Cellular Jail
The story of Kala Pani — the Indian Bastille
Today marks the 75th year of India’s independence. India has come a long way from a land of ‘Snake Charmers’ to the 3rd Largest Economy in terms of PPP and 6th largest economy in the world. The brutal struggle with many patriots sacrificing their lives has made it possible for us to see this day. The Cellular jail or Kala Pani as it was called, is a symbol of this dark, violent struggle.
It all started in 1857, with the Indian War of Independence. The war is referred to as the Indian mutiny. However, a mutiny is done against a leader and not invaders, so calling it as mutiny would simply be wrong. The war, though it failed to repel British invaders, sent big shocks to the British empire, across the ocean, which resulted in transferring ruling powers from the East India Company to the British Crown. It also prompted the empire to have a penal colony away from the main land to ship all the political instigators so that the mainland population would be easy to subjugate. This idea is what later led to the foundation of the cellular jail or Kala Pani.
The name Kala Pani, is translated as death beyond the ocean (Kal — death, pani — water). Between 1857 -1938, some 80,000 Indian prisoners were shipped to Andaman, most of whom never returned. Some of these were aged only 15! Dr. James Walker was assigned as First Superintendent of the Penal colony in 1858. When the first batch of 200 prisoners arrived, some of them tried to escape. Subsequently, Dr. Walker executed 81 of the prisoners in a single day!
Dr. Walker further requested for 10,000 Indian prisoners to be sent. These were used to clear up the forests and establish residences for the colonial masters. The colonial masters enjoyed lavish swimming pools, tennis courts, churches with tainted windows bought from Italy, while many of the Indians died due to cholera, dysentery and other diseases caused by poor health due to malnutrition.
The Indian political prisoners were also used as Guinea pigs in secretive pharmaceutical trials. Thousands of them were force fed Cinchona alkaloid — a supposed anti malarial to be tested. The drug however, caused nausea and diarrhea and was a depressant.
Convict 25276. Observed on 22 March 1881. In a weak state. Bloodless. Tongue large, pale and flabby. Diarrhoea. Dead in two days. — Dr. Reid, senior medical officer
Soon, several of the prisoners died due to diseases and suicide by depression.
The aboriginals of the Andaman islands were not spared from the ‘British discipline’ too. In order to study and discipline the aboriginals, the colonial officials built the Andaman Home, which was supposed to woo the savages back to the track of humanity. The experiment was a fail however, as the aboriginals did not take an interest as they had wanted. The colonizers then tried other methods — bribing. The parents of the Andamanese children were bribed by alcohol, opium and such things into giving up the children in their care. These children were then forcibly held at the Andaman home in order to educate them. Later on, these children were to be given as servants amongst the officials. There are also mentions of sexual assaults being done against the Andamanese by the colonizers, which introduced syphilis, a disease that today has caused the Andamanese to go near extinct.
The penal colony was not enough, felt the colonials. There was a need to build a tougher structure which could be used to finally crush the spirits of these ever mutinying Indians. Hence, later in 1896, the construction of Cellular jail was started which would then be completed by 1906.
This jail consisted of 696 cells. Seven wings were built radially from the central tower as spokes of a bicycle wheel. Each of the cell was only 11 * 8 feet. The cells were built in such a way that no prisoner could interact with anyone.
Picking the oakum
The standard task to be served was picking the oakum. This involved breaking the coconuts, pulling out their outer covering and making a rope out of the fiber. All the prisoners were given a certain amount of quota they had to fulfill. If one couldn’t submit his amount, he were subjected to beatings and whippings. This work would make your hands cut and bleed through. However, this was considered an easy punishment. If a prisoner got this task, he was a lucky one!
Oil Milling
The prisoners were yoked to the handles and had to go round the wheel which crushed the coconut pieces to milk its oil. It required immense physical pressure. The prisoners were made to start from 6:00 in the morning till 11:00 am. Then again from 12:00 pm to 5:00 pm. Each prisoner was required to produce 30 lbs. of oil every day. Even oxen could not produce that much! If they could not produce that amount, then they were not given anything to eat that day and were subjected to whippings. Also, the prisoners were only allowed 3 cups of water to drink. So one has to go without water, and work all day and physically crush the coconut pieces by moving the handle mill.
No Sanitation
From 6 in the evening, to 6 in the morning, the prisoner was not supposed to answer the call of nature. He would be given a small pot to be used for that purpose, which was not enough. If he were to mess the floor, the punishment would be to keep the prisoner handcuffed, standing for 10 hours. Indigestible food, no timely water with exhaustive work would only add to the troubles of these prisoners.
Drowning in salt water: Precursor to Waterboarding
The British warders used a practice where a person is made to drown in water so that their lungs fill up with water and a sharp searing pain is sent through the body because of the burning of the lungs.
“I was trussed up out in the yard. Flogged until our skin split. Or we were half-drowned, bound like chickens and dunked in salt water until we were gasping. In 1935, I was hung for weeks at a time from a peg, high above my head, my face pressed against the bricks.” — Bankim Chakraborty
The Doctor
All of these tortures mean that eventually the prisoners used to get sick. They would get high fever, dysentery, cholera and malaria as the Andaman was a hot bed for malarial mosquitoes. Dr. Barker was assigned to look after the health of the prisoners, who would say whether the prisoner was fit to carry on with his work. However, no matter what the ailment or the health, the prisoners were always deemed to be fit to carry out their work. In fact sometimes, the doctor would claim that the prisoners were feigning the ailments and thus the prisoners would again be whipped for their ‘lies’
David Barry
David Barry was the jailer between 1909- 1931. He was the person responsible for handing out the cruel tortures to the political prisoners.
In Port Blair, there are two gods, one who lives in heaven above and one below. The one above is the God of Heaven whereas the one below, the God of Earth is no one but me. I alone have the power. If you complain about me to the superiors, I shall rain upon you the divine punishment — David Barry
A sadist and cruel person that he was, he used to terrorize the Indian prisoners. Sometimes, when a prisoner could not submit his 30lbs of daily oil quote, David Barry used to make him work all night at the oil mill. So, in such cases a person was made to work all round the clock grinding the mill till his daily quota was finished. He had beat several prisoners to death. He had but one job; to break and crush the bodies and minds of all Indian prisoners for their treacherous crime of loving their motherland!
Hunger Strike
The water given to the prisoners used to be infected with worms and disease. For food, they used to be given plain half boiled rice and boiled grass! This inhumane food along with daily torture caused several to perish. After a while, when they had no choice, the prisoners started hunger strikes to protest against these inhumane conditions.
But what was the response of the empire?
Recommendation, 24/1629/1: A rubber catheter should be inserted through the nostril and into the gullet and so to the stomach. A solution of milk, eggs and sugar should be poured via a funnel. In certain cases rectal feeding should be tried. — Medical committee
The purpose was just one. Do not let the prisoners carry out their hunger strikes. All prisoners were force-fed milk by inserting tubes into their stomachs. Three prisoners died in a week because instead of filling the stomach with milk, the British doctors had filled their lungs instead.
Several prisoners hung themselves in their prison because of unrelenting oil mill torture. Ullaskar Dutta, a revolutionary of the Alipore bomb case, was once asked to mill 3 litres of oil by the sadist David Barry. He refused, as even oxen and buffaloes cannot produce that in a day. He was subsequently beat up, tied and fettered up for a week and was given electric shocks. He was unconscious for over 3 days when they removed him. He had lost his mind and was driven to madness. He was released in 1920 after being deemed a lunatic.
One could go on and on about the tortures and horrific crimes committed by the British against the Indian political prisoners. People all over the world know about concentration camps and Nazi Hitler. The Germans condemned him. But often people have no knowledge about the crimes of the British against Indians. Aristocratic racist bigot Winston Churchill was given a Knighthood when he compared Indians to dogs and insects. The Britain looted 45 trillion dollars from the Indians. (US GDP today — 25 trillion $)When will the current United Kingdom recognize and accept the irreparable harm done to Indians by their forefathers? In the United States, they took down the statues of those who supported slavery. When will the English take down the Knighthood of several of these murderers and racist bigots? Isn’t non-condemnation and non acceptance a form of racism which still lurks the British society?
References:
- The story of My transportation for life — Vinayak Damodar Savarkar
- Survivors of our Hell: Guardian
- A history of our relations with the Andamanese: by Portman, Maurice Vidal, 1860–1935
- Sazaa — e — Kaala Pani Where dreams went to die
- How a British orphanage in the 18th century hastened the destruction of the Great Andamanese tribe
