The Cellular jail, situated on top of the
Atlanta Point close to the Aberdeen Bazaar, is
the most famous historical structure of the
present day Port Blair. The Structure
as become an inspirable part of the freedom
moment of the country. The tortures inflicted by
the British on the mind and the bodies
of the inmates of Cellular jail were so brutal
and inhuman that in no time the place become in
famous as the most notorious structure of the
country. The Penal settlement of Andamans was
initially started in Ross island. Gradually,
more jails were constructed on other islands
like Viper island to accommodate more convicts
form mainland India and Burma. Though the
initial convicts were deserters and mutineers
involved in the Sepoy Mutiny, gradually the
prisoners of other anti – British revolts were
also transported to Andamans. The number of
convicts in Port Blair gradually increased form
two hundred in 1858 to about twelve thousand at
the end of the nineteenth century.
The British
administrators from Calcutta used to visit Port
Blair periodically to assess the health of the
convicts and to inspect the state of the penal
settlement. In 1890 Sir Charles James Loyal,
Secretary to the Government of India, and Dr
Alfred Swain Lethbridge, Inspector General of
Prisons in Bengal, came to Andamans, This two –
member committee, commonly known as Lyall
Lethbridge Committee, suggested many effective
changes for the penal settlement at Andamans. An
observation made by them was that the convicts
at least for the first six months, as was
existing in Cannanore Jail in the south western
coast of Indian. The government of India
accepted the suggestion and granted permission
to construct a jail in Port Blair on the lines
of the Cannanore jail.
Atlanta Point hilltop was
considered as the most suitable place for the
construction of a huge jail and work for the
jail started following necessary approvals. Form
a central tower seven wings of the jail extended
in all directions like the spokes of a wheel.
This massive structure with a unique design had
six hundred and ninety six enclosures,
each measuring 13.5 ft by 7.5 ft. as the
building contained 696 enclosed cells for
solitary confinement of convicts, the building
spontaneously derived its name as ‘Cellular
Jail’ . It is consider that the jail was
constructed over a period of ten years from 1896
to 1906. About six hundred convicts were
employed for ten years to construct the jail.
Bricks were prepared form the broken corals at
Dandus Point and Navy Bay Klin. Building
materials were also brought from Burma. Freedom
fighters involved in almost all the major anti –
British activities during the early twentieth
century were brought to the Celluar Jail from
the mainland. Most of them were sentenced either
to long – term imprisonment or to life
imprisonment. That included the convicts of the
Chittagong armoury case, Maniktala bomb Case,
Nasik conspiracy Case, Lebong Race Course Case ,
etc. Convicts involved in Rumpa Revok of
Godavari, Moplah Revolt of Malabar and Tharawady
rebellions of Burma were all transported to the
Cellular Jail of Andamans. Hardcore criminals
sentenced with long impressionment for dacoity o
murder and even life. Termers were sent in large
numbers. At this time, as the number of female
convicts was extremely low in Andamans, female
convicts from all the jails of the mainland were
given an option to be transported to Andamans.
They were even permitted to choose their
partners and settle down in andamans to
establish a settlement. However, no lady
political prisoner was ever deported to Andamans.
Convicts awarded with
life-terms and deported to Andamans had to
undergo various degree of torure in different
jails of Andamans.
A general formula was followed and the convicts
were transferred from one jail to the other on
the basis of their conduct. They were kept in
the solitary confinement of Cellular jail for
the f first six months where they could not met
any other inmate and had to work hard under
strict discipline. The cellular Jail treatment
was termed as “taming of the lions” by the
notorious warden of the jail, David Barry. After
six months of this rigorous torture the convicts
were sent to other jails for eighteen months.
Where they would perform laborious tasks under a
little relaxed disciplinary routine. Whereas the
ardent freedom fighters that dared to defy the
British taming formula would continue in the
Cellular Jail for longer periods. One such
person was Vinayak Damodar Savarkar who was kept
in the Cellular jail for no less than a decade.
He was considered as the most dangerous inmate
of the jail and was sentenced for a total of
fifty years for his various anti-British
activities. |