I have travelled to Andaman and Nicobar Islands in the first week of March and visited a lot of places and in those places, one was Cellular Jail. It is a historical monument which is actually was a colonial prison in Andaman and Nicobar islands.
It is a 3-storeyed prison which was constructed by Britishers in 1906, which has witnessed some of the inhumane atrocities to the prisoners who were mostly freedom fighters. Now it's mainly depicted as a National Memorial. There is a light and sound show every evening that explains how the prison was constructed and also explains all the problems faced by the prisoners. It is also well known as "Kala Paani" and whenever a prisoner comes to this place, they are often referred to as getting "Kala Paani ki Saja".
The full layout of the Cellular Jail
The Swatantrya Jyoti (The freedom light)
Some of the layout of the Jail
Veer Savarkar was one such freedom fighter who used to stay in this jail itself, top right corner.
The room is quite small as well as the light does not used to be there. The prisoners have to wear Neck ring, handcuffs all the time and used to do everything in that small room.
There used to be more than 1000 such rooms and at one time there used to be full.
This is the lock and keys used in jail.
This poster depicts the birth of the cellular jail.
The neck ring and uniform of the political prisoners.
It was a good experience where we have learnt too many things about history and also found out how much freedom fighters have to go through to get freedom. And now whatever we see some countries invading other countries, our heart goes out to those people who have to go through hell like our forefathers used to go through.
Also, India got independence in 1947, but the first tricolour hosting was done in 1943 in India out here itself.
The cellular Jail lights up in the evening when the light and sound show used to go on. People lined up to get the ticket for the show and trust me you will love every bit of it if you want to know about the history.
The prisoners try to escape the jail but could not go anywhere because it was an island and the island was so small that Britishers always used to capture them.
To be honest, I really like to visit it but at the same time was feeling sorry for the prisoners as well as angry at the Britishers who used to do so many inhumane atrocities to the prisoners. Post-independence two wings of the jail were demolished which led to protests from former prisoners and thus it was declared a national memorial in 1979.
