The Cellular Jail

' Watan ki aabroo ka paas dekhen koun karta hai/suna hai aaj maktal mein hamara imtihaan hoga' (Jagdamba Prasad Mishr 'Hitaishi')


Port Blair for me had only one meaning-my mother's memory of the Cellular Jail during her maiden visit to the place. Whenever she would recall how she felt having been to the Cellular Jail, her feeble voice murmured, shook and one could feel tears in the eyes and her choked words would give goosebumps as she would reminisce the height of torture the freedom fighters underwent at what was called 'kaala paani'-the forsaken place from where once in, the hope to return was nil.

  

It was like being with her that I visited the Cellular Jail and at the entrance the inscription read: ' ye tirth maha tirthon ka/mat kaho ise kaala paani/tum suno yanha ki dharti ke /kan kan se gaatha balidani.' The guide, well versed in history explained the concept how jail came into existence and was used to house mainly those Indians who rebelled against the tyrannies of the British Raj and were sentenced to rigorous life imprisonment. Every cell was 13x 7 ft with no provision of electricity and the day light could enter only through a small window which was covered in such a manner that the inmate could not see outside. The front was typical jail gate with latch on the side and this prison had the capacity to accommodate 693 prisoners. 

  Veer Savarkar who was sentenced twice the life imprisonment (fifty years) was also sent here in 1911 and he remained here for ten years. His was the special cell now named 'Savarkar Cell' as he was considered the most perilous of all prisoners. His brother too was in the same jail and for two years neither of them knew that they were in the same prison. Mostly the prisoners had to wear cross or bar fetters while they walked to workplace to grind coconut oil-the most arduous of tasks . The inability to accomplish daily target meant open  flogging leading to insanity or death of many of them. The jail had Gallows too which could hang three persons at a time and it was located centrally to enable all see it that incase of disobedience, this could be their fate, too. Nobody can tell how many were hanged during the eight decades of existence of this jail till 1938. The story of atrocious Dan Barry reminded one of General Dyer whose brazen, heartless decision  caused huge loss of innocent lives in Jalianwala Bagh.

 The three storeyed jail has an imposing structure in a triangular shape with tower in between for vigil of theprisoners. The saga of freedom struggle is powerfully delineated in the sound and light show with voice overs by Om Puri and Manohar Singh, the anchor. The place was declared National Memorial in 1979. 

Ii is so hard to imagine how the freedom fighters in prison cell of 13x7ft could languish for years and years with no communication or contact with any of inmates except through the chanting of slogans of Vande Matram, Bharat Mata ki Jai and Inqelab Zindabad. 

The long queues of people outside the Cellular Jail is a positive sign of people desirous of visiting the place and pay obeisance to memory of our freedom martyrs. I came back carrying memory of my mother how she must have felt.  I kept wondering whether we, the second and third generation since our country became an independent Republic  sensitive enough to feel the same way for those who died so that we could live honourably.  This place is a must visit to shake our own complascencies that what we have got today in abundance we owe to those who could also live life comfortably but they chose to stand for their mother India and did not care for their own kith, kin nor of their own lives and compelled the foreign rulers to flee the country.    I came out with deep sense of gratitude and value and love for my country. The whole place reverberated with the spirit of patriotism as if the would of those indomitable brave revolutionaries still resided there to bless their dear countrymen and instil in them the same fervour and ferocity of loyalty to their motherland.

It is definitely a must visit pilgrimage for all Indians to sensitise our own selves as well as our next generations for how our country became free and at what cost and how our forefathers laid down their lives so that we could live in a free country with '   our heads held high and mind without fear .'