A commemorative postage stamp on Lord Baden Powell, founder of Scout Movement and the Zamzama Gun (Kim’s Gun), the emblem of 3^rd Jamboree of Pakistan Boy Scouts Association :

Issued by Pakistan

Issued on Dec 24, 1960

Type : Stamp, Postal Used

Denomination : 2 Annas

Colours : Multi colour

About : 

• Lord Baden Powell founded the Boys Scout movement in 1907 by holding a camp on Brownsea Island in U.K. The movement attracted a world wide fancy and every where Scout Organizations started. The underlying principles were appreciated all over the world and honoured by issued of commemoratives. The first country in this direction was Hungary to depict Boy Scouts on Sport series 1000 k Stamp of 1925. The first International Jamboree was held at Olympia, London in 1920, and B-P was acclaimed Chief Scout of the World.
• World Jamborees have become one of the most important features of the Scouting Movement and are held every four year, only interrupted by the Second World War. On these occasions the various Nations issue commemoratives showing the dire activities and emblems of the Movement.
• The First Pakistan Scout Jamboree was held at Karachi in 1952. The event was marked by a special cancellation. The Second Jamboree was held at Chittagong in December, 1958. The Third Jamboree is being held at Lahore from December, 24-31, 1960.
• A new stamp bearing the KIM’S GUN – the emblem for 3^rd Jamboree – has been issued to mark the occasion.
• THE ZAMZAMA GUN
  • On a raised platform, opposite the entrance to the Museum, and facing the Mall is placed the famous Zamzama Gun, called also “BHANGIANWALI TOP“. It was placed in this position on the occasion on the visit of His Royal Highness, the Duke of Edinburgh to Lahore in 1870.
  • The ancient piece of ordnance, one of the largest specimen of casting in India, was cast at Lahore, with another gun of the same size in 1757 A.D. by Shah Nazir, under direction of Shah Wali Khan prime minister of the Abdali King Ahmad Shah Durrani. It is made of mixture of copper and brass.
  • Ahmad Shah used it in the famous battle of Panipat in 1761. After battle, on his way back to Kabul, he left it at Lahore with his Governor, Khawaja Ubed, as the carriage for it to Kabul not ready. In 1762 Hari Singh Bhangi made war on Khawaja Ubed and attacked the village of Khawaja Said two miles from Lahore, where the Moghal Governor has his arsenal, and seized his artillery, arms and ammunition. Among the gun captured on this occasion was the Zamzama Gun which thence forward came to be called, after the capture in name, “THE BHANGI TOP“. It lay unmounted in the Shah Burj at Lahore until 1764, when Lahna Singh and Gujjar Singh Bhangio obtained possession of it, on capturing Lahore. It was then carried to Amritsar where it remained in the fort till 1802, when Ranjit Singh expelling the Bhang is from Amritsar, took possession of it. It came to be regarded as a talisman of supremacy, and Ranjit Singh employed it in his campaigns of Daska, Kasur, Sujanpur, Wazirabad and Multan. It was seriously injured at the siege of the last mentioned place in 1818, when it was removed to Lahore as unfit for further service and placed at the Delhi Gate of the city until 1870, when as previously noted it was removed to the present locality.
  • The Kim’s Gun or the Zamzama is very well known in International Scout circles and Rudyard Kipling in his famous story Kim has described the boy called Kim who spent his early boyhood, playing round the famous Gun, called the Zamzama, now lying on the Mall, in front of the Lahore Museum.
  • Kim had lots of adventures and his training in observation stood him in good stead, on many occasions. The founder of the Scout Movement immortalised Kim by accepting him as a great Scout character and instituting, after his name, a great Scout test for observation, in its many forms. With the association of Kim‘s name to this wonderful and historic can-non, Kim has came to be known all over the world, and the Kim’s Gun, as the Jamboree Emblem, will, therefore, be very appealing to all Scouts. One of the foreign visitors regarded Lahore, as the greatest Scout City in the world, to have given such a place of honour to the Gun, named after the famous Scout character, Kim. Thus this famous Kim’s Gun is a great symbol of Scouting throughout the world and it has now been adopted as the Emblem for the 3^rd Pakistan National Jamboree.

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