Cellular Jail, Andamaan

Last year I started watching the Epic Channel and was very happy to find that the programmes aired in this channel are a bit different from other channels. They deal with history, mythology and so on. I remember 'History channel' quite often while watching this channel as 'History channel' was also somewhat like this 8- 10 years back. I enjoyed all the history based programmes there.

One such programme in Epic Channel is 'Ekaant' where the anchor- Akul Tripathy visits the remains of old civilisations or goes to many desolate places and tries to know the history of the place.

In one such episode he went to the famous Cellular Jail of Andaman Island. The jail was made by the British at the last decade of 19th century for the solitary confinement to the freedom fighters of India. They wanted to break the confidence and mental balance of those inmates by keeping them in such small rooms such as 14 ft by 8 ft.

The curator of the museum of the jail- talked with the anchor, she read her poem on the jail. Also the teachers and the Principal of Jawahar Laal Nehru School added more information about the jail.

The inmates were made to work very hard throughout the whole day. They were deprived of minimum health facilities and even talking to fellow inmates were also prohibited. The scarcity of food and basic hygienic facilities provoked the inmates to go for a hunger strike on. The British tried to force feed them through tube which resulted in the death of three inmates.

Later they went for hunger strike again. That time in place of hunger strike, Kabiguru Rabindranath Tagore and Mahatma Gandhi asked them to write out their grievances directly to British Government.

Many many stories of torture, pai, and suffering can be heard in the walls of these jails.

Originally it had seven wings and a central watch tower. Now only three of them are remaining.

Japan army and Netaji's INA took control of the jail on during Second World War, but later it again went to the hands of the British Government.

Sad part is that the jail was also made by the prisoners....

Later as India became independent all the inmates became free and it was announced as a national heritage.

Famous freedom fighter Veer Savarkar was there for 10 years! His brother was also there but they they came to know about each other only after 2 years of staying at the same place! Can you believe!

I was sad after watching the programme... Imagining about the hardships faced by the inmates. But later I was proud also that they superseded over all these with the one aim of making the motherland free. Somewhat same message was covered by the poem recited by the anchor Akul Tripathi at the end of the programme, which was written by the brother of Veer Savarkar

We can't even imagine the full implications of the huge sacrifice!! They did it as their duty and did not consider all these as sacrifice at all. For them it was their duty for the motherland.

They were true heroes! Our heart only fills with awe and respect for them for the strong courage they have shown.

Thanks a lot to Epic Channel for such a nice programme.


It also reminded me of a film made on the same topic- 'Sazaa e Kalaapani' in 1996, I haven't watched it till now. I feel this programme has given me an idea about the content of the film as well.