Cellular Jail

A Cellular Jail was silent observer to the malicious sufferings of our freedom fighters and patriots who were prisoners of Kaala Pani Jail (or a Black Water Jail), a colonial prison in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, India. Many of our freedom fighters, patriots, and independence activists, include Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, Batukeshwar Dutt, Hare Krishna Konar, Shiv Verma, Yogendra Shukla, V.O. Chidambaram Pillai and Sudhanshu Dasgupta were imprisoned here during the struggle for India's independence and even sacrificed their precious lives as victims of brutalities and oppression of the British and Japanese Government.

Today,  this complex serves as a national memorial monument that portrays which revolutionaries were punished in cellular jail. Also, you go through the history of cellular jail - facts and information.

History Of Cellular Jail - Facts And Information On Its Existence During The British Raj

Although the jail complicated itself was built between 1896 and 1906, the British have been using the Andaman Islands as a jail since the days in the immediate aftermath of the Indian Revolt of 1857.

From the above text, we understand where is cellular jail located, now let us understand in detail about the history of cellular jail.

History Of Cellular Jail - The Ross Island Prison Headquarters, 1872

(Image Will be Uploaded Soon)

Shortly after the riot changed into suppressed, captured prisoners were placed on trial, with a lot of them being executed. However, others were exiled for life to the Andamans to prevent them from re-offending. Two hundred rebels were shifted to the islands under the custody of the jailer David Barry and Major James Pattison Walker, an army doctor who had been warden of the jail at Agra. While other 733 from Karachi arrived in April, 1868.

In 1863, the Rev. Henry Fisher Corbyn, of the Bengal Ecclesiastical Establishment, was additionally sent out there and he set up the 'Andamanese Home' there, which changed into a repressive institution albeit disguised as a charitable one. Rev. Corbyn was posted in 1866 as Vicar to St. Luke's Church, Abbottabad, and later died there and is buried at the Old Christian Cemetery, Abbottabad. More prisoners came from India and Burma as the agreement grew. Anyone who belonged to the Mughal royal family, or who had sent a petition to Bahadur Shah Zafar at some point of the Rebellion was susceptible to be deported to the islands.

History Of Cellular Jail - Port Blair - Viper New Jails under construction

The faraway islands were considered to be an appropriate vicinity to punish the independence activists. Not only were they removed from the mainland, the remote places journey (kaala pani) to the islands additionally threatened them with lack of caste, ensuing in social exclusion. The convicts were extensively utilized in chain gangs to construct prisons, homes and harbour facilities.

By the late nineteenth century, the independence movement had picked up momentum. As a result, the range of prisoners being dispatched to the Andamans grew and the need for a high-protection jail was felt. From August 1889 Charles James Lyall worked as home secretary in the British Raj government, and was additionally tasked with an investigation of the penal agreement at Port Blair.

He and A. S. Lethbridge, a surgeon in the British administration, concluded that the punishment of transportation to the Andaman Islands was failing to obtain the motive intended and that certainly criminals favoured to head there rather than be incarcerated in Indian jails. Lyall and Lethbridge suggested that a "penal stage" must persist in the transportation sentence, wherein transported prisoners were subjected to a length of harsh treatment upon arrival. The outcome changed into the construction of the Cellular Jail, which has been defined as "an area of exclusion and isolation within a more widely constituted remote penal space."

Why Was Cellular Jail So Horrible? - All About The architecture Of The Cellular Jail

Each of the seven wings had 3 stories upon completion. There were no dormitories and a complete of 696 cells. Each cell of the jail was 4.5 by 2.7 metres (14.8 ft × 8.9 ft) in size with a ventilator placed at a peak of three metres (9.8 ft). 

The name, "cellular jail", derived from the solitary cells which prevented any prisoner from speaking with any other. 

Also, the spokes were so designed such that the face of a cellular in a spoke noticed the back of cells in another spoke. This way, conversation among prisoners turned into impossible. They had been all in solitary confinement. The locks of the jail cells had been designed in such a manner that the inmate could by no means be capable of attaining the latch of the lock. The jail guards could lock up the inmates and throw the important thing of the lock in the jail. The inmate could try and place his hand out and try and unencumbered the door however could by no means be capable of accomplishing that as his hand could by no means reach the lock.

Top 10 Facts About The Cellular Jail 

Fact 1 - How Cellular Jail Got It Named?

Cellular Prison has once functioned as a “colonial prison”. It was additionally stated as “black water prison”, or “Kala Pani”. This prison is surrounded by sea on all its facets in order that the prisoners who were detained in this prison couldn't discover any way to get away from the prison.

Cellular Jail was used particularly by the Britishers to expatriate political convicts to a faraway land at the time of the freedom warfare of India. This prison was later taken over by the Japanese troops in the year 1942 at the time of World War II. A lot of British troops were detained in the prison in the shape of prisoners.

Fact 2 - Cellular Jail A National Museum

(Image Will be Uploaded Soon)

The Cellular Jail has been taken into consideration as one of the predominant jails throughout Asia. Presently, this region is visited by vacationers in the form of a famous country wide monument. It is given the title of the National Memorial. The predominant appeal of the place is its charming museum that showcases existence in jail and struggles confronted by distinguished political prisoners of India.

Today, the place is illuminated by colourful lighting in the reminiscence of martyrs. A stunning sound and mild display are organized on four days of a week (Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday). It pursues at recounting the events that were organized at the Cellular Jail Memorial in the past.

This museum stores all of the guns that the Britishers have used to combat towards the freedom fighters. These guns weren’t added to split them from society. They had been additionally employed in building the jail, creation of its port, and a few more tasks.

Fact 3 -  Brutal Treatment of Britishers

(Image Will be Uploaded Soon)

There are numerous jails throughout the arena to punish prisoners for their crimes. Cellular Jail is one of the harshest jails in the world. The prison narrates the malice with which the Indian political prisoners were handled by Britishers. It was the approach of Britishers to give black water punishments to the prisoners.

Here the prisoners survived one thousand miles away from the country and were surrounded by the black water of the ocean. This was to sabotage any plans, or techniques of the prisoner to escape from the place. The area was designed so ideal to restrict the prisoners in the prison and surround them by the ocean on all four sides, so that they don't have any alternative for them to evade (escape). They were tied to the weapons and were blown up under any disobedience act. A majority of prisoners were significantly tortured or even killed at this prison.

Fact 4 - A Hilarious Construction that shows why cellular jail was horrible

(Image Will be Uploaded Soon)

There were a total of 696 small-sized cells in this jail. It is a three-storied Jail with seven branches. The length of each cell accommodates 2.7 meters to 4.5 meters. There is no bed room found in prison. The primary building is made of purple stones that were obtained from Burma. This kind of creation resembled a wheel of the bicycle wherein each of the wings is attached with the vital tower as the “spoke of the wheel”.

Fact 5 - Design Of The Cellular Jail 

(Image Will be Uploaded Soon)

The entire shape of the Cellular Jail had 7 straight wings that are joined to a tower in the middle. This layout of this jail was stimulated by the Panopticon concept of English philosopher and social thinker Jeremy Bentham. This prison has got the form of an octopus. A tower is built in the middle of the jail that was used by the jailor to maintain a watch on the prisoners. But the prisoners couldn’t recognize that a person was looking at them.

Conclusion

From this content, we understand why was cellular jail so horrible  in the following ways:

• The Jail was designed in such a manner that no prisoner can see, and speak to other prisoners. They were stored aloof from each other. A prisoner in a single cell couldn't have interaction with the prisoner in the adjoining cell. The Savarkar brothers Veer Vinayak Damodar Savarkar and Babarao Savarkar were assigned adjoining cells in the Jail, however, for round  years of staying in this jail, they have been unaware of the reality that they were detained in the identical Jail.

• Prisoners have been assigned the task to fill the soil in the marshy land observed by cleaning the forest and making roads. If they fail to carry out the allotted assignment inside speculated time, then they were given horrible bodily torture. They were also held in shackles. The prisoners additionally contributed closer to constructing homes of British monarchs.

• The circumstances of the prisoners were very awful in jail. They were handled badly by putting them below the extreme whims of nature without offering them water, and food. The area allocated among the distinctive wings of this Jail was the working place for the prisoners. The inmates who were stored in this jail needed to carry out diverse activities that encompass oil extraction, coconut peel, rope making, and a few more. This punishment was very merciless and creepy for prisoners.