Delhi Chief Minister on Wednesday had a request for Prime Minister Narendra Modi. In a media briefing, the Aam Aadmi Party chief appealed to the Centre to include pictures of Hindu deities Lakshmi and Ganesh on Indian currency notes.
“Despite making efforts, sometimes our efforts do not fructify if gods and goddesses are not blessing us. I appeal to PM Modi to have photos of Lord Ganesh and Goddess Lakshmi on our currency notes,” Kejriwal said.
He added that adding the pictures of the Hindu gods along with Mahatma Gandhi would bring prosperity to India.
Citing the example of Indonesia, a Muslim nation, that has a picture of Ganesh on its notes, he said, “When Indonesia can, why can’t we? The photos can be printed on fresh (currency) notes.”
But, what’s the history behind having Father of the Nation, Mahatma Gandhi on Indian currency? Why is he the only man on the notes? Who decides on the figures to be printed on bank notes?
We take a deep dive into all matters pertaining our currency and give you all the answers you want.
Who decides on the appearance of Indian currency?
In India, the printing and managing of Indian currency is undertaken by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). It was given the responsibility of printing Indian currency in 1934; before that the government of India undertook this exercise.
While the RBI is responsible for the printing of the currency, as per Section 25 of the RBI Act, the design, form and material of bank notes is taken by the Centre after taking recommendations by the Central Board of the RBI.
According to the RBI website, bank notes are printed at four currency presses, two of which are owned by the Government of India through Security Printing and Minting Corporation of India Ltd (SPMCIL) and two are owned by the Reserve Bank through Bharatiya Reserve Bank Note Mudran Private Ltd. (BRBNMPL). The currency presses of SPMCIL are at Nashik and Dewas. The two presses of BRBNMPL are at Mysuru and Salboni.
Meanwhile, coins are minted in four mints owned by SPMCIL. The mints are located at Mumbai, Hyderabad, Kolkata and Noida. The coins are issued for circulation only through the Reserve Bank in terms of Section 38 of the RBI Act.
Gandhi and Indian currency
Today, all Indian notes have an image of Mahatma Gandhi, the father of the nation. However, that was not always the case.
After India attained independence, it was it was felt that the British King’s portrait ought to be replaced by a picture of Mahatma Gandhi, it took quite some time for the government of the day to reach a consensus on the issue.
In the interim, the King George VI’s portrait was replaced by Lion Capital at Sarnath in 1949.
After India attained independence, the portrait of King George VI was replaced with the Lion Capital at Sarnath. Image Courtesy: rbi.org
In 1953, Hindi was displayed prominently on new notes. As time progressed, the RBI introduced notes with the motif of Tanjore Temple and the Gateway of India.
The first time that Mahatma Gandhi emerged on Indian currency was in 1969, the centenary of his birth. The RBI released a commemorative series depicting a seated Gandhi with the Sevagram Ashram as the backdrop.
This is the first time that Mahatma Gandhi appeared on Indian currency. It was done in honour of the birth centenary celebrations of Mahatma Gandhi. Image Courtesy: rbi.org
In 1996, a new series titled the ‘Mahatma Gandhi Series’ was introduced. These new notes included a changed watermark, windowed security thread, latent image and intaglio features for the visually handicapped. This series also replaced all notes of the Lion capital series.
In 2005, the Mahatma Gandhi series notes witnessed enhanced security features, such as wide colour shifting machine-readable magnetic windowed security thread in notes of Rs 100 and above denomination. These included back-to-back numeric registration in place of flower design as an identification mark.
Since then while new notes such as the Rs 2000 has been introduced and the Rs 1000 note has been demonetised, Gandhi continues to remain on the note.
It is said that the image of Gandhi used on the Indian notes comes from an actual image of him standing next next to Lord Frederick William Pethick-Lawrence, a British politician who served as the secretary of state of India and Burma.
When asked why the previous symbols were replaced with Gandhi, the RBI had then explained that all the symbols used before Gandhi’s portrait could easily be forged, as they were inanimate objects. However, to duplicate a human face is quite difficult.
But why only Gandhi?
There seems to be very little information to explain why no other public figure has featured on the currency notes.
In 2014, then Finance Minister Arun Jaitely while addressing the Lok Sabha had said, “An RBI panel has decided against the inclusion of any other national leader’s image on banknotes saying that no other personality can better represent the ethos of the country than Mahatma Gandhi.”
When former RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan was asked during a lecture why India couldn’t have scientist Homi J Bhabha or poet Rabindranath Tagore on the currency, he had said, “There are so many great Indians, but of course he (Gandhi), stands head and shoulders above everyone. There are many great Indians that we could get on the notes. But I sense that almost anybody else would be controversial.”
Gandhi’s great-grandson and author Tushar Gandhi also echoes similar sentiments. “Mahatma Gandhi is not just the most renowned leader in India but also a respected international figure and the government may have felt that his values could be reflected through bank notes,” he was quoted as saying to WION.
Tagore, Kalam on bank notes?
Earlier in June, the RBI had clarified that there was no proposal to make changes to the currency. Their statement had then read, “There are reports in certain sections of the media that the RBI is considering changes to the existing currency and banknotes by replacing the face of Mahatma Gandhi with that of others. It may be noted that there is no such proposal in the Reserve Bank.”
The statement had come after it was reported that the bank was considering to add images of Rabindranath Tagore and former President APJ Abdul Kalam, also known as the Missile Man, to some of the denominations.
The New Indian Express had reported that the RBI and the SPMCIL had sent two separate sets of samples of Gandhi, Tagore and Kalam watermarks to IIT-Delhi Emeritus Professor Dilip T Shahani, who had been told to choose from the two sets and present them for final consideration by the government.
With inputs from agencies
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