Tipu Sultan’s descendant, WWII heroine Noor Inayat Khan, featured on French stamp

London: Noor Inayat Khan, a descendant of 18th-century Mysore ruler Tipu Sultan, has become the only woman of Indian origin to be commemorated on a French postage stamp for her contribution to the Resistance as an undercover British agent during the Second World War.

France’s national postal service, La Poste, has issued a special stamp in her honour as part of its “Figures of the Resistance” series, marking 80 years since the end of the war. Noor is one of a dozen resistance heroes and heroines featured in the set released this month.

Also read: Portrait of British Indian spy Noor Inayat Khan unveiled in UK

Shrabani Basu, the London-based author of ‘Spy Princess: The Life of Noor Inayat Khan’, welcomed the tribute. “I am delighted that France has honoured Noor Inayat Khan with a postage stamp, especially as it comes on this important 80th anniversary of the end of the war,” she said. “Noor sacrificed her life in the fight against fascism. She grew up in Paris, joined the war effort in England, and it is wonderful to see her face on a postage stamp that will be posted by ordinary people in France.”

Each stamp is designed as an etching based on a historical photograph; Noor’s depicts her in her British Women’s Auxiliary Air Force (WAAF) uniform. Basu added that Britain had marked the centenary of Noor’s birth with its own commemorative stamp in 2014, and said it was “time that India, the country of her ancestors, honours her with a postage stamp too”.

Who was Noor Inayat Khan?

Born Noor-un-Nisa Inayat Khan in Moscow in 1914 to an Indian Sufi father and an American mother, Noor spent her early years in London before moving to Paris for schooling. When France fell to Nazi Germany, she and her family fled to England, where she joined the WAAF.

She was recruited into the Special Operations Executive (SOE) on February 8, 1943, and became the first female radio operator to be sent into occupied France. Arrested by Nazi forces later that year, she was eventually deported to the Dachau concentration camp. After months of torture, she was executed on September 13, 1944, at the age of 30.

For her extraordinary courage, Noor was posthumously awarded the French Resistance Medal and the Croix de Guerre, as well as Britain’s George Cross in 1949.

The new French stamp series celebrates the bravery of figures like Noor who risked their lives to fight for freedom. “These men and women who said no became involved in intelligence networks, exfiltration, sabotage… Risking their lives, they saved the country’s honour and placed it on the winning side,” reads a statement accompanying the release.

Others featured in the collection include Jean-Pierre Levy, a founder of the “France Libre” movement, and British–French SOE agent Violette Szabo, who was killed at Ravensbrück concentration camp.

PTI