Cellular Jail - Port Blair

Cellular Jail, also known as Kala Pani is the colonial prison from British era where many prisoners including political prisoners were kept during the struggle of India's Independence. This building has 3 wings which meets at the center, and each wing has three stories. It was said to have 7 wings before which have been demolished now for the sake of the development in the city. Now this place is the national memorial monument and available for visitor to visit with a nominal entrance fee from morning 09:00 am till 04:45 pm in the evening.

To the left side of the entrance gate there is a museum which shows -

• The struggle of India's Independence through pictures. 
• Also has several picture of known and unknown prisoners with their stories and the crime for which they had been put inside the jail. 
• Stories of political prisoners.
• The collection is so huge that many of us may not have heard of their names who are alive only in history now. 

The museum is extended to the right side of the entrance gate and has -

• The miniature version of original Cellular Jail.

  

  Miniature version of Cellular Jail

• The birth & construction story of Cellular Jail. 
• The stories of several dreaded jailers. 
• The story of prisoners life.
• Coins released on Cellular Jail.
• Coins released during birth century of Netaji.
• Uniform of convict officials.
• Neck ring & uniform of political prisoners.
• Lock & Keys used in jail.
• Helmet used by Japanese soldiers during 1942- 1945.
• And several other things which had been used by the jailers and prisoners. 

Cellular Jail premises has several things to see, below are the few of them which I could remember - 

• 

  Corridor

  Cells - Each wing had three floor, and each wing had around 70+ cells. Each cell had a small window at the top of the wall from where only a small ray of light could come in. The prisoners were kept inside the cell without providing any light, they had to rely on the ray of light which used to come from the window. Few cells had no windows or doors at all, hence there was no way a light could pass inside the cells. Prisoners had been kept in those cells for several days and being tortured until they broke-down themselves.

• Condemned Cell - The cell where prisoners sentenced to death spent last days of their life. The Gallows can seen from Condemned Cells.

• Gallows - At a time they used to execute 3 people together.

• Models depicting the rituals one had to follow before the execution.

• Models depicting prisoners life - There were models which showed the typical prisoner's life in

  

  Gallows

   prison.

• Oil Mill - Known as Kohlu (The oil girding). The most difficult and hardest work, which caused the death of some. Each prisoner was given around 15-20 coconuts to get the oil. Starting from peeling the shell to taking out the oil from coconut was an step to step process which was done manually by each prisoners. The hardest step was grinding oil as it required the physical strength and the kind of food the prisoners used to get it was nearly impossible to perform this tasks. If someone was not able to finish the assigned tasks they used to get the punishment and also the extra work.    

• Flogging Frame - Used for giving the punishments to the prisoners, where they were tied to a frame with their hands, waist and legs tied and a whip is used for beating them.

• Cross Bar Fetters - This consisted of the iron rings around the neck & ankles and a bar which kept the two legs apart. Prisoners had a horrified life inside the cells of Cellular Jail.  

Once done with museum, the path takes you to a huge grounds where chairs are arranged in several rows and columns for people to sit and see the Sound & Light Show which airs almost everyday at 06:00 pm and 07:15 pm. We attended the 06:00 pm show which was in Hindi and was very informative. We were able to connect to the jail premises which we had covered in the afternoon. 

The show used the big bo tree near the sit outs and the center of the 7 wings of the Cellular Jail to narrate the story. During the show it covered the history of Andaman and Cellular jail. Told about the few important events which took place in Cellular Jail, which were also among the few unforgettable turning points in Indian history.

Sit outs for Sound & Light show

Taking pictures and videos during the show was prohibited, so I don't have anything which revels the glimpse of the show, but I would must say that overall it was a very good experience and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I would highly recommend people to attend this show if they happen to be in Port Blair.