Cellular jail turns 100 tomorrow

Kolkata, Mar 9: The giant pillars, sooty grills and corroded walls turns a century tomorrow (Mar 10, 2006), but the pains and spirit of freedom still lingers in the dark corners.

The once notorious Cellular jail in Port Blair was the veritable hell for the freedom fighters. Imagine going to an island knowing that you may never make it back.

The families of Ex-Andaman Freedom Fighters have been invited by Anadaman and Nicobar Administration and the Centre to visit Port Blair to pay homage to the 'glorious sacrifices' made by the martyrs of Indian freedom. The will leave Kolkata today by a chartered flight.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is likely to be present in the function in Port Blair tomorrow to felicitate the freedom fighters and the wives of the deceased.

The mutineers and deserters were brought to the Andamans from different parts of the country by utilising the Kolkata, Karachi and the Madras port. The convicts were sent to penal settlement in the island, covered by forest and surrounded by sea all around.

The conditions were not fit for human habitation and the freedom fighters faced potential threats from tribals, snakes, leech and other insects. Infact the cruelties inflicted on the freedom fighters forced many to end their lives.

The British Government did not allow interaction among the freedom fighters and the tribals so that the tribals are not educated to demand their rights.

The revolutionaries and other convicts started constructing the Cellular Jail in 1896 which was completed in 1906.

The Cellular jail, a unique symbol of India's revolutionary struggle for freedom, was the first of its kind in India which provided 698 cells for solitary confinemnt. The jail is called 'Cellular' as it has only cells and no dormatories.

The first batch to be sent to the Cellular jail of the Andamans were the revotionaries convicted in 'Alipore Conspiracy Case' which included Barindra Ghosh, Hemchandra Das, Ullash Kar Dutta, Indu Bushan Roy and others. Thereafter, freedom fighters who took arms in their hand for freedom of Mother India were mostly sent to this jail.

It was believed that once you were sent across 'Kalapani', you can never return to your Motherland. The freedom fighters used to carry clay from their Motherland before boarding the notorious ship, Maharaja for Kalapani. To make matters worse, the food contained worms and wild grass was served as vegetable. Rain water was the only source of quenching the parched lips.

History bears witness that Indu Bushan Ray committed suicide, Ullash Kar Dutta went mad and Sardar Bhan Singh was beaten to death.

The Azad-Hind-Fouz of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose gave Independece to the Andamans and hoisted the National Flag on December 30, 1943.

Fazal-Haq-Khairabadi, Musai Singh, Narayan Niranjan Singh, Liaquat Ali, Garbadas Singh may not ring a bell in your head but they are among the 300 hundred freedom fighters who were sent to the Andamans from different regions of India for taking part in the 1857 War of Independence and whom the British banished beyond sea for life for 'waging war against the British Government' in 1857.

The Cellualr Jail since then has become a national symbol, a national memorial or more appropriately 'Mukti Tirtha', The Pilgrimage of Freedom.

UNI