Whispers from the Past

by Priya Gopal

The beauty of nature and the cruelty of mankind – the Andaman Islands stand testimony to this juxtaposition. The calm seas that surround the islands hide in their hearts the tumultuous past of India’s freedom struggle. The white sands hide the red of the human blood. The quiet, clean place today is very deceptive: the innards of these peaceful islands hide years of torture, struggle and atrocities that can only make one wonder about the depths that man can sink to…and think if we are to be called mankind at all. The islands are proof that there was no kindness in man when he ruled these islands with a cruel heart and an iron fist.

A visit to the Cellular Jail jolted me awake to how much we have taken our lives for granted. The freedom that we enjoy, the fact that we are self-governing and that we breathe in a free country is because there were so many who were ready to sacrifice their lives for us.

The Viper Island stands in mute testimony to the many hangings that happened on the Islands. The Island has the remnants of an old court room and the hangman’s noose. Prisoners could escape only into the salty waters of the surrounding seas. These led to other islands like the Snake Island inhabited by the almost 80 different species of poisonous snakes.

Though the Cellular Jail in Port Blair was constructed later, the Andaman Islands had been used as a jail right from the first war for Indian independence. The revolutionaries of the 1857 revolt (as the British called it) were sent to these islands. The islands acquired the dubious title of Kaalapani as they were a place of no return. No one survived these islands.

The prisoners of the first war of Indian independence were made to construct the Jail. The Cellular Jail in itself is an architectural masterpiece. Like an octopus, albeit with seven arms, the radial jail looks as if it its tentacles are spread across Port Blair. The arms were connected at the centre from where watchful guards would keep a keen eye on the movement of all the prisoners. Each cell was a small room 4.5 x 2.7 metres or 13.5×7.5 feet in size with a ventilator located at a height of three metres. There were 693 cells in all, spread over the seven wings. Each wing had three stories. The cells isolated the prisoners. They could not communicate to each other once they were inside the cells. Every cell of one arm faced the ventilator of cells of the previous arm. Each cell was locked in such a way that a human hand from within the cell could never reach the lock. The isolation of these cells was so severe that Veer Savarkar, who was imprisoned in the Cellular Jail, met his own brother only after almost two years of imprisonment. The cells were small, dark and dirty. The inmates were given a pot by the British to conduct their daily ablutions which were then to be discarded away. The pots were given to them at a time when the guards felt it convenient to do so!

Solitary confinement was not the only torture used by the British.  They had various other methods by which they tried to throttle the spirit of freedom in these people. There were workshops in between the arms where the prisoners were made to do very strenuous tasks.  The British made them work on oil mills, where inmates would be yoked to an oil mill that weighed almost 150 kilograms. They were asked to crush the coconuts to wring out at least 3 pounds of oil each day. This was far more than what two bullocks could do. And woe be gone if the inmates did not accomplish the task! They would be subjected to further punishment. They were also made to wear a dress made of jute, which, given the hot and humid climate of the Andaman Islands, ensured that they felt itchy and sweaty throughout the day.  The inmates were also asked to de-husk at least eight pounds of coconut shells everyday. These unreachable targets left them at the mercy of the British. They were given just two cups of water in a day as they struggled through these tasks.

The inmates were also bound with heavy chains which ensured that they couldn’t move around with speed. The chains were actually rods that were straight and didn’t allow the body to bend. The inmates had to do all their work with these chains on their body. The torture chamber of the Cellular Jail also had a hangman’s cabin, where inmates were regularly hanged in order to scare the others.

The divide and rule policy was used by the British here too. They used to appoint some hefty Indian criminals who were not into the Indian independence struggle as watch guards or jamadars .These people were used to monitor the political prisoners and whip them into doing their duty. Thus they used Indians against Indians. The aim was to break the spirit of freedom that was inherent to the lives of these people. But these fighters could not thus be crushed – they inspired each other to survive and fight even without talking with each other. The inmates constantly sang patriotic songs to keep one another motivated.

As I went from cell to cell, along the long arms of the Cellular Jail, I could only think of the mad circus that is in play on the mainland. Was this what the people who lived and died here dreamed of? The mighty jail today seems to be sighing aloud, moaning at not what happened to it during the British regime, but on what is happening in our country today.

Only three arms of the cellular jail survive today. The other arms came down in a storm and the bricks of these arms were used to build a hospital. The tyrannical jail was now converted into an institution of care and is the most technologically equipped hospital in the Andaman Islands.

Priya Gopal is the Section Head (CBSE) at the Curriculum Department of Kangaroo Kids Education Ltd., Mumbai.  An educator by choice, teaching and interacting with kids is something that has enthused her over the last 16 years. Priya lives in Mumbai with her husband and two children. She blogs at http://keepsmilinginlife.blogspot.com

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