When India became independent on August 15, 1947, there were 22,116 post offices in the country. Of this number 18,121 were in the rural areas. It was obvious that, for a country of vast distances like India, this number was inadequate. The national Government lost no time in taking measures to extend the system of communications so as to increase and expedite the existing postal and telegraphic facilities. With the dislocation of the train services caused by partition, the system of communications broke down entailing great loss to the State. Work in no less than 530 post offices in East Punjab had to be suspended, and about 400 post offices suffered at the hand of rioters. To tide over the emergency a number of district towns were connected by mail motor, and chartered plane services were introduced between Delhi and Ferozepur. Furthermore mail had to be flown by a special air-mail service between Calcutta and Gauhati as the main railway link connecting Assam and Bengal passed through East Pakistan. On the invasion of Kashmir by Pakistan raiders, the new air service was used to carry mail to Jammu and Kashmir also.

In spite of these and other difficulties, postal facilities continued to expand. In the course of five years, the number of post offices was more than doubled. Today, there are 45,907 post offices ranging in size and importance from the big general post offices in the big cities, each one of them employing thousands of workers, down to the village office kept by the school teacher or a grocer. Of these, 39,728 are in the rural areas. There are no longer any villages in the country wholly without dak facilities.

In 1952-53, the decision was taken to open a post office in every village with a population of 2,000. According to the 1951 census, the number of such villages which were not served by post offices was 5,795. Two years later, 4,838 new post offices had been opened in such villages. The objective is to ensure that no village lies at a distance of more than five miles from the nearest post office. It is estimated that 10,135 post offices including 413 in the backward areas will have been established under the new policy by March 31, 1956. There will then be, on an average, one post office for every 22 square miles, whereas in 1952 there was one for every 28 square miles. It is expected that by 1956 the number of rural post offices in rural areas will have increased to 46,639.

One of the most important events of the post-freedom era was the introduction of the 'all-up' scheme in 1949. All ordinary first-class mail is now carried without any surcharge. A letter from Delhi bound for Madras formerly took three days to be delivered but is now received in Madras the next morning.

The growth of the postal department can be judged by the fact that between 1854 and 1954, the number of post offices have increased from 700 to 45,900. A hundred years ago, 28,000 postal articles were handled by the post offices annually. Today, about 7 million postal articles addressed in 36 languages are posted and delivered every day.

In the handling of mail, there are two time-consuming processes, namely, the facing of letters and the defacing of stamps affixed on them. Business men and others who post large quantities of mail can help the post office by facing their mail, that is to say, arranging envelops in the same position with the address side up and tying them securely in bundles. "Faced" mail will obviate the need for facing operations in the post office and thus travel faster.