Zafri Muddasar Nofil
So it will be a full stop for the telegram in India from July 15. The form of communication that has been part of India’s heritage since 1850 has lost its race to the smartphones, emails and SMSes.
A circular issued by Shameem Akhtar, Senior General Manager (Telegraph Services) Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd’s (BSNL) Corporate office in New Delhi and sent to various telecom district and circle offices said that telegram services will be closed from 15 July and as a result all telegraph offices under the management of BSNL will have to stop booking telegrams from that day onwards.
According to BSNL, it had asked the government to support the service as it was not commercially viable. There was a huge gap between the average annual revenue of around Rs 75 lakh it generated and cost of over Rs 100 crore it had to bear to run and manage it. But the government said the BSNL board should decide on it and after consultation with the Department of Posts, the decision was taken to close the service.
BSNL has instructed that surplus telegraph staff members would be deployed to mobile services, landline telephony, broadband services and shifting could take place within the next three months.
Faced with declining revenues, the government had in May 2011, revised the telegram charges after a gap of 60 years. Two months ago, telegram services for overseas communication were withdrawn by BSNL.
Within a short time of BSNL handling telegram services in 1990s, the PSU had a rift with the
Department of Posts following which telegrams were accepted as phonograms from various villages and other centres from telephone consumers. This too had restrictions and embargo during certain hours.
Once the main source of sending alerts related to births, deaths and emergency situations, the telegram delivered both happy as well as sad news to people across the country.
In several cases, telegrams were considered as official documents. Courts had accepted only telegrams and telegram receipts as proof of evidence in civil or criminal suits. It was also a handy mode of communication for jawans and armed forces for seeking leave, transfer or joining reports.
Before the advent of STD calls and the Internet, the telegram service was quite an essential tool for journalists. Reporters had special ‘Telegraph Cards’ and they would book telegrams to send news dispatches to their newsrooms. After the matter was booked, telegraph operators used to tap out the message across the wires.
The first experimental electric telegraph line in India was started between Kolkata and Diamond Harbour in 1850 and next year it was opened for the use of the British East India Company. In 1854 the services were opened for public.
Its use in India was pioneered by William O’Shaughnessy, a surgeon and inventor. “O’Shaughnessy was apparently unaware of Morse’s work and used a different code to send a message by transmitting electric signals over long distances. Lord Dalhousie, the Governor of India, recognised the potential of telegrams and authorised O’Shaughnessy to build a 27-mile line near Calcutta. By 1856, the network stretched 4000 miles across the British Raj, connecting the strategically vital cities of Calcutta, Agra, Bombay, Peshawar, and Madras,” according to the UK Telegraph.
“The next year, the telegram helped the British violently subdue the Indian Rebellion 1857, with one captured Indian soldier, on his way to the gallows, reportedly pointing at the telegram device and stating: ‘There is the accursed string that strangles us’.”
The newspaper says the telegram was the technological breakthrough that revolutionised communications across what was then the vast British Raj – expediting the East India Company’s total commercial dominance of India, helping to suppress the 1857 uprising and providing newspaper readers in Britain with regular updates from the Empire.
Telegrams Properly”, Nelson E Ross suggests on how to save words: “Naturally, there is a right way and a wrong way of wording telegrams. The right way is economical, the wrong way, wasteful.
If the telegram is packed full of unnecessary words, words which might be omitted without impairing the sense of the message, the sender has been guilty of economic waste. Not only has he failed to add anything to his message, but he has slowed it up by increasing the time necessary to transmit it.”
Pankhuri Aggarwal
Telegram which is also known as “Taar”, has always connected India bringing good and bad news on time in cases of urgency since 1850. In the year 1877 Maharaja Ranbir Singh ordered to establish a telegram line between Jammu and Kashmir. And after approximately one year that is 1878 the line was complete and opened in 1894, in Jammu. A treaty on telegram was signed in 1878 between British government and the Maharaja to establish telegram line. Later in the year 1890 another treaty over telegram was entered to enhance the working of telegram not only in Jammu and Kashmir but included Shimla by the prime minister as well as the president of J&K Raja Amar Singh. Though the telegram may seem like outmoded equipment in the age of smartphones, sms, email and what not but shutting down of the telegraph service would actually shrink the communication in inferior areas of our country where telegram still remains a dynamic form of communication. July 14 would be the last date as BSNL has ordered to stop the service from July 15. Ram Prasad Yadav, an elderly man said, “Many of us have memories of going to the telegraph window in post offices, carefully counting out words, trying to reduce them further and perhaps even using those 45 preset codes for festive occasions or less happy memories”. Shanti Lal, a retired army officer said, “Even after the telephone system was launched in India in 1882, the telegraph remained the most prevalent system of communication and was the cheapest method as well. Even when I was out on the battle field, I used to send telegram which was around Rs. 3-4.
It was a more steadfast and a consistent method than the telephone.” Ravi Shastri, a senior citizen said, “This service has had been known as poor man’s swift message service as the telephone call for a poor man in India upto late 1970s was beyond his reach. Although the world has moved on and so is the technology but still the backward areas remain backward and with the service stoppage, the poor may face some problems”. In the age of smartphones, India is the one to bid farewell to the telegram. Abhimanu Gupta, an engineer said, “Many youngsters may have not seen the telegram and I am sure, if they will be asked what it is, they will remain dumbfounded. In the age of Internet and mobile gadgets, it has become outmoded and redundant. With more than 10, 00,000 mobile phones and 140 million Internet users in India, telegram has no place now”. When the telegraph winds up, one of the oldest symbols of a contemporary India will vanish. The culmination of telegraph service in India will certainly mean destitution for some. Telegraph is a recognized means of communication, especially for the common man. Terminating the service will cause troublesomeness to the general public, who may not have access to phones. “The print in capital letters, sentences ending with the stagy “STOP”, nothing can abridge the feeling what telegram did. I have lot of memories enclosed with it, and although telegram service is being cut off but cannot be disconnected from our hearts”, said Govind Shukla, a retired government employee. “Only around 100 telegrams are booked and sent across Jammu region and that too maximum by the government employees either for extension of leave or to send and receive money or notably remittances. We received on June 11 2013, circular from BSNL corporate office, New Delhi to discontinue the telegram service from 15th July”, said R.L.Mattoo, Senior Official from BSNL Department, Jammu. He further added, “The circular has also directed the telecom offices to maintain the log books, service messages, delivery slips only for six months from the date of bookings. However, complaints, press reports and other messages from different consumer forum are to be kept for one year.” Sources from the telegram department Jammu said, “There was a ideal time when the telegraph service was at its peak more than 100,000 telegrams per day were sent and received only in Delhi. Now, not even 100,000, nationally”. They further added, “e-post had almost substituted the telegraph service and a full page text could be e-posted to any part of the country by evening or the next day only for Rs 10”. Mr. Girdhari Lal, DGM (CM/HR+IT) BSNL, Jammu said, “It’s true that we have received the order but the decision is still pending as many associations are opposing the disconnection of telegrams as they are of the view that people in remote areas of the country, who are unable to afford the Internet, computers or phones, still rely on telegrams. Many lawyers and even the Indian courts have value for telegram and its receipt as physical proof of communication in civil or criminal suits”.
He further added, “But on the other hand we are incurring huge losses, the value of the service is minimal and it is a burden sometimes when the telegram has to be transferred to very remote areas as this increases the company’s problem and even the cost. 62% of the telegrams are sent by the government people and the services are no more apprehended in social context. Hence we are still waiting for the final decision from the corporate office New Delhi and finally we would adhere to that”.
Even after the advent of Internet, STD and e-mail, telegrams are still used by military personnel for official use and also for contacting their families from remote locations. Many banks and State governments are still utilizing the service. Telegrams are also treated as most accurate in legal matters and official records. At least, miniature service should be preserved in the interests of the people who are still using it. A valedictory toast is needed to mark this and should be done not in alcohol, but something that becomes relic. We will bid it a very heartfelt farewell, and maybe the last telegram be preserved. That is the way in which we can bid it a warm farewell to the most original form of communication ever in India.
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