About this stamp
The Paika Bidroha of 1817
India Post issued this ₹5 stamp on 24 December 2018 for the bicentenary of the Paika Rebellion, the armed revolt of 1817 against the East India Company in Odisha. The Paikas were the peasant militia of the Gajapati kings, soldiers in war and farmers in peace. Company rule brought higher land taxes, debt to moneylenders and the ruin of Odisha’s salt makers by the Company’s salt monopoly.
The Revolt
Led by Jagabandhu Bidyadhar Mahapatra, the Buxi or military commander of the Raja of Khurda, the Paikas rose in March 1817. With Kondh tribesmen from Ghumsar they attacked Banapur, then marched on Khurda, and for months nearly swept the British out of Khurda, Pipili, Banapur and Puri. Peasants, tribal people, rent collectors and salt makers joined them, making it a civil uprising as well as a military one. It was put down, but resistance continued sporadically until 1836.
On the Stamp
A bronze-coloured relief of the Paika fighters in battle. The stamp was designed by the late Subir Das, with the first day cover, brochure and cancellation by Alka Sharma and text by Shaili Dhagat; 606,450 were printed by wet offset at the India Security Press, Nashik.
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