What are thedark secrets of Kalapani jail which is also called as Cellular jail in Andamanthat every Indian should know?- FORWARD
Girish Kumar (गिरीश कुमार),Studied at St.Francis De Sales High SchoolUpdated Aug 31 " KALAPANI"....The name itself brings chills down the spines. Life here would be filled withtorture, hunger and loneliness. They would be worked like slaves.Some would go mad, others would be driven to suicide. This place would form oneof the darkest chapters in India’s struggle for freedom. Below are the real facts ofCellular Jail in which Britishers tortured our Indians in such a waythat prisoners wish they could die instead of this brutal torture. Source : All the information is takenfrom documentary, books and various internet sources. 1) The Cellular Jail is also, termed as Kala Paani. Kalmeans “time or death” while Paani means “water“. The name itself gives shiversto prisoners. 2) Construction of this Cellular jail started in theyear 1896 and ended in 1906 under the advise of the Demon named " Charles James Lyall".The main intention to build this jail was to decrease the spirits of our Indianfreedom fighters who fought against Britishers. Whenever Britishers think that they have threatagainst a person, then they would simply put them in this jail. 3) Cellular Jail is a massive three-storeyed structurewith seven wings of unequal lengths, radiating from a central watch tower,shaped like spokes of a wheel as shown in the below figure. 4) Once you go in then it is highly impossible to escapebecause your movements are constantly observed by guards. The watch towerhoused the alarm bell and guardsmen kept an eye on the prisoners all the time.The concept of this design is that the prisoners literally have no idea whetherthey are being watched or not. 5) If you manage to escape from guards you have to swimacross the sea with your wounded body which Ithink it is highly impossible. And also there is a small island nearby this jail and if you manage toreach there by facing difficulties, you will be killed by wild animals ortribes living there. Even if you manageto escape from these wild animals and tribes then you will see nothing but seaso death is the only option. This is the view from cellular jail. 👇 6) Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, Batukeshwar Dutt,Barindra kumar Ghosh, Bhai Parmanand, Ganesh Damodar Savarkar, Hare KrishnaKonar, Mahavir Singh, Mohan kishore Namadas, Mohit Moitra, Sachindra NathSanyal, Shiv Verma, Sohan Singh Bhakna, Sudhangshu Dasgupta, Yogendra Shuklawere some famous revolutionaries who were tortured in this Cellular jails. 7) It has 696 cells, one for each person. The nameCellular Jail is derived from its unique feature as it has only cells and nodormitories. Each cellmeasures 13 1/2 ‘x 7’, secured by a heavy iron grill door with aspecially designed latch system. Inadequate and congested jail. 8)Besides the barred door, the cellular wing itselfhad prison bars giving the whole area a double security. 9) Prisoners were forced to work on the oil grindingmill was all the more terrible and caused several deaths. 10)The most difficult work was coir-pounding andoil-grinding. Each one was given the dry husk oftwenty coconuts. The husk had first to be placed on a piece of wood and then tobe beaten with a wooden hammer till it became soft. Then the outer skin had tobe removed. Then it was dipped in water and moistened and then again one had topound it. By sheerpounding the entire husk inside dropped off, only the fibers remaining.These fibers had then to be dried in the sun and cleaned. Each one was expectedto prepare daily a roll of such fibers weighing one seer. 11)Punishment was inhuman, it ranged from extrahours on the grinding mill to standing handcuffed for a week, to bar-fettersfor six months, to confinement in solitary cells, to four days of starvationdiet and crossbars for ten days, a punishment which compelled the victim tokeep his legs apart. 12) If they fail to complete the task which wereassigned to them, then that person would be tied on flogging stand wearingpunishment dress(which is shown below) and then he gets continuous blows on hisbuttocks and purposefully they would hit on the same spot until the skin layeris blown away. Below are the pictures of that punishment 👇 13) There was no light in those prisons and wascompletely pitch dark. Only one prisoner was kept in each prison and there isno chance to communicate with others. 14) Three bowls were given to the prisoners. One isto urinate and pass stools ,one is for drinking water and the other is foreating food. Those three bowls were kept in their respective prisons. It was not sufficient forprisoners to urinate because the bowl was too small so prisoners used tourinate on the floor and eat on that same floor as well. There areno washrooms and bedrooms in this cellular jails. Those bowls were cleaned out by the prisoners whenthey were out the next morning. 15) Daily after working hard for hours prisonerswould get unhygienic food which consists of worms, mosquitoes and stones. 16) Dirty Rain water was given for prisoners to drink. 17) Many Prisoners died in those prisons aftergetting exposed to these unhygienic conditions. 18) Mahavir Singh, Mohan Kishore , Mohan Moitrastarted hunger strike till 45 days for providing unhygienic food and for nothaving toilet seats but instead Britishers started a process called force feed where one is forced toeat food against his will. After doing so, those food particles gotstuck in their wind pipes and they died eventually. Their bodies were throwninto the Andaman waters. 19) The place where prisoners were given meagermeals, right opposite to that are the gallows. Though closed within a building,the cries of the men being hung could be easily heard across the mess. It wasdesigned so that psychologically it would affect the other prisoners who ate inthe mess. 20) Veer Savarkar and his brother BabaraoSavarkar were put in different prisons. Until two years they didn't had anyidea that they were in same hell. 21) Britishers made our freedom fighters to buildother jails for themselves without knowing that they will be placed in thoseprisons which they have made with their own hands. 22) Those who fight against Britishers were forced todrink Urine and eat poop. 23)You will be surprised to know that prisoners weretied to the mouth of cannons and they were blown up. 24) Barindra kumar Ghosh who is one of thegreatest revolutionaries of India mentioned in his book - "The sufferingwe had to undergo was perhaps entirely due to our destiny. No individual personcould be held responsible for that. All credit should be given to the jailregulations only and perhaps to a wilful God.". 25)Records suggestaround 80,000 Indians were sent to Andaman as punishment over a period of some80 years from 1860. Thousands of them were shot, hanged or tortured to death. 26)This jail was later taken over by the Japanesetroops in the year 1942 at the time of World War II. 27) Scotsman David Barry, the jailor between 1909and 1931, was infamous for his insane cruelty. “While you are here, I am yourgod,” was the cry with which he welcomed prisoners. 28)David Barry(jailer) once asked Ullaskar Dutta toglean three litres of oil in a day. Ullaskar refused because even oxen canglean only two litres a day. They fettered his arms raised to the ceiling, andhis feet to the ground. He stood motionless for three days for he could notmove. When they untied him finally, he collapsed senseless. He went mad afterhe woke up. It is believed that some of the prisoners went mad while goingthrough this brutual torture. 29) Do you know what are the demands of ourfreedom fighters in this cellular jail? We want soap toclean ourselves.We want beds to sleep on.We want edible food.Let us study forwe are political prisoners.Allow us to communicate with each other. In the end, the British relented and accepted theprisoners’ demands. I think you can understand thepain and frustration our beloved freedom fighters who have experienced in thisprison. Finallyprisoners were sent home between September 1937 and January 1938. 30)The Sikhs have made a lot of sacrifices in thefreedom struggle and their number was the second highest even in the list ofpolitical prisoners imprisoned at the Cellular Jail. This is really great andsad as well because their names are completely whitewashed. Here is the list👇. Belownumbers belong to only famous freedom fighters but we really don't know howmany real fighters were imprisoned here. Spending a single day in this jail is like nightmare foreveryone. Just imagine the condition of Veer Savarkarwho was imprisoned here for almost 13 years. Savarkar, then aged 28, wasconvicted for revolting against the Morley-Minto reforms and was sentenced to50-years imprisonment and transported on 4 July 1911 to the infamous Cellularjail in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands and was released on 6th January 1924. The walls of this cellular jail truly knows the real painof our freedom fighters.We should be really thankfulto these legends. Their sacrifice cannot be measured in words and saddest partis even after experiencing trauma, their true stories are not mentioned in ourso called social text books and how can we expect coming generations to rememberthem? A big Salute to all the freedom fighters who foughtfor us selflessly and sacrificed their life after experiencing dreadfulpunishments.The reason we are enjoying today is all because of the freedomfighters who sacrificed their lives. Forgetting our freedom fighters is likeforgetting our country. If you are really interested to know how exactly ourrevolutionaries had spent their deranged life in kalapani jail, then definitelyI would recommend you all to read this book.👇 Respected friends, I found the reading quite interesting and thought offorwarding. Whether there are still more facts or exaggeration isnot verified. It is just a forward Gopalakrishnan 19-1-2022 -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Thatha_Patty" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/thatha_patty/229688678.2467499.1674136315584%40mail.yahoo.com.
