Karnataka’s postal legacy extends back further than the British Raj GPO.
Story so far: King Chikkadevaraja Wodeyar, a contemporary of Chhatrapati Shivaji, established the Anche postal system. He purchased the city of Bengaluru from the Thanjavur Marathas for a sum of ₹3 lakh. The General Post Office (GPO) holds the legacy of Wodeyar’s local system and the British Raj’s standardisation of postal services.
- The Anche system employed a harikara or news carrier to supervise dispatching letters while overlooking matters that demanded their attention. In the 19th century, British administrators merged it with the colonial postal system.
- In 1889, when the then Imperial Post Department subsumed the Anche system, the British decided that retaining its structure and functioning would only hamper the princely state of Mysore.
The nerve centre: The GPO functions like a regular post office and serves as the administrative head of Karnataka’s postal system. The post office rests right in the thick of colonial Bengaluru. Unlike other buildings nearby, the GPO’s 20th-century roots are fairly new. The current building was erected after its colonial-era predecessor was demolished in 1985.