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Over a century ago when the Cellular Jail was finally completed in Port Blair (it took the British 13 years to complete the project between 1893 and 1906), the sea voyage to Andaman island took more than a week. In 2021 it is a 120 minute flight from Calcutta .
The prison was meant for passionate freedom fighters who had little or no faith in passive, run-of-the-mill protests by way of pleading with the rulers and submitting petitions, the acceptable and popular mode with most passive Indians. But for more strong-willed freedom fighters, who reacted more violently to oppression, the Cellular Jail was meant to break their will and bend some to beg for mercy and promise good behaviour.
The prison was called ‘Cellular’ because it was made of small parts and designed for solitary confinement. The cells were barely four metres long and two and a half metres in width. And this was the confined space where political prisoners, held for expressing their dissent, were to spend a lifetime. Any form of extreme dissent against the British crown, invited a sentence to spend time in CELLULAR JAIL LOCKED FOR LIFE Some 80,000 Indians, records suggest, 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. They had the option of seeking mercy. Not many exercised the option the Andaman jail, from where escape was impossible. Indeed, how dare coloured Indians defy the diktats of people from England painstakingly trying to “civilise” the natives, fulfilling the “white man’s burden”?
The jail had over 698 cells, built in a way that no inmate could see another or communicate with him. It was a stifling and lonely ‘lockdown’ that did drive people into insanity. Some refused to eat or drink, killing themselves in the process. Some died in the course of periodic visits to the torture chamber. Some were shot and others were hanged. Many of the bodies were thrown into the sea.
Ullaskar Dutta along with other inmates were yoked to a press to grind mustard into oil. He “refused to do it” since the allotted quota could not be done even by the bull. Expectedly, he was whipped and kept in hands-up fetter position for three days till he fell unconscious. After release, he was found mentally deranged. InduBhushan Roy, after being incarcerated for 23 years, was hanged on the iron vent behind his cell. For Mahavir Singh, Mohan Kishor Namdas, Mohit Moitra, resistance cost their lives. They died of forced feeding after milk seeped into their lungs.
There are innumerable tales of such freedom fighters, hailing from the north to the south, and from the east to the west which most rich and wealthy Indians do not know of because they are not interested in learning “true history of India”, and also, to most of them, “history is bunk”.
It’s time to honestly acknowledge the contribution and role of freedom fighters incarcerated and martyred in the cellular jail of Port Blair and give them a place under the Sun. It’s time to give them their due and recognise their invaluable contribution to India’s Independence.
The Cellular Jail is today a neglected foot note in history but deserves greater prominence and possibly a memorial in the national capital to serve as a daily reminder to people in power.
কৃতজ্ঞতা স্বীকার- ভারতের শেষ ভূখণ্ড ( সঞ্জীব চট্টোপাধ্যায়)
অন্যমনে আন্দামানে ( অশোক কুমার মিশ্র )
আন্দামানে গেলে এই দুটি নাম্বারে ফোন করলে আপনি অনেক কিছু সাহায্য পেতে পারেন
Local Agent-
Asit Kumar Khara - 8777542719