| Cellular Jail | |
|---|---|
 Entrance of the Cellular Jail | |
 Interactive map of the Cellular Jail area | |
| Alternative names | Kālā Pāni |
| General information | |
| Type | Prison forpolitical prisoners (Indian independence activists) |
| Architectural style | Cellular, pronged |
| Location | Port Blair,Andaman, India |
| Coordinates | 11°40′30″N92°44′53″E / 11.675°N 92.748°E /11.675; 92.748 |
| Construction started | 1896 |
| Completed | 1906 |
| Cost | ₹517,352[1] |
| Client | India |
| Owner | Government of India |
 | |
 Interactive map of Cellular Jail | |
| Notable prisoners | |
|---|---|
TheCellular Jail, also known as 'Kālā Pānī' (transl. 'Black Water'), was a British colonial prison in theAndaman and Nicobar Islands. The prison was used by thecolonial government of India for the purpose ofexiling insurgents andpolitical prisoners. Many notableindependence activists were imprisoned there during thestruggle for India's independence.[2] Today, the complex serves as a national memorial monument.[3]
Originally built with seven wings, the building suffered extensive damage during theearthquake of 1941.[4] Later, two wings were dismantled during theSecond World War by the Japanese, who repurposed the bricks for constructing bunkers and other structures. AfterIndia gained independence, two more wings were demolished in the 1950s to make way for the nearbyGovind Ballabh Pant Hospital. Today, only the watchtower and three wings (1, 6, and 7) remain.[5]
Although the prison complex itself was constructed between 1896 and 1906, the British authorities in India had been using the Andaman Islands as a prison since the days in the immediate aftermath of theIndian Rebellion of 1857.[citation needed]
Shortly after the rebellion was suppressed, capturedprisoners were put on trial, with many of them being executed. Others were exiled for life to theAndamans to prevent them from re-offending. Two hundred rebels were transported to the islands under the custody of the jailer David Barry and MajorJames Pattison Walker, anIndian Medical Service (IMS) doctor who had been warden of the prison atAgra. Another 733 fromKarachi arrived in April 1868.[6] In 1863, the Rev. Henry Fisher Corbyn, of the Bengal Ecclesiastical Establishment, was also sent out there and he set up the 'Andamanese Home' there, which was also a repressive institution albeit disguised as a charitable one.[7] Rev. Corbyn was posted in 1866 asVicar toSt. Luke's Church, Abbottabad, and later died there and is buried at theOld Christian Cemetery, Abbottabad. More prisoners arrived from India and Burma as the settlement grew.[8] Anyone who belonged to the Mughal royal family, or who had sent a petition toBahadur Shah Zafar during the Rebellion was liable to be deported to the islands.[citation needed]
The remote islands were considered to be a suitable place to punish the independence activists. Not only were they isolated from the mainland, the overseas journey (kala pani) to the islands also threatened them with loss of caste, resulting insocial exclusion.[9] The convicts were also used inchain gangs to construct prisons, buildings, andharbour facilities.[citation needed]
By the late 19th century, theindependence movement had picked up momentum. As a result, the number of prisoners being sent to the Andamans grew and the need for a high-security prison was felt. From August 1889Charles James Lyall served as home secretary in the Raj government, and was also tasked with an investigation of the penal settlement atPort Blair.[10][11] Both he andA. S. Lethbridge, a surgeon in the IMS, concluded that the punishment oftransportation to theAndaman Islands was failing to achieve the purpose intended and that indeed criminals preferred to go there rather than be incarcerated in Indian jails. Lyall and Lethbridge recommended that a "penal stage" should exist in the transportation sentence, whereby transported prisoners were subjected to a period of harsh treatment upon arrival. The outcome was the construction of the Cellular Jail, which has been described as "a place of exclusion and isolation within a more broadly constituted remotepenal space."[12]
The construction of the prison started in 1896 and was completed in 1906. The original building was apuce-colored brick building. The bricks used to build the building were brought fromBurma.[citation needed]
The building had seven wings, at the center of which a tower served as the intersection and was used byguards to keep watch on the inmates; this format was based on Jeremy Bentham's idea of thepanopticon. The wings radiated from the tower in straight lines, much like the spokes of a wheel.
Each of the seven wings had three stories upon completion. There were no dormitories and a total of 696 cells. Each cell was 4.5 by 2.7 metres (14.8 ft × 8.9 ft) in size with a ventilator located at a height of 3 metres (9.8 ft).[13] The name, "cellular jail", derived from the solitary cells, which prevented any prisoner from communicating with any other.[citation needed] Also, the spokes were designed such that the face of a cell in a spoke saw the back of cells in another spoke. This way, communication between prisoners was impossible. They were all in solitary confinement.[14]The locks of the prison cells were designed in such a way that the inmate would never be able to reach the latch of the lock. The prison guards would lock up the inmates and throw the key of the lock inside the jail. The inmate would try to put his hand out and try to unlock the door but would never be able to do so as his hand would never reach the key.[citation needed]
Sardar Singh Artillery,Diwan Singh Kalepani,Yogendra Shukla,Batukeshwar Dutt,Vishwanath Mathur,Hemchandra Kanungo,Sachindra Nath Sanyal,Shadan Chandra Chatterjee,Sohan Singh,Hare Krishna Konar,Shiv Verma,Allama Fazl-e-Haq Khairabadi,Sudhanshu Dasgupta,Ullashkar Dutta,Barindra Kumar Ghosh,Ganesh Damodar Savarkar andVinayak Damodar Savarkar
According to an article in theGuardian newspaper, prisoner could face "torture,medical tests,forced labour and for many,death."[15] In response to poor conditions in the Cellular Jail, including the quality of prison food, numerous prisoners went onhunger strikes. Those who did were oftenforce-fed by the prison authorities in order to save their lives.[15]
Solitary confinement was implemented as the British government of India wanted to ensure that political prisoners and revolutionaries be isolated from one another. Most prisoners of the Cellular Jail were independence activists. Some inmates were,Fazl-e-Haq Khairabadi,Yogendra Shukla,Batukeshwar Dutt,Babarao Savarkar,Sachindra Nath Sanyal,Hare Krishna Konar,Bhai Parmanand,Sohan Singh,Subodh Roy andTrailokyanath Chakravarty.[16] Manymoplahs arrested in the 1921Malabar rebellion were also lodged in Cellular Jail.[17] Several revolutionaries were tried in theAlipore Case (1908), such asBarindra Kumar Ghose, the surviving companion ofBagha Jatin, was transferred to Berhampore Jail in Bengal, before his mysterious death in 1924.
Sher Ali Afridi, a former officer in the Punjab Mounted Police, was a life convict in the jail who had been imprisoned for murder. He was sentenced to death on 2 April 1867 and during appeal this was reduced to life imprisonment and he was deported to Andamans to serve his sentence.The 6th Earl of Mayo,Viceroy of India from 1869, was visiting the Andaman and Nicobar Islands in February 1872 when he was murdered by Afridi.[18][19] Sher Ali Afridi wanted to kill the Superintendent and the Viceroy as a revenge for his sentence, which he thought was more severe than he deserved.[20] He said that he killed on the instructions ofAllah.[21] He was subsequently hanged.
In March 1868, 238 prisoners tried to escape. By April they were all caught. One committed suicide and of the remainder Superintendent Walker ordered 87 to be hanged.[22]
Among the records of the Government of India's Home Department, we found the Empire's response in its Orders to Provincial Governors and Chief Commissioners. "Very Secret: Regarding security prisoners who hunger strike, every effort should be made to prevent the incidents from being reported, no concessions to be given to the prisoners who must be kept alive. Manual methods of restraint are best, then mechanical when the patient resists."[15]
Hunger strikes by the inmates in May 1933 caught the attention of the jail authorities. Thirty-three prisoners protested their treatment and sat in a hunger strike. Among them wereMahavir Singh, an associate ofBhagat Singh (Lahore conspiracy case),Mohan Kishore Namadas (convicted in Arms Act Case) andMohit Moitra (also convicted in Arms Act Case). These three died due toforce-feeding.[23][24]Other prisoners:[15]
Mahatma Gandhi andRabindranath Tagore launched a campaign to shut down the jail, and the colonial government decided to repatriate the political prisoners from the Cellular Jail from 1937 to 1938.[1] "The Cellular Jail was forced to empty in 1939. Two years later, the Japanese seized the islands, transforming the penal settlement into a prisoner of war camp, incarcerating the British warders. In 1945 the Andamans would become the first piece of India to be declared independent."[15]
State-wise list of freedom fighters sent to the Cellular Jail:[25][26]
| S. No. | State | Number of Freedom Fighters |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Bengal | 608 |
| 2 | Punjab | 95 |
| 3 | Maharashtra | 3 |
| 4 | Bihar | 17 |
| 5 | Uttar Pradesh | 18 |
| 6 | Kerala | 14 |
| 7 | Andhra Pradesh | 8 |
| 8 | Odisha | 5 |
| 9 | Himachal/ NW Frontier/ Tamil Nadu/ State not known | 27 |
| Total | 795 |
TheJapanese launched aninvasion of the Andaman islands in March 1942, capturing the Cellular Jail and all prison personnel. The Cellular Jail then became home to British prisoners-of-war, suspected Indian supporters of the British, and later of members of theIndian Independence League, many of whom were tortured and killed there by the Japanese.[27] Notionally during this period control of the Islands was passed toSubhas Chandra Bose, who hoisted the Indian National Flag for the first time on the islands, at the Gymkhana Ground in Port Blair, appointed INA General AD Loganathan as the governor of the Islands, and announced the Azad Hind Government was not merely a Government in Exile, and had freed the territory from British colonial rule.[28]
On 7 October 1945 the British resumed control of the Islands, and prison, following the surrender of the islands to Brigadier J. A. Salomons, of the116th Indian Infantry Brigade, a month after theSurrender of Japan, at the end ofWorld War II.
Another two wings of the jail were demolished after India achieved independence. However, this led to protests from several former prisoners and political leaders who saw it as a way of erasing the tangible evidence of their history.
TheGovind Ballabh Pant Hospital was set up in the premises of the Cellular Jail in 1963. It is now a 500-bed hospital with about 40 doctors serving the local population.[29]
Cellular Jail was declared a National Memorial by the then Prime Minister of India, Morarji Desai on 11 February 1979.[30]
The centenary of the jail's completion was marked on 10 March 2006. Many former prisoners were celebrated on this occasion by theGovernment of India.[31]
Apart from guided tours, asound-and-light show is also run in the evenings narrating and showcasing the trials and tribulations of the inmates. It is available in English and Hindi.[32]
Kaalapani, a 1996 Malayalamhistorical drama film was based on the prison and its inmates during 1915. Some scenes were shot in the actual prison.
Arthur Conan Doyle's secondSherlock Holmes novel,The Sign of the Four, centers around a group of characters who were inmates or guards at the colonial jail in the Andaman islands. One of the characters is an escapee who has returned to England with a native Andamanese man as a companion. The novel characterizes the Andamanese people in a racist manner, by contemporary standards.
