India's Freedom Struggle record some of the glorious episodes in the annals of the country's recent past. The story of this struggle has been told and retold through various media. A large number of postage stamps have been issued to honour the personalities and to commemorate the events connected with the Freedom Struggle. These stamps, however, do not narrate the complete story of the long drawn out struggle for Independence. An attempt is, therefore, being made, now to fill in the gaps through the issue of a series to depict the major landmarks in India's Struggle for Freedom. The present set of three stamps, on the themes of 'Quit India Revolution', 'Mahadev Desai' and 'Meera Behn' is the first issue in the proposed series. This set, thus, marks the beginning of an ambitious project under which about 4-6 stamps will be will be issued, every year, till 1997- the 50th year of India's Independence, to complete the story of the struggle through stamps. MAHADEV DESAI (1892-1942) Mahadev Desai was born on 1 January, 1892 at Saras in Surat district.

He received primary and secondary education at different places in Gujarat, but graduated from the Elphinston College, Bombay in 1910. He joined the Law College thereafter and got his L.L.B. in 1913. Mahadev Desai met Gandhiji on 31 August, 1917 and found in him his Guru and moved like a shadow behind him till his death. After joining Gandhiji, Mahadev Desai actively participated and courted arrest in Champaran Satyagrah (1917), the Bardoli Satyagraha (1928), and the Salt Satyagraha (1930). In1921, Gandhiji sent him to edit Motilal Nehru's periodical, the Independent, at Allahabad and there too he was arrested and jailed.

After his release in January, 1923, he returned to Ahmedabad and looked after the editorial work of the Navjivan. His sharp editorials on the hollowness of the constitutional reforms of 1919 and his tirade against the British Government kept up the tempo of the freedom struggle. Between 1924 and 1928 he toured the country with Gandhiji, explaining the salient features of the freedom struggle. He accompanied Gandhiji in 1931 to the Round Table Conference in London.

In the Quit India Movement in 1942, he, alongwith Gandhiji, was arrested and sent to the Aga Khan Palace for imprisonment, where he died peacefully on 15 August, 1942, deeply mourned by the nation and by Gandhiji in particular who considered himself an orphan.

Source : Information Folder issued by Indian Posts & Telegraph Department, Government of India