidencies of Bombay, Madras and Calcutta, with POs at those places, was established in 1688. Regular overland communication between Madras and Calcutta began in 1720 and to Bombay in 1775. Handstruck marks are known on mail from the 1770s.

When the British GPO extended its steam packet from Malta to Alexandria in 1835, Thomas Waghorn operated an overland mail service by camel to Suez to connect with an East India Company's steamer. On 1 October 1837 the Indian Post Office was established under the governor-general, the East India posts and the former official King's Post being combined. The Bombay-Suez packet became regular (British India Steam Navigation Co.); the Alexandria packet passed in 1842 to the Peninsular and Orient line, which also took over the Egyptian overland mail.

Use was made from 1839 of European mail routes to the Mediterranean (Marseille, Trieste or Brindisi) which improved as coach and river-steamer gave place to the railway. The Egyptian section was improved by successive rail openings in 1856, 1859 and 1868. Though the Suez Canal was opened in 1869, mail was not passed through without transhipment until 1888 (though it was often put back on the same steamer). The P & 0 and BISN shipping lines amalgamated in 1914.

Airmails reached India on a weekly basis from Croydon in 1929, though experimental flights started in India in 1911.

The vast scope of India has always been a challenge to collectors. The basic stamps are common and have never attracted advanced specialist interest beyond the first issue. The catalogue listings have remained simple. The existence of 114,000 POs, including many rail and river steamer TPOs using only numbered cancellers, make a daunting challenge for collectors of postmarks. Certain aspects of the postal history have a large following, particularly letters to Britain stamped INDIA LETTER and the place of landing, military campaign mail, and 'India Used Abroad'.

Separate stamps discontinued on 30 April 1950.

FPOs maintained in China used stamps of India overprinted C.E.F. from c. August 1900 to 25 November 1923.

Used French Colonies General issues 1859-92 (oblit. various lozenges of dots with or without indication of place, e.g INDE.

There were also British Indian POs and sub-POs in the settlements in which stamps of India were used 1854-1947.

Little is known of an early Portuguese post, though regular mails were exchanged with Lisbon from 1825. The Portuguese had mail conventions with Britain and probably used British packets. In the 19th century mail seems to have been routed mainly via Bombay, both before and after Portuguese colonial stamps were available. From 1854, Portuguese handstamps and in 1871-7 stamps were used in combination with stamps of British India, which were sold at the Portuguese POs.

Used stamps of India from 29 December 1961.

India & Burma 1852-1942
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