Disclaimer – This article contains content that is distressing. Caution is adviced.
The Indian subcontinent has been ruled by a variety of rulers and dynasties in its known history of around 4500 years. The most recent of these series of dynasties being the British Empire. In 1757, the English East India Company officially began its rule in India, which lasted up until the end of the Revolt of 1857. Post this marked the beginning of the rule of the British Crown, which also lasted for another 90 years. But do we ever to stop to think about what happened immediately after the Revolt of 1857? What measures did the British take to ensure that they needn’t be a witness to a similar rebellion or uprising in the future?
Front view of the Cellular Jail, Andaman and Nicobar Island
While we remember leaders like Rani Laxmi Bai, Tatya Tope, Nana Saheb, Begum Hazrat Mahal and Bahadur Shah Zafar from the Revolt of 1857, there are countless others who fought as well, but remain faceless. Many of these ‘faceless and nameless’ figures who were not killed or executed by the British were imprisoned in jails across the country. But the worst of the lot were held captive for years, if not decades together, at an isolated jail separated by an entire water body. The Cellular Jail in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, remains till date as one of the scariest and the most horrifying memory of the British Raj. Construction of this jail began in 1896 and was completed, ten years later in 1906. What’s ironical about this jail is that the revolutionaries who were imprisoned here in the early years, were the same people who constructed the jail. Although the construction of the Cellular Jail happened in the late 1800’s, the British had been using the Andaman and Nicobar Islands as a prison since the early days of the First War of Independence, itself.
The corridors outside the cells of Kaala Pani
But why the name ‘Kaala Pani’? When translated, this name means ‘Black Waters’. This is because according to the ancient Hindu custom, if a Hindu travelled across a water body to another land, it would result in a loss of their caste, religion and their identity in all. So basically, travelling abroad was considered a taboo. Another possible reason why this jail was given this name is because people say that the waters surrounding the island look black during the monsoon season as they reflect the black clouds. There is a third reason as well – in Sanskrit the word ‘Kaala’ or ‘Kaal’ also means time. People believed that with the passing of time, the convicts imprisoned here would start dying one by one. Thus, the name ‘Kaala Pani’.
An inside view of the Cellular Jail
The prison was called ‘Cellular’ because it was made of small parts and designed for solitary confinement. Each cell is barely four metres long and two and a half metres in width with a small ventilator located at a height of 3 metres. In total, there were around 698 jails, all of which were placed in a way that none of the prisoners could speak, let alone see each other. The spokes were designed in a manner that the face of a cell in a spoke saw the back of cells in another spoke, ensuring that there was no way that the inmates could communicate with each other. This is why, these kind of jail systems are also called the ‘Silent System’. All the inmates were placed in solitary confinement. To further torture these prisoners, the jailers would lock up their prison cells and throw the key inside the jail. However, the locks were designed in a manner that the inmates could not reach lock from inside the jail. So, no matter how hard they tried, despite having the key the ‘criminals’ couldn’t open their cells as their hands would never reach the lock.
A ship called ‘Samirani’ brought the very first group of freedom fighters, 200 in number, to this island. Before this jail was established, the Andaman and Nicobar Islands were popularly referred to as an ‘Open Jail’. Indians at the time believed that there was a lot of liberty and freedom in the jails on this island. When the British realised this, they decided to enhance their jail system on the island in a manner that any prisoner who was brought here would be broken physically and mentally. After the establishment of the Cellular Jail on this island, the inmates here were subjected to ‘Triple Isolation’, that is – isolation from the main land (India), isolation from the local inhabitants of the island, and isolation from the other prisoners.
Left – An aerial view of how the jail must have looked back then; Right – The Gallows where prisoners were hung
Earlier, the Cellular Jail had 7 wings in total, all of which would connect to a central watch tower. So, from an aerial view, the entire structure would look like a huge starfish. Now, only 3 of these 7 remain. There used be a huge bell in the watch tower, which would ring whenever a prisoner tried to escape. The sound of the bell would be so loud that every single person on the island would wake up, thus effectively alerting all the guards. Inside the jail, each cell had only one wooden cot, an aluminum plate, two pots – one to drink water and one to excrete in and a blanket. Majority of the times, that one small pot was not enough for the prisoners and so they had to use a corner in the small cell to excrete and then they were forced to lie in their own filth.
Statues erected outside the jail depicting the work the inmates were forced to do
Now, moving on to life in the Cellular Jail. In 2001, two journalists from The Guardian met some of the victims of the Kaala Pani. As you read ahead, you will find snippets of their conversations with these victims, who were well into their late 80’s and early 90’s by then.
Warning: Before you read ahead – the content below has a lot of disturbing and graphic details in it. If you are not comfortable, then please skip the next few paragraphs.
A statue outside the jail showing how the prisoners were harnessed to the pestle
In the central courtyard of the prison stands a long work shed. Attached to it was a pestle to extract oil. The prisoners were harnessed to the pestle and forced to move around in circles as the oil trickled out of the seeds. They were forced to do this for hours at a stretch. Once, in the early 1930’s some of the prisoners of the Cellular Jail went on a hunger strike to protest against the harsh treatments that they were subjected to. When the 28 prisoners refused to relent, things took an ugly turn. The British started force feeding these prisoners. Dhirendra Chowdhury, one of the victims of the Kaala Pani who was also one of these 28 inmates who were force fed, describes how the British forced them to eat.
“They rammed a tube down my nose and I tried to catch it with my tongue when it passed down my throat. Several times I succeeded, clenching the end between my teeth, but they just kept pushing harder, and eventually I felt the cool gush of liquid.
“Then the screaming began,” Dhirendra whispers. “We were all being force-fed simultaneously, but there was something terrible happening in the cell next door, where Mahavir Singh had been locked. The doctors at the Cellular Jail hated him.”
Dhirendra Chowdhury, a survivor of Kaala Pani
Mahavir Singh, was the first of 3 people who died at Kaala Pani due to force feeding. After him, went prisoner number 89 – Mohan Kishore and prisoner number 93 – Mohit Mitra, all in the same manner. Their bodies were tied with stones and sunk in the waters surrounding the island. Dhirendra Chowdhury goes on to describe what happened after the passing of Mahavir Singh.
“Drowned in milk. Twenty-six more men on Levels One and Two now joined the strike, and nine days later more news came, tapped out on the bars in our special code with our manacles and fetters. Prisoner 89, Mohan Kishore, had also been killed. Drowned in milk. The British doctors didn’t know what they were doing and yet they kept on going. Two days on, and another ra-tat-tat-tat. Mohit Mitra, Prisoner 93, was gone – the same way. How did the doctors manage to make the same mistake three times? We heard the bodies were weighed down with stones and sunk in the black water. Inquilab Zindabad! I cried and cried.”
Dhirendra Chowdhury’s description of how prisoners at the Cellular Jail were force fed
Official documents that have been uncovered, are a proof of the torturous treatment that Mahavir Singh was subjugated to. Dr. Edge the British senior medical officer who was posted to the Andamans, writes in his diary –
Source – The Guardian
It was only after Mahatma Gandhi sent a message to the prisoners, that they called off their hunger strike.
“Nation-wide request to abandon the strike… trying best to secure relief for you.
MK Gandhi.”
Gandhi’s message to the prisoners at Kaala Pani
Ullaskar Dutta
Another victim of the atrocities of Kaala Pani was Prisoner 31552 – Ullaskar Dutt. He was tortured so much that he went mad. He was declared insane due to malarial infection and then transferred to a lunatic facility at Haddo, a locality on the island. Dutt was held there for 14 years. Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, another prominent freedom fighter who was imprisoned here, was the first to hear Ullaskar Dutt’s cries of anguish, as he was dragged from his cell to the lunatic ward. With stone, Savarkar wrote about the years he spent in the jail on the walls of his cell. In fact, even his brother Babarao Savarkar was imprisoned in the same jail around the same time, and it took the brothers 2 years to realise that they were right next to each other all this time.
Left – Vinayak Savarkar; Right – Babarao Savarkar (his brother)
A part of his inscriptions also describes what happened to Dutt.
“I lay on my bed, my eyes riveted on the barred window,” Savarkar scratched on his cell wall. Down the corridor, “troublemaker” Ullaskar Dutt was hanging by his wrists from a peg hammered into the wall above his head, one day into a seven-day punishment for accusing Dr Barker of aiding Roy’s death.”
Vinayak Savarkar’s words that are etched on the wall
Left – Outside view of the ‘Savarkar Cell’, where Vinayak Savarkar was held; Right – Inside view of his cell
Dr. Barker, one of the doctors at the asylum would use a device to check if the prisoner was acting up. Years later, Dutt would recount what happened to him in the lunatic ward –
“I could feel the metal clips and then his (Dr. Barker’s device) battery playing on my body. The electric current passed through me with the force of lightning.”
Ullaskar Dutt, another prisoner of Kaala Pani
When Ullaskar Dutt’s father wrote repeated letters to the Viceroy of India, asking him what went wrong with his son, he was met with no reply. After 8 more letters, he finally got a letter from the Chief Commissioner of the Andaman’s island, which read – “Patient’s insanity is due to malarial infection. His present condition is fair.” It was only after the case of Ullaskar Dutt that some members of the government started getting concerned about the harsh conditions that the prisoners were exposed to in the Cellular Jail. Harold Wheeler, Secretary to the Government of India, wrote a letter to Sir Reginald Craddock, Home Member of Governor General’s Council, explaining his concerns about the conditions of the jail. He wrote –
“I am inclined to think that the punishment of standing hand cuffs is brutal and it would be well to inquire the desirability of its continuance.”
Harold Wheeler’s letter
To this letter, Sir Craddock responded –
“Handcuffing to a staple is in my experience as effective on the recalcitrant as flogging. It undoubtedly causes great discomfort but Ullaskar Dutt is nothing more than a murderer and it seems to me a mistaken indulgence that he was not hanged.”
Sir Craddok’s response
Another victim was a prisoner by the name Indu Bhushan Roy, who committed suicide because he was “exhausted by the unrelenting oil mill”. One of the prison guards shone his lamp through the bars of Roy’s cell at 2am on April 29, 1912 and found an empty bed –
“I saw the deceased hanging to the window.”
It was another six hours before Barker, the prison doctor, arrived. Roy had hung himself with a strand of torn kurta.
Scotsman David Barry, the jailor between 1909 and 1931, became a highly feared name at Kaala Pani. He was infamous for his insane cruelty. This is how Barry would welcome the prisoners on the island –
“While you are here, I am your god!”
David Barry, the harshest jailer at the Kaala Pani
Anup Dasgupta, the son of another forgotten freedom fighter Sushil Dasgupta, who was also imprisoned here, narrates the torture that Barry would put the inmates through.
Source – The Guardian
Here is a first-hand recount by the survivors of the Cellular Jail, as to how their life was at the Island of Horrors –
Source – The Guardian
In 1921, the (British) Indian Jail Commission decided to shut down the Cellular Jail at the Andamans permanently on the grounds that transportation to Kaala Pani was “demoralising and unreasonable”. But in 1932, the British announced that the Jail was to be resurrected once again. In 1939, the jail was forced to be emptied and two years later the Japanese took control of the island. Notionally during this period control of the Islands was passed to Subhash Chandra Bose, who hoisted the Indian National Flag for the first time on the islands.
Sushil Dasgupta, a survivor of the Kaala Pani Jail
Fate works in such strange ways, doesn’t it? I say this because, during the period between 1941-45, it was the British who were incarcerated in the very same cells where they once held captive, the Indian Freedom Fighters.
What you read right now, scrapes only the top of a huge barrel filled with memories, of what the prisoners at Kaala Pani were force to live through. Torture, extreme exhaustion and complete destituteness of hope were just another part of everyday life for the Indians trapped here.
Sources:
‘He went mad after he woke up’- experiences of black terror in Andaman’s ‘Kala Pani’ jail – YourStory
Cellular Jail – Wikipedia
Cellular Jail: Locked for Life – National Herald
Survivors of our hell – The Guardian
Inside Cellular Jail: The horrors and torture inflicted by the Raj on India’s political activists – Independent
Ekaant: Cellular Jail – Epic Channel