A Mask of Righteousness
For centuries, Great Britain achieved the height of their power by colonizing other lands, controlling about 25% of the world’s territory at their peak. One of their longest-lasting colonies was India, often nicknamed the brightest jewel of the British Crown. However, in 1857 a rebellion known as the Sepoy Mutiny began the unraveling of British rule in the budding nation. A siege by the rebels that happened during this rebellion cost the British over 2000 of their soldiers. In fear of further violence, the British built a cellular jail on the Andaman Islands. This Cellular Prison in Port Blair stood as an example of British oppression and ill-treatment of the Indians, fuelling the fire of the Indians’ rebellion.
The Jail's very purpose, to spark fear amongst the Indians and prevent rebellion against British rule, hints at why it had such a significant effect on the later struggle for independence. But before it came into existence, its island home was a penal settlement where convicts would live after they were exiled. The Indian Mutiny of 1857, a violent uprising against the initial rule of the British East India Company, cost the British a lot of lives. They needed a punishment that would ensure no such violence in the future. So, they consulted Hindu texts and found the myth of Kala Pani that warned that any person who crosses the black water will be disconnected from their soul (Levy and Scott-Clark). The myth was exaggerated to instill fear in the Indians, preventing them from pursuing violence and crime. But the British soon found that transportation wasn’t as feared as they thought it would be. People of different castes and different religions did not view punishment as such a terrible thing because the myth pertained only to Hindus of a certain caste (Anderson). Therefore, many Indian rebels who sought independence were not intimidated by the punishment and continued to commit political crimes against the British. Thus, the British decided to build something to make the punishment as horrible as they wanted it to seem -- a cellular jail.
The inmates of this new prison experienced foreign hardships during this time, resulting in trauma and suppressed rage that stayed with them for life. They did various labor tasks, yet they were deprived of basic human rights. A former convict of the Cellular Jail writes, “...here, there was no such thing as gentleman, not even perhaps such a thing as man, here we were only convicts!” (Ghosh 53). The prison had unfavorable conditions, and deaths (both suicides and executions) were frequent. Many of the convicts did not have favorable opinions of the British because of these factors. They viewed the British officials as sadistic and inconsiderate people who intimidated them. “The goat does not fear the tiger half so much as the prisoners feared this king of the Black Waters,” writes a former convict, expressing his fear for a major British official (Ghosh 51). By putting prisoners into such a different atmosphere from what they were used to in their mainland, the Cellular Jail left a lasting emotional impact on its convicts. The people who may have gone in as good-hearted and kind were subjected to starvation, beatings, and other forms of inhuman punishments. The prison officers’ treatment of the prisoners left a lasting impact in the form of trauma, making them resentful and angry. A first-hand account of a convict explains the difference he saw in the prisoners who came and left, saying, “They are no longer the raw, timid and simple souls of old,” (Ghosh 33). These psychological effects of imprisonment in the cellular jail highlighted another instance of British oppression and inhuman treatment of Indians as a whole. Thus, it continued to fuel the Indian rebels’ resentment, contributing to their determination to struggle for an independent India.
Using their experience at the jail as fuel, the Indian inmates managed to turn the course of their country’s history. The prisoners of the jail continued to make efforts to encourage Indian nationalism and rebellion against the British. They organized numerous strikes, spreading the news of their mistreatment over to the Indian mainland. As a result, the Indian Prison Committee was forced to transfer convicts to jails in the Indian mainland (Murthy). Now, Andaman Island was the first part of India to be completely independent of the British.
Ultimately, the Cellular Jail changed history by highlighting the oppression of the Indians by the British, contributing to the Indian struggle for independence. If it wasn’t for the jail, many lives would have remained pure and untouched. Yet, the Jail and its creation did have a positive result. Some of the biggest motivations for Indian Independence stemmed from the happenings at this Jail.
Sources
Anderson, Clare. “The Politics of Convict Space : Indian Penal Settlements and the Andaman Islands.” Leicester.figshare.com, University of Leicester, 2003, leicester.figshare.com/articles/chapter/The_politics_of_convict_space_Indian_penal_settlements_and_the_Andaman_Islands/10146683.
Ghosh, Barindra Kumar. The Tale of My Exile: Twelve Years in the Andamans. 1922. Arya Office, 2011, archive.org/details/cu31924031246410/page/n7/mode/2up.
Levy, Adrian, and Scott-Clark, Cathy. “Survivors of Our Hell.” The Guardian, The Guardian, 23 June 2001, www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2001/jun/23/weekend.adrianlevy.
R V R Murthy. Andaman and Nicobar Islands: A Saga of Freedom Struggle. Kalpaz Publications, 2011, books.google.com/books?id=mQ6iwhUHWy8C&newbks=0&printsec=frontcover&pg=PP1&hl=en&source=newbks_fb#v=twopage&q&f=false.
Sengupta, Suparna. “The ‘Terror’ of Kala Pani.” Google Books, 24 Dec. 2021, www.google.com/books/edition/Kala_Pani_Crossings/kKZMEAAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=Cellular+Jail+and+Indian+Independence&pg=PT13&printsec=frontcover.