Cellular Jail: Difference between revisions

{{Other uses|Kala Pani (disambiguation)}}{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2018}}

| building_type    = Prison for [[political prisoners]] ([[Indian independence activists]])

| prisoners        = [[Batukeshwar Dutt]]<br/>[[Bhai Parmanand]]<br/>[[Diwan Singh]]<br/>[[Veer Savarkar]]<br/>[[Hare Krishna Konar]]<br/>[[Mahavir Singh (revolutionary)|Mahavir Singh]]<br/>[[Mohan Kishore Namadas]]<br/>[[Mohit Moitra]]<br/>[[Sachindra Nath Sanyal]]<br/>[[Shiv Verma]]<br/>[[Sohan Singh Bhakna]]<br/>[[Sudhangshu Dasgupta]]<br/>[[Yogendra Shukla]]

The '''Cellular Jail''', also known as '''Kālā Pānī''' ({{lit|Black Water}}), was a British colonial prison in the [[Andaman and Nicobar Islands]]. The prison was used by the [[British Raj|colonial government of India]] for the purpose of [[Penal transportation|exiling]] criminals and [[political prisoners]]. Many notable [[List of Indian independence activists|independence activists]], including [[Diwan Singh|Diwan Singh Kalepani]], [[Yogendra Shukla]], [[Batukeshwar Dutt]], [[Shadan Chandra Chatterjee]], [[Sohan Singh Bhakna|Sohan Singh]], [[Veer Savarkar]], [[Hare Krishna Konar]], [[Shiv Verma]], Allama [[Fazl-e-Haq Khairabadi]], and [[Sudhangshu Dasgupta|Sudhanshu Dasgupta]] were imprisoned here during the [[Indian independence movement|struggle for India's independence]].<ref>{{Cite web|title=Cellular Jail : Timing,Updated Photos,History and reviews 2020|url=https://www.tropicalandamans.com/cellular-jail|access-date=2021-12-16|website=www.tropicalandamans.com}}</ref> Today, the complex serves as a national memorial monument.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Cellular jail District South Andaman, Government of Andaman and Nicobar {{!}} India|url=https://southandaman.nic.in/tourist-place/cellular/|access-date=2021-12-16|language=en-US}}</ref>

Shortly after the rebellion was suppressed, captured prisoners were put on trial, with many of them being executed. Others were exiled for life to the [[Andaman Sea|Andamans]] to prevent them from re-offending. Two hundred rebels were transported to the islands under the custody of the jailer [[David Barry (jailor)|David Barry]] and Major [[James Pattison Walker]], an [[Indian Medical Service]] (IMS) doctor who had been warden of the prison at [[Agra]]. Another 733 from [[Karachi]] arrived in April, 1868.<ref>{{cite web | url = http://www.andamancellularjail.org/History.htm##Link1 | title = History of Andaman Cellular Jail | work = This is about Andaman Cellular Jail | url-status = dead | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070118091924/http://www.andamancellularjail.org/History.htm%23 | archive-date=18 January 2007 }}</ref> 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.<ref>George Weber, ''Pioneer Biographies of the British Period to 1947'', np, nd, Appendix A</ref> 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 arrived from India and Burma as the settlement grew.<ref name="andamangovt">{{cite web | title=Hundred years of the Andamans Cellular Jail |publisher=Andaman and Nicobar Administration website | url = http://www.and.nic.in/cjail-hun.htm | access-date = 2 September 2006 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070930023549/http://www.and.nic.in/cjail-hun.htm |archive-date=30 September 2007 }} Source: ''[[The Hindu]]'', 21 December 2005.</ref> Anyone who belonged to the Mughal royal family, or who had sent a petition to [[Bahadur Shah Zafar]] during the Rebellion was liable to be deported to the islands.{{Citation needed|date=May 2014}}

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 (taboo)|kala pani]]'') to the islands also threatened them with loss of caste, resulting in social exclusion.<ref name="AlisonCarolyn2012">{{cite book | author1=Alison Bashford | author2=Carolyn Strange | title=Isolation: Places and Practices of Exclusion | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=z72MP1zc4KgC&pg=PA37 | access-date=2 February 2013 | date=12 November 2012 | publisher=Psychology Press | isbn=978-0-415-30980-6 | page=37 }}</ref> The convicts were also used in [[chain gang]]s to construct prisons, buildings and harbour facilities.{{Citation needed|date=May 2014}}

By the late 19th century, the [[Indian independence movement|independence 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 1889 [[Charles James Lyall]] served as home secretary in the Raj government, and was also tasked with an investigation of the penal settlement at [[Port Blair]].<ref name=ODNB>{{ODNBweb|id=34642|title=Lyall, Sir Charles James}}</ref><ref name=IndiaList1905>{{cite book |title=The India List and Office List |publisher=India Office |year=1905 |url=https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_3VQTAAAAYAAJ |page=[https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_3VQTAAAAYAAJ/page/n556 552] |access-date=2011-11-21}}</ref> Both he and A. S. Lethbridge, a surgeon in the IMS, concluded that the punishment of [[transportation]] to the [[Andaman 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 remote penal space."<ref>{{cite book |title=Isolation: places and practices of exclusion |first1=Carolyn |last1=Strange |first2=Alison |last2=Bashford |publisher=Routledge |location=London |year=2003 |isbn=978-0-415-30980-6 |pages=41–42 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=z72MP1zc4KgC |access-date=2011-11-22}}</ref>

The construction of the prison started in 1896 and was completed in 1906. The original building was a [[puce]]-coloured brick building. The bricks used to build the building were brought from [[Burma]].{{Citation needed|date=May 2014}}

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 lock.{{citation needed|date=September 2020}}

[[File:A Cell.JPG|thumb|left|From inside of a cell]]

Solitary confinement was implemented as the British government of India wanted to ensure that political prisoners and revolutionaries be isolated from one another. The Andaman island served as the ideal setting for the colonial government to achieve this.{{Citation needed|date=May 2014}} Most prisoners of the Cellular Jail were independence activists. Some inmates were, [[Fazl-e-Haq Khairabadi]], [[Yogendra Shukla]], [[Batukeshwar Dutt]],  [[Veer Savarkar]], [[Babarao Savarkar]], [[Sachindra Nath Sanyal]], [[Hare Krishna Konar]], [[Bhai Parmanand]], [[Sohan Singh]], [[Subodh Roy]] and [[Trailokyanath Chakravarty]].<ref>[http://www.andamancellularjail.org/ListOfRevolutionaries.htm Freedom Fighters Deported to Andamans] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100906201654/http://www.andamancellularjail.org/ListOfRevolutionaries.htm |date=2010-09-06 }}. AndamanCellularJail.org.</ref> Many [[Mappila Muslims|moplahs]] arrested in the 1921 [[Malabar rebellion]] were also lodged in Cellular Jail.<ref>{{Cite web |title=MOPLAH REBELLION (PRISONERS). (Hansard, 18 February 1924) |url=https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1924/feb/18/moplah-rebellion-prisoners |access-date=2023-03-28 |website=api.parliament.uk}}</ref> Several revolutionaries were tried in the [[Emperor vs Aurobindo Ghosh and others|Alipore Case]] (1908), such as [[Barindra Kumar Ghose]], the surviving companion of [[Bagha 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. [[Richard Bourke, 6th Earl of Mayo]], [[Viceroy of India]] from 1869, was visiting the Andaman and Nicobar Islands in February 1872 when he was murdered by Alfridi.<ref name="Halen">{{cite web |last=James |first=Halen |title=The Assassination of Lord Mayo : The "First" Jihad? |url=http://ijaps.usm.my/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/HelenJames_LordMayoAssassination.pdf |accessdate=18 November 2012 |publisher=IJAPS,Vol 5, No.2 (July 2009)}}</ref><ref name="kapse">{{cite news |last=Kapse |first=Ram |date=21 December 2005 |title=Hundred years of the Andamans Cellular Jail |newspaper=[[The Hindu]] |url=http://www.hindu.com/2005/12/21/stories/2005122107881100.htm |url-status=dead |accessdate=18 November 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061213184157/http://www.hindu.com/2005/12/21/stories/2005122107881100.htm |archive-date=13 December 2006}}</ref> 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.<ref name="andaman">{{cite web |title=The Murder of Lord Mayo 1872 |url=http://www.andaman.org/BOOK/app-o/texto.htm |accessdate=18 November 2012 |publisher=andaman.org}}</ref> He said that he killed on the instructions of [[Allah]].<ref name="Halen2">{{cite web |last=James |first=Halen |title=The Assassination of Lord Mayo : The "First" Jihad? |url=http://ijaps.usm.my/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/HelenJames_LordMayoAssassination.pdf |accessdate=18 November 2012 |publisher=IJAPS,Vol 5, No.2 (July 2009)}}</ref> He was subsequently hanged.

* Prisoner 31549 Barin Ghose

* Prisoner 38511, Baba Bhan Singh, who had been beaten to death by [[David Barry (jailor)|David Barry]]'s men

* Prisoner 15557 [[Sher Ali Afridi|Sher Ali]], killed [[Richard Bourke, 6th Earl of Mayo|Lord Mayo]], the [[Viceroy of India]], who arrived at the Andaman Islands on an inspection tour on February 8, 1872; hanged on March 11, 1872

* Prisoner 10817, Choitun, came the closest to succeeding. According to ''The Guardian'', "They stole away from the islands on March 26, 1872, rowing out into the Bay of Bengal on home-made rafts across a 750-mile stretch of turbulent water, dodging schools of bounty hunters who fought over 250-rupee rewards (then £25). Picked up by a British vessel, they persuaded the crew that they were shipwrecked fishermen and eventually pitched up, free, at the Strangers Home for Asiatics in London. The two were fed, clothed and given a bed. But while they slept, Colonel Hughes, the home's proprietor, took photographs that were circulated around the Empire. One morning, Mehtab and Choitun awoke to find themselves shackled and frog-marched aboard a ship bound for India."<ref name=OurHell />

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== INA occupation ==

File:Kalapani 05.jpg|Cellular Jail shining in the sunset