A post claiming that a stamp depicting an Ottoman Muslim wrestler beating a Hindu wrestler was issued by Indira Gandhi for the Asian Games in 1982 is being shared on social media. Let’s verify the claim made in the post.
Claim: Indira Gandhi issued a stamp for the Asian Games in 1982 which depicts an Ottoman Muslim wrestler beating a Hindu wrestler.
Fact: The postal stamp was issued on the occasion of the 9th Asian Games in 1982. However, the religion of the wrestlers on the stamp was nowhere mentioned. Hence, the claim made in the post is Misleading.
On performing a reverse image search of the stamp, we found the same postal stamp published on the website of the Olympic Council of Asia and Stamp World. This was one of the postal stamps that was issued in 1982 to commemorate the 9th Asian Games held in New Delhi in 1982.
Subsequent research led us to the description of the stamp on istampgallery, an online archive of postage stamps. The stamp is a Mughal style painting with a predominant Persian influence. It was designed by A. Ramachandran based on the painting done by Janaki which is now preserved in National Museum, New Delhi.
The description did not mention the religion of the persons depicted in the stamp on the website, and neither did the designer A. Ramachandran mention any religion regarding the stamp on his website. Apart from this stamp, many other postal stamps were issued on the occasion of Asian Games in 1982.
To sum up, the stamp released on the occasion of 9th Asian games, 1982 has no religious connotation attached to it.
