" KALAPANI "....The name itself brings chills down the spines. Life here would be filled with torture, hunger and loneliness. They would be worked like slaves. Some would go mad, others would be driven to suicide. This place would form one of the darkest chapters in India’s struggle for freedom.Below are the real facts of Cellular Jail in which Britishers tortured our Indians in such a way that prisoners wish they could die instead of this brutal torture.
Source : All the images are taken from google and information is taken from documentary, books and various internet sources.
1) The Cellular Jail is also, termed as Kala Paani. Kal means “time or death” while Paani means “water“. The name itself gives shivers to prisoners.
2) Construction of this Cellular jail started in the year 1896 and ended in 1906 under the advise of the Demon named " Charles James Lyall". The main intention to build this jail was to decrease the spirits of our Indian freedom fighters who fought against Britishers. Whenever Britishers think that they have threat against a person, then they would simply put them in this jail.
3) Cellular Jail is a massive three-storeyed structure with seven wings of unequal lengths, radiating from a central watch tower, shaped like spokes of a wheel as shown in the below figure.
4) Once you go in then it is highly impossible to escape because your movements are constantly observed by guards.The watch tower housed the alarm bell and guardsmen kept an eye on the prisoners all the time. The concept of this design is that the prisoners literally have no idea whether they are being watched or not.
5) If you manage to escape from guards you have to swim across the sea with your wounded body which I think it is highly impossible. And also there is a small island nearby this jail and if you manage to reach there by facing difficulties, you will be killed by wild animals or tribes living there.Even if you manage to escape from these wild animals and tribes then you will see nothing but sea so death is the only option. This is the view from cellular jail. 👇
6) Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, Batukeshwar Dutt, Barindra kumar Ghosh, Bhai Parmanand, Ganesh Damodar Savarkar, Hare Krishna Konar, Mahavir Singh, Mohan kishore Namadas, Mohit Moitra, Sachindra Nath Sanyal, Shiv Verma, Sohan Singh Bhakna, Sudhangshu Dasgupta, Yogendra Shukla were some famous revolutionaries who were tortured in this Cellular jails.
7) It has 696 cells, one for each person. The name Cellular Jail is derived from its unique feature as it has only cells and no dormitories. Each cell measures 13 1/2 ‘x 7’, secured by a heavy iron grill door with a specially designed latch system. Inadequate and congested jail.
8)Besides the barred door, the cellular wing itself had prison bars giving the whole area a double security.
9) Prisoners were forced to work on the oil grinding mill was all the more terrible and caused several deaths.
10)The most difficult work was coir-pounding and oil-grinding. Each one was given the dry husk of twenty coconuts. The husk had first to be placed on a piece of wood and then to be beaten with a wooden hammer till it became soft. Then the outer skin had to be removed. Then it was dipped in water and moistened and then again one had to pound it. By sheer pounding the entire husk inside dropped off, only the fibers remaining. These fibers had then to be dried in the sun and cleaned. Each one was expected to prepare daily a roll of such fibers weighing one seer.
11)Punishment was inhuman, it ranged from extra hours on the grinding mill to standing handcuffed for a week, to bar-fetters for six months, to confinement in solitary cells, to four days of starvation diet and crossbars for ten days, a punishment which compelled the victim to keep his legs apart.
12) If they fail to complete the task which were assigned to them, then that person would be tied on flogging stand wearing punishment dress(which is shown below) and then he gets continuous blows on his buttocks and purposefully they would hit on the same spot until the skin layer is blown away. Below are the pictures of that punishment 👇
13) There was no light in those prisons and was completely pitch dark. Only one prisoner was kept in each prison and there is no chance to communicate with others.
14) Three bowls were given to the prisoners. One is to urinate and pass stools ,one is for drinking water and the other is for eating food. Those three bowls were kept in their respective prisons. It was not sufficient for prisoners to urinate because the bowl was too small so prisoners used to urinate on the floor and eat on that same floor as well. There are no washrooms and bedrooms in this cellular jails. Those bowls were cleaned out by the prisoners when they were out the next morning.
15) Daily after working hard for hours prisoners would get unhygienic food which consists of worms, mosquitoes and stones.
16) Dirty Rain water was given for prisoners to drink.
17) Many Prisoners died in those prisons after getting exposed to these unhygienic conditions.
18) Mahavir Singh, Mohan Kishore , Mohan Moitra started hunger strike strike till 45 days for providing unhygienic food and for not having toilet seats but instead Britishers started a process called force feed where one is forced to eat food against his will. After doing so, those food particles got stuck in their wind pipes and they died eventually. Their bodies were thrown into the Andaman waters.
19) The place where prisoners were given meager meals, right opposite to that are the gallows. Though closed within a building, the cries of the men being hung could be easily heard across the mess. It was designed so that psychologically it would affect the other prisoners who ate in the mess.
20) Veer Savarkar and his brother Babarao Savarkar were put in different prisons. Untill two years they didn't had any idea that they were in same hell.
21) Britishers made our freedom fighters to build other jails for themselves without knowing that they will be placed in those prisons which they have made with their own hands.
22) Those who fight against Britishers were forced to drink Urine and eat poop.
23)You will be surprised to know that prisoners were tied to the mouth of cannons and they were blown up.
24) Barindra kumar Ghosh who is one of the greatest revolutionaries of India mentioned in his book - "The suffering we had to undergo was perhaps entirely due to our destiny. No individual person could be held responsible for that. All credit should be given to the jail regulations only and perhaps to a wilful God.".
25)Records suggest around 80,000 Indians were sent to Andaman as punishment over a period of some 80 years from 1860. Thousands of them were shot, hanged or tortured to death.
26)This jail was later taken over by the Japanese troops in the year 1942 at the time of World War II.
27) Scotsman David Barry, the jailor between 1909 and 1931, was infamous for his insane cruelty. “While you are here, I am your god,” was the cry with which he welcomed prisoners.
28)David Barry(jailer) once asked Ullaskar Dutta to glean three litres of oil in a day. Ullaskar refused because even oxen can glean only two litres a day. They fettered his arms raised to the ceiling, and his feet to the ground. He stood motionless for three days for he could not move. When they untied him finally, he collapsed senseless. He went mad after he woke up. It is believed that some of the prisoners went mad while going through this brutual torture.
29) Do you know what are the demands of our freedom fighters in this cellular jail?
We want soap to clean ourselves.
We want beds to sleep on.
We want edible food.
Let us study for we are political prisoners.
Allow us to communicate with each other.
In the end, the British relented and accepted the prisoners’ demands. I think you can understand the pain and frustration our beloved freedom fighters who have experienced in this prison. Finally prisoners were sent home between September 1937 and January 1938.
30)The Sikhs have made a lot of sacrifices in the freedom struggle and their number was the second highest even in the list of political prisoners imprisoned at the Cellular Jail. This is really great and sad as well because their names are completely whitewashed. Here is the list👇. Below numbers belong to only famous freedom fighters but we really don't know how many real fighters were imprisoned here.
Spending a single day in this jail is like nightmare for everyone. Just imagine the condition of Veer Savarkar who was improsined here for almost 13 years. Savarkar, then aged 28, was convicted for revolting against the Morley-Minto reforms and was sentenced to 50-years imprisonment and transported on 4 July 1911 to the infamous Cellular jail in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands and was released on 6th January 1924.
The walls of this cellular jail truly knows the real pain of our freedom fighters.We should be really thankful to these legends. Their sacrifice cannot be measured in words and saddest part is even after experiencing trauma, their true stories are not mentioned in our so called social text books and how can we expect coming generations to remember them?
A big Salute to all the freedom fighters who fought for us selflessly and sacrificed their life after experiencing dreadful punishments.The reason we are enjoying today is all because of the freedom fighters who sacrificed their lives. Forgetting our freedom fighters is like forgetting our country.
If you are really interested to know how exactly our revolutionaries had spent their deranged life in kalapani jail, then definitely I would recommend you all to read this book.👇
INQUILAB ZINDABAD
JAI HIND 🇮🇳