Cellular Jail in Andaman

Cellular jail which is also known as Kalapani jail or Andaman jail is one of the most significant national monuments from the days of Indian freedom struggle. Cellular jail is located about 2km from Port Blair city center. Some portion of the old jail building is now converted into Port Blair general hospital. There is also a museum attached to the jail complex. The cellular jail was built by the British in 1906 into the gigantic structure we see today. There was an open jail in Andamans before the fortified cellular jail was built. The jail during its glory days consisted of 7 gigantic wings that had hundreds of cells that were used to house political prisoners.

The tales of horror committed by the raj still echo in the corridors of the remains of this gigantic structure. During the British raj the jail was notorious for its isolated location and unforgiving conditions.

It was referred to as the Kalapani jail among the freedom fighters in mainland India during the independence movement. Kala is a reference to death which was considered to be the inevitable end for those doomed to serve time there and Pani which means water was a reference to the remote location of the cellular jail. The waters of the Andamans were feared by the prisoners. This island was isolated from the mainland and there was no means of escaping this place. The eminent and legendary Cellular jail was built by the British over a period of 10 years at Port Blair.

It was the most feared and formidable colonial prisons that ever existed.The cruelest of the punishments were inflicted upon the prisoners and finally, they were hanged to death. Many notable dissidents such as Batukeshwar Dutt and Veer Savarkar, among others, were imprisoned here during the struggle for India’s independence. The jail was built with local stone which was mined from a nearby mountain by the prisoners.

About 20,000 cubic feet of local stones and 30,00,000 bricks made by the prisoners were used for the construction of Kalapani jail. The architecture of this place was based on the Panopticon model.

Panoptes in Greek mythology was a giant with hundred eyes and was known to be a very productive watchman. The building had seven wings and a tower at the center which was used by guards to keep watch on the inmate.

The concept of the design is to allow all (pan-) inmates of an institution to be observed (-opticon) by a single watchman without the inmates being able to tell whether or not they are being watched.

Since it was impossible for the single watchman to observe all cells at once, the fact that the inmates cannot know when they are being watched meant that all inmates would feel they are watched upon all the time. The wings radiated from the tower in straight lines, much like the spokes of a bicycle wheel. A large bell was kept in the tower to raise an alarm. This jail had nearly 693 cells. Each cell was 3meter in width and height. The name cellular jail stays true to its meaning “solitary prison” , for any kind of communication was impossible and also forbidden here. The jail is built overlooking the historical British headquarters of Ross Island .

Most of the prisoners of the cellular jail were freedom fighters. The cellular jail prisoners list consists of some famous inmates like Diwan Singh Kalapani,Fazl-e-Haq Khairabadi, Yogendra Shukla, Batukeshwar Dutt, Maulana Ahmadullah, Move Abdul Rahim Sadiqpuri, Maulvi Liaquat Ali, Babarao Savarkar, Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, Bhai Parmanand, Shadan Chandra Chatterjee, Sohan Singh, Vaman Rao Joshi and Nand Gopal.

Tropical Andamans