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The Post Office of India of the British Raj entered into postal conventions with a few native states of India. As per the postal convention (or agreement), existing adhesive stamps and postal stationery of British India were overprinted with the name of the state for use within each convention State, for mail from one convention state to another, and to destinations in British India. The state administrations, in turn, had to conform to a number of agreements covering the issuance of stamps, the rates of postage, and the exchange of mail. For philatelic purposes such states were referred to as ''convention states'' as distinct from the ''feudatory states'' which had no postal agreement with British India. The feudatory states issued their own stamps, the postage validity of which was within the borders of the state itself. The collection of convention states is considered to be a part of ''classical philately'' as they are plain, unembellished, produced to order for bona fide use and under conditions strictly-controlled by the British Government. ==Convention states of India== The convention states of India were: * Chamba (1887–1948) * Faridkot (feudatory from 1879–1887; convention from 1887 to 1901). * Gwalior (1885–1948) * Jhind (feudatory 1874 – 1885; convention from 1885). * Nabha (1885–1948) * Patiala (1884–1947) Of these princely states, Chamba was located in the Himalayas, Gwalior was a central Indian state and the other four were cis-Sutlej states located in the east Punjab. The four Punjabi states were closely allied and were referred to as "Phulkian" states; Jhind, Nabha and Patiala having been formed in the eighteenth century by descendants of Chaudhary Phul Singh of the Sidhu-Barar clan while Faridkot was founded by a related family.〔''Imperial Gazetter'' Vol 18. (1908). 'Nabha state'. Pp (262 ) – (271 ).〕 The states had close relations with the British during the time of Ranjit Singh which wavered in some cases during the Anglo-Sikh Wars. During the 1857 Rebellion and later, the states proved their loyalty and enjoyed British patronage. Such states enjoyed greater advantages from the British Raj, the signing of the postal conventions being considered one of them.〔 The close alliance of the convention states to the British crown also be seen from the fact that all six convention states were ''salute states'' – 21 guns were entitled in the protocollary cannon or gun salute in the case of Gwalior, seventeen for Patiala, thirteen in the cases of Jindh and Nabha and eleven for Chamba and Faridkot.〔(Henry Soszynski's website on ''Indian Princely States'' )〕 The first Convention State was Patiala, in 1884, followed by others in the next few years. The stamps of the convention states all became invalid on 1 January 1951, when they were replaced by the stamps of the independent Republic of India, valid from 1 Jan 1950. Both Faridkot and Jhind, as feudatory states, had issued their own stamps before they joined the Postal Convention. Jhind joined in July, 1885; its stamps from the feudatory period became invalid for postage, but they continued to be used for revenue purposes. Faridkot joined on 1 January 1887. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Postage stamps and postal history of the postal convention states of India」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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