![]() ![]() The wings, each of which had three storeys, were constructed in such manner that the front of one wing faces the back of another so that one inmate in a wing cannot see or communicate with another inmate in any of the adjacent wings. The tower in the centre that formed the point of intersection of all the seven wings served as a watch point for the guards of the jail to keep vigil on prisoners. Puce coloured bricks were brought from Burma to construct the building. This design was based on English philosopher and social theorist Jeremy Bentham’s concept of the Panopticon. The building of the Cellular Jail originally had seven straight wings each connected to a tower in the middle giving the whole construction a look of something like a bicycle wheel with each wing attached with the centre tower like a spoke of the wheel. Following the end of the ‘Second World War’, in 1945 the British regained control of the islands. ![]() Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose visited Andaman during this time. In 1942 the Japanese overpowered the British in the Andaman Islands driving them out of the islands. More and more patriots who raised voice against the colonial rule were convicted and deported here from British-controlled India and Burma. 238 prisoners who tried to escape the jail in March 1868 were caught in April of whom 87 were hanged. The rebels in hundreds were sent to the island where they remained under the custody of jailer David Barry and military doctor Major James Pattison Walker. ![]() The result of what was considered India's First War of Independence however went in favour of the British who suppressed the revolt executing many rebels and transferring the rest to Andaman for lifetime exile. The jail is now open to public viewing as a National Memorial, and its museum gives one a glimpse of years of India’s struggle for freedom.Īlthough the Andaman Islands were used by the British as a prison soon after the Indian Rebellion of 1857 (the Sepoy Mutiny), the foundation of this jail was laid in 1896. India’s struggle for independence saw imminent freedom fighters like Batukeshwar Dutt and Veer Savarkar being incarcerated in this jail. Isolated from the mainland, this jail, also referred as Kala Pani (where Kala means death or time and Pani means water in Sanskrit) witnessed the most atrocious punishments imposed on prisoners. This most dreaded and gruelling colonial prison situated in the remote archipelago was used by the British particularly to exile Indian political prisoners. Image Credit: gobusinessindia.in/projects/Travel-Andaman/images/k2.jpgĬellular Jail in Andaman and Nicobar Islands, India, stands as a dark reminiscence of the British rule in the Indian subcontinent. ![]()
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