Editing Cellular Jail

{{Short description|Indian island colonial prison}}
{{Other uses|Kala Pani (disambiguation)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2025}}
{{Use Indian English|date=July 2018}}{{Infobox building
| name             = Cellular Jail
| alternate_names  = Kālā Pāni
| image            = Front View of Cellular Jail, Port Blair.JPG
| caption          = Entrance of the Cellular Jail
| building_type    = Prison for [[political prisoners]] ([[Indian independence activists]])
| architectural_style = Cellular, pronged
| cost             = [[Indian rupee|₹]]517,352<ref name="hinduonnet">{{cite web | title = A memorial to the freedom fighters | newspaper = [[The Hindu]] | location = India | date = 15 August 2004 | url = http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/features/andaman/stories/2004081500160200.htm | access-date = 2 September 2006 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20071023104742/http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/features/andaman/stories/2004081500160200.htm | archive-date = 23 October 2007 | url-status = usurped }}</ref>
| client           = {{flagicon|India}} [[India]]
| owner            = [[Government of India]]
| location_town    = [[Port Blair]], [[Andaman Islands|Andaman]]
| location_country = {{IND}}
| coordinates      = {{coord|11.675|92.748|scale:3000}}
| start_date       = 1896
| completion_date  = 1906
}}

{{Infobox prison
| image            = File:Cellular Jail, Andaman and Nicobar.JPG
<!--Only add a person to this list if they already have their own article on the English Wikipedia-->
<!--Please keep the list in alphabetical order by FIRST NAME-->
| prisoners        =
{{ubl|[[Batukeshwar Dutt]]
|[[Bhai Parmanand]]
|[[Diwan Singh]]
|[[Hare Krishna Konar]]
|[[Hemchandra Kanungo]]
|[[Mahavir Singh (revolutionary)|Mahavir Singh]]
|[[Mohan Kishore Namadas]]
|[[Mohit Moitra]]
|[[Sachindra Nath Sanyal]]
|[[Shiv Verma]]
|[[Sohan Singh Bhakna]]
|[[Sudhangshu Dasgupta]]
|[[Vinayak Damodar Savarkar]]
|[[Yogendra Shukla]]}}
}}

The '''Cellular Jail''', also known as ''''''Kālā Pānī'''''' ({{Translation|'Black Water'}}), was a British colonial prison in the [[Andaman and Nicobar Islands]]. The prison was used by the [[British Raj|colonial government of India]] for the purpose of [[Penal transportation|exiling]] criminals and [[political prisoners]]. Many notable [[List of Indian independence activists|independence activists]] were imprisoned there during the [[Indian independence movement|struggle for India's independence]].<ref>{{Cite web|title=Cellular Jail: Timing, Updated Photos, History and reviews 2020|url=https://www.tropicalandamans.com/cellular-jail|access-date=2021-12-16|website=www.tropicalandamans.com}}</ref> Today, the complex serves as a national memorial monument.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Cellular jail District South Andaman, Government of Andaman and Nicobar {{!}} India|url=https://southandaman.nic.in/tourist-place/cellular/|access-date=2021-12-16|language=en-US}}</ref>

Originally built with seven wings, the building suffered extensive damage during the earthquake in 1941.<ref>https://whc.unesco.org/en/tentativelists/5888/#</ref> Later, two wings were dismantled during the [[World War II|Second World War]] by the Japanese, who repurposed the bricks for constructing bunkers and other structures. After [[Indian independence movement|India gained independence]], two more wings were demolished in the 1950s to make way for the nearby [[Govind Ballabh Pant]] Hospital. Today, only the watchtower and three wings (1, 6, and 7) remain.<ref>https://amritmahotsav.nic.in/blogdetail.htm?103</ref>

==History==
{{see also|Ross Island Penal Colony}}
Although the prison complex itself was constructed between 1896 and 1906, the British authorities in India had been using the Andaman Islands as a prison since the days in the immediate aftermath of the [[Indian Rebellion of 1857]].{{citation needed|date=June 2021}}

[[File:Port Blair 1872 Ross Island Penal HQ.jpg|thumb|left|200px|The [[Ross Island Penal Colony|Ross Island Prison Headquarters]], 1872]]

Shortly after the rebellion was suppressed, captured [[Prisoner|prisoners]] were put on trial, with many of them being executed. Others were exiled for life to the [[Andaman Sea|Andamans]] to prevent them from re-offending. Two hundred rebels were transported to the islands under the custody of the jailer David Barry and Major [[James Pattison Walker]], an [[Indian Medical Service]] (IMS) doctor who had been warden of the prison at [[Agra]]. Another 733 from [[Karachi]] arrived in April 1868.<ref>{{cite web | url = http://www.andamancellularjail.org/History.htm##Link1 | title = History of Andaman Cellular Jail | work = This is about Andaman Cellular Jail | url-status = usurped | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070118091924/http://www.andamancellularjail.org/History.htm%23 | archive-date=18 January 2007 }}</ref> In 1863, the Rev. Henry Fisher Corbyn, of the Bengal Ecclesiastical Establishment, was also sent out there and he set up the 'Andamanese Home' there, which was also a repressive institution albeit disguised as a charitable one.<ref>George Weber, ''Pioneer Biographies of the British Period to 1947'', np, nd, Appendix A</ref> Rev. Corbyn was posted in 1866 as [[Vicar]] to [[St. Luke's Church, Abbottabad]], and later died there and is buried at the [[Old Christian Cemetery, Abbottabad]].  More prisoners arrived from India and Burma as the settlement grew.<ref name="andamangovt">{{cite web | title=Hundred years of the Andamans Cellular Jail |publisher=Andaman and Nicobar Administration website | url = http://www.and.nic.in/cjail-hun.htm | access-date = 2 September 2006 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070930023549/http://www.and.nic.in/cjail-hun.htm |archive-date=30 September 2007 }} Source: ''[[The Hindu]]'', 21 December 2005.</ref> Anyone who belonged to the Mughal royal family, or who had sent a petition to [[Bahadur Shah Zafar]] during the Rebellion was liable to be deported to the islands.{{Citation needed|date=May 2014}}

[[File:Viper New Jails Construction.JPG|thumb|250px|right|Port Blair - Viper New Jails under construction]]
The remote islands were considered to be a suitable place to punish the independence activists. Not only were they isolated from the mainland, the overseas journey (''[[Kala pani (taboo)|kala pani]]'') to the islands also threatened them with loss of caste, resulting in [[social exclusion]].<ref name="AlisonCarolyn2012">{{cite book | author1=Alison Bashford | author2=Carolyn Strange | title=Isolation: Places and Practices of Exclusion | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=z72MP1zc4KgC&pg=PA37 | access-date=2 February 2013 | date=12 November 2012 | publisher=Psychology Press | isbn=978-0-415-30980-6 | page=37 }}</ref> The convicts were also used in [[chain gang]]s to construct prisons, buildings, and [[harbour]] facilities.{{Citation needed|date=May 2014}}

By the late 19th century, the [[Indian independence movement|independence movement]] had picked up momentum. As a result, the number of prisoners being sent to the Andamans grew and the need for a high-security prison was felt.  From August 1889 [[Charles James Lyall]] served as home secretary in the Raj government, and was also tasked with an investigation of the penal settlement at [[Port Blair]].<ref name=ODNB>{{ODNBweb|id=34642|title=Lyall, Sir Charles James}}</ref><ref name=IndiaList1905>{{cite book |title=The India List and Office List |publisher=India Office |year=1905 |url=https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_3VQTAAAAYAAJ |page=[https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_3VQTAAAAYAAJ/page/n556 552] |access-date=2011-11-21}}</ref> Both he and [[A. S. Lethbridge]], a surgeon in the IMS, concluded that the punishment of [[transportation]] to the [[Andaman Islands]] was failing to achieve the purpose intended and that indeed criminals preferred to go there rather than be incarcerated in Indian jails. Lyall and Lethbridge recommended that a "penal stage" should exist in the transportation sentence, whereby transported prisoners were subjected to a period of harsh treatment upon arrival. The outcome was the construction of the Cellular Jail, which has been described as "a place of exclusion and isolation within a more broadly constituted remote [[penal]] space."<ref>{{cite book |title=Isolation: places and practices of exclusion |first1=Carolyn |last1=Strange |first2=Alison |last2=Bashford |publisher=Routledge |location=London |year=2003 |isbn=978-0-415-30980-6 |pages=41–42 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=z72MP1zc4KgC |access-date=2011-11-22}}</ref>

==Architecture==
{{anchor | Arch | arch }}
{{see also | Architecture of India| Indian vernacular architecture  | Ancient Indian architecture }}
[[File:Cellular Jail 3.JPG|thumb|Cellular Jail]]

The construction of the prison started in 1896 and was completed in 1906. The original building was a [[puce]]-colored brick building. The bricks used to build the building were brought from [[Burma]].{{Citation needed|date=May 2014}}

The building had seven wings, at the center of which a tower served as the intersection and was used by [[Corrections officer|guards]] to keep watch on the inmates; this format was based on Jeremy Bentham's idea of the [[panopticon]]. The wings radiated from the tower in straight lines, much like the spokes of a wheel.
[[File:Cellular Jail, Andaman and Nicobar.JPG|thumb|One of the seven wings]]

Each of the seven wings had three stories upon completion. There were no dormitories and a total of 696 cells. Each cell was {{convert|4.5|x|2.7|m}} in size with a ventilator located at a height of {{convert|3|m}}.<ref name="mapsofindia">{{cite web |title=Cellular Jail - Darkness At Noon |publisher=MapsofIndia.com |url=http://india.mapsofindia.com/culture/monuments/cellular-jail.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061101202324/http://india.mapsofindia.com/culture/monuments/cellular-jail.html |archive-date=1 November 2006}}</ref> The name, "cellular jail", derived from the solitary cells, which prevented any prisoner from communicating with any other.{{Citation needed|date=May 2014}} Also, the spokes were designed such that the face of a cell in a spoke saw the back of cells in another spoke. This way, communication between prisoners was impossible. They were all in solitary confinement.<ref name="indiaimage">{{cite web|title=India Image: Cellular Jail |publisher=Andaman and Nicobar Administration website |url=http://indiaimage.nic.in/Cellular.htm |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060524034243/http://indiaimage.nic.in/Cellular.htm |archive-date=24 May 2006}}</ref>
The locks of the prison cells were designed in such a way that the inmate would never be able to reach the latch of the lock. The prison guards would lock up the inmates and throw the key of the lock inside the jail. The inmate would try to put his hand out and try to unlock the door but would never be able to do so as his hand would never reach the key.{{citation needed|date=September 2020}}

==Notable incarcerations==
[[Sardar Singh Artillery]], [[Diwan Singh|Diwan Singh Kalepani]], [[Yogendra Shukla]], [[Batukeshwar Dutt]], [[Shadan Chandra Chatterjee]], [[Sohan Singh Bhakna|Sohan Singh]], [[Vinayak Savarkar]], [[Hare Krishna Konar]], [[Hemchandra Kanungo]], [[Sachindra Nath Sanyal]], [[Shiv Verma]], [[Allama Fazl-e-Haq Khairabadi]], [[Sudhangshu Dasgupta|Sudhanshu Dasgupta]], [[Ullashkar Dutta]], [[Barindra Kumar Ghosh]], [[Vinayak Damodar Savarkar]] and [[Ganesh Damodar Savarkar]]

==Prison conditions and inmates==
[[File:A Cell.JPG|thumb|left|From inside a cell]]

Conditions faced by prisoners in the Cellular Jail were frequently abysmal. As noted in a ''[[The Guardian|Guardian]]'' article, prisoner could face "[[torture]], [[medical test]]s, [[forced labour]] and for many, [[List of prison deaths|death]]."<ref name=OurHell>{{cite news | url = https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2001/jun/23/weekend.adrianlevy | title = Survivors of our hell | first1 = Cathy | last1 = Scott-Clark | first2 = Adrian | last2 = Levy | date = 22 June 2001 | work = The Guardian | access-date = 7 February 2019}}</ref> In response to poor conditions in the Cellular Jail, including the quality of prison food, numerous prisoners went on [[hunger strike]]s. Those who did were often [[Force-feeding|force-fed]] by the prison authorities.<ref name=OurHell/>

Solitary confinement was implemented as the British government of India wanted to ensure that political prisoners and revolutionaries be isolated from one another. Most prisoners of the Cellular Jail were independence activists. Some inmates were, [[Fazl-e-Haq Khairabadi]], [[Yogendra Shukla]], [[Batukeshwar Dutt]],  [[Vinayak Savarkar]], [[Babarao Savarkar]], [[Sachindra Nath Sanyal]], [[Hare Krishna Konar]], [[Bhai Parmanand]], [[Sohan Singh]], [[Subodh Roy]] and [[Trailokyanath Chakravarty]].<ref>{{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20100906201654/http://www.andamancellularjail.org/ListOfRevolutionaries.htm Freedom Fighters Deported to Andamans]}}. AndamanCellularJail.org.</ref> Many [[Mappila Muslims|moplahs]] arrested in the 1921 [[Malabar rebellion]] were also lodged in Cellular Jail.<ref>{{Cite web |title=MOPLAH REBELLION (PRISONERS). (Hansard, 18 February 1924) |url=https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1924/feb/18/moplah-rebellion-prisoners |access-date=2023-03-28 |website=api.parliament.uk}}</ref> Several revolutionaries were tried in the [[Emperor v. Aurobindo Ghosh and others|Alipore Case]] (1908), such as [[Barindra Kumar Ghose]], the surviving companion of [[Bagha Jatin]], was transferred to Berhampore Jail in Bengal, before his mysterious death in 1924.

[[Sher Ali Afridi]], a former officer in the Punjab Mounted Police, was a life convict in the jail who had been imprisoned for murder. He was sentenced to death on 2 April 1867 and during appeal this was reduced to life imprisonment and he was deported to Andamans to serve his sentence. [[Richard Bourke, 6th Earl of Mayo|The 6th Earl of Mayo]], [[Viceroy of India]] from 1869, was visiting the Andaman and Nicobar Islands in February 1872 when he was murdered by Afridi.<ref name="Halen">{{cite web |last=James |first=Halen |title=The Assassination of Lord Mayo : The "First" Jihad? |url=http://ijaps.usm.my/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/HelenJames_LordMayoAssassination.pdf |accessdate=18 November 2012 |publisher=IJAPS, Vol 5, No.2 (July 2009)}}</ref><ref name="kapse">{{cite news |last=Kapse |first=Ram |date=21 December 2005 |title=Hundred years of the Andamans Cellular Jail |newspaper=[[The Hindu]] |url=http://www.hindu.com/2005/12/21/stories/2005122107881100.htm |url-status=dead |accessdate=18 November 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061213184157/http://www.hindu.com/2005/12/21/stories/2005122107881100.htm |archive-date=13 December 2006}}</ref> [[Sher Ali Afridi]] wanted to kill the Superintendent and the Viceroy as a revenge for his sentence, which he thought was more severe than he deserved.<ref name="andaman">{{cite web |title=The Murder of Lord Mayo 1872 |url=http://www.andaman.org/BOOK/app-o/texto.htm |accessdate=18 November 2012 |publisher=andaman.org |archive-date=5 October 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121005113004/http://andaman.org/BOOK/app-o/texto.htm |url-status=dead }}</ref> He said that he killed on the instructions of [[Allah]].<ref name="Halen2">{{cite web |last=James |first=Halen |title=The Assassination of Lord Mayo : The "First" Jihad? |url=http://ijaps.usm.my/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/HelenJames_LordMayoAssassination.pdf |accessdate=18 November 2012 |publisher=IJAPS, Vol 5, No.2 (July 2009)}}</ref> He was subsequently hanged.

[[File:Cellular Jail Balcony.JPG|thumb|left|Cellular Jail balcony]]
In March 1868, 238 prisoners tried to escape. By April they were all caught. One committed suicide and of the remainder Superintendent Walker ordered 87 to be hanged.<ref>{{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20070118091924/http://www.andamancellularjail.org/History.htm%23 History of Andaman Cellular Jail: Atrocities committed on early freedom fighters]}}. AndamanCellularJail.org.</ref>

{{blockquote|Among the records of the Government of India's Home Department, we found the Empire's response in its Orders to Provincial Governors and Chief Commissioners. "Very Secret: Regarding security prisoners who hunger strike, every effort should be made to prevent the incidents from being reported, no concessions to be given to the prisoners who must be kept alive. Manual methods of restraint are best, then mechanical when the patient resists."<ref name=OurHell />}}

Hunger strikes by the inmates in May 1933 caught the attention of the jail authorities. Thirty-three prisoners protested their treatment and sat in a hunger strike. Among them were [[Mahavir Singh (freedom fighter)|Mahavir Singh]], an associate of [[Bhagat Singh]] (Lahore conspiracy case), [[Mohan Kishore Namadas]] (convicted in Arms Act Case) and [[Mohit Moitra]] (also convicted in Arms Act Case). These three died due to [[force-feeding]].<ref>{{Cite book|title=Andaman and Nicobar Islands: A Saga of Freedom Struggle|last=Murthy|first=R. V. R.|publisher=Kalpaz Publications|year=2011|isbn=978-8178359038}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|title=Bejoy Kumar Sinha: A Revolutionary's Quest for Sacrifice|last=Sinha|first=Srirajyam|publisher=Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan|year=1993}}</ref>
Other prisoners:<ref name=OurHell />
* Prisoner 31552 [[Ullaskar Dutt]] (made home-made bombs that exploded inside a carriage in [[Muzaffarpur]], killing the bridge partners of Douglas Kingsford, the chief presidency magistrate, Mrs. [[Pringle Kennedy]] and her daughter, Grace). He was tortured, declared insane due to malarial infection, transferred to the island's lunatic ward at Haddo, and held there for 14 years.
* Prisoner 31549 [[Barindra Kumar Ghosh|Barin Ghose]]
* Prisoner 31555, Indu Bhushan Roy (hanged himself with a strand of torn kurta, "exhausted by the unrelenting oil mill")
* Prisoner 38360, Chattar Singh, who was suspended in an iron suit for three years
* Prisoner 38511, Baba Bhan Singh, who had been beaten to death by David Barry's men
* Prisoner 41054, Ram Raksha, who had starved himself in protest at the removal of sacred Brahminical threads from around his chest
* Haripada Chowdhury (caught in the attempted murder case of the editor of The Englishman (later Statesman) Watson and was sentenced for 10 years and deported to Andaman. Was eventually released in the year 1939. During his capture he was found in possession of a pistol along with numerous bullets of different caliber, which are now on display, along with his photograph, in the Kolkata Police Museum, situated in the premises of North Kolkata DC Office.)
*
* Prisoner 147 Dhirendra Chowdhury (robbery to raise funds for bombs and guns), one of the few survivors of Kalapani
* Naringun Singh (guilty of desertion at Nuddea) (hanged himself in his cell, due to torture by the prison authorities)
* Prisoner 15557 [[Sher Ali Afridi|Sher Ali]], killed [[Richard Bourke, 6th Earl of Mayo|Lord Mayo]], the [[Viceroy of India]], who arrived at the Andaman Islands on an inspection tour on 8 February 1872; hanged on 11 March 1872
* Prisoner 12819, Mehtab, and
* Prisoner 10817, Choitun, came the closest to succeeding. According to ''The Guardian'', "They stole away from the islands on 26 March 1872, rowing out into the Bay of Bengal on home-made rafts across a 750-mile stretch of turbulent water, dodging schools of bounty hunters who fought over 250-rupee rewards (then £25). Picked up by a British vessel, they persuaded the crew that they were shipwrecked fishermen and eventually pitched up, free, at the Strangers Home for Asiatics in London. The two were fed, clothed and given a bed. But while they slept, Colonel Hughes, the home's proprietor, took photographs that were circulated around the Empire. One morning, Mehtab and Choitun awoke to find themselves shackled and frog-marched aboard a ship bound for India."<ref name=OurHell />
* Prisoner 68 [[Mahavir Singh (revolutionary)|Mahavir Singh]]: "It took a while for the whisper to reach the Yard Five Wing. By then it was 8 pm." The bell rang again. Every prisoner shuffled to his locked gate. "The feeding tube had gone into Mahavir Singh's lungs. They were filled with milk. Doctors were now fighting to revive him. So we shouted 'Inquilab Zindabad' – long live the revolution. 'Inquilab Zindabad'. Twenty-one warders ran out of the Central Tower. 'Inquilab Zindabad'. Truncheons were drawn, a gun was cocked." "Midnight", Dr. Edge noted in the penal colony's hospital log. "Mahavir Singh – dead."<ref name=OurHell />
* Prisoner 89, Mohan Kishore, had also been killed. Drowned in milk
* Prisoner 93 Mohit Mitra, killed. Drowned in milk
* Prisoner 61, Narain (having excited sedition in the cantonment at [[Danapur|Dinapore]]) was the first to try to escape. He was fished from the black water, hauled up before Dr Walker and executed.<ref name=OurHell />

[[Mahatma Gandhi]] and [[Rabindranath Tagore]] launched a campaign to shut down the jail, and the colonial government decided to repatriate the political prisoners from the Cellular Jail from 1937 to 1938.<ref name="hinduonnet"/> "The Cellular Jail was forced to empty in 1939. Two years later, the Japanese seized the islands, transforming the penal settlement into a prisoner of war camp, incarcerating the British warders. In 1945 the Andamans would become the first piece of India to be declared independent."<ref name=OurHell />

State-wise list of freedom fighters sent to the Cellular Jail:<ref>{{Cite web |title=CSTDoc |url=http://db.and.nic.in/cellularjail/stories/namelist.htm |access-date=2023-06-02 |website=db.and.nic.in}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=2022-01-21 |title=Open Government Data (OGD) Platform India |url=https://data.gov.in/ |access-date=2023-06-02 |website=data.gov.in |language=en}}</ref>
{| class="wikitable"
|+
!S. No.
!State
!Number of Freedom Fighters
|-
|1
|Bengal
|608
|-
|2
|Punjab
|95
|-
|3
|Maharashtra
|3
|-
|4
|Bihar
|17
|-
|5
|Uttar Pradesh
|18
|-
|6
|Kerala
|14
|-
|7
|Andhra Pradesh
|8
|-
|8
|Odisha
|5
|-
|9
|Himachal/ NW Frontier/ Tamil Nadu/ State not known
|27
|-
|
|Total
|795
|}

==INA control==
The [[Empire of Japan|Japanese]] launched an [[Invasion and occupation of the Andaman Islands during World War II|invasion of the Andaman islands]] in March 1942, capturing the Cellular Jail and all prison personnel. The Cellular Jail then became home to British prisoners-of-war, suspected Indian supporters of the British, and later of members of the [[Indian Independence League]], many of whom were tortured and killed there by the Japanese.<ref>N. Iqbal Singh ''The Andaman Story'' (Delhi: Vikas Publ.) 1978 p. 249</ref> Notionally during this period control of the Islands was passed to [[Subhas Chandra Bose]], who hoisted the Indian National Flag for the first time on the islands, at the Gymkhana Ground in Port Blair, appointed INA General AD Loganathan as the governor of the Islands, and announced the Azad Hind Government was not merely a Government in Exile, and had freed the territory from British colonial rule.<ref name="Toi">{{cite news |last= Abraham |first=Bobins |url=https://www.indiatimes.com/news/india/this-day-in-1943-netaji-subhash-chandra-bose-hoisted-first-independent-indian-flag-in-andaman-nicobar-336657.html |title=This Day In 1943 Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose Hoisted First Independent Indian Flag In Andaman & Nicobar |work=The Times of India |publisher=Times of India |date=2017-12-30 |access-date=2018-09-11 }}</ref>

On 7 October 1945 the British resumed control of the Islands, and prison, following the surrender of the islands to Brigadier J. A. Salomons, of the [[116th Indian Infantry Brigade]], a month after the [[Surrender of Japan]], at the end of [[World War II]].

==Post Independence==
Another two wings of the jail were demolished after India achieved independence. However, this led to protests from several former prisoners and political leaders who saw it as a way of erasing the tangible evidence of their history.

The [[Govind Ballabh Pant]] Hospital was set up in the premises of the Cellular Jail in 1963. It is now a 500-bed hospital with about 40 doctors serving the local population.<ref name="isro">{{cite press release | title =Dedication of INSAT- 3C/ Inauguration of Andaman & Nicobar Islands Tele-medicine Project (G B Pant Hospital) | publisher=Indian Space Research Organization |url = http://www.isro.org/pressrelease/Jul03_2002.htm | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040229083424/http://isro.org/pressrelease/Jul03_2002.htm |archive-date=29 February 2004 |access-date = 3 September 2006 }}</ref>

Cellular Jail was declared a National Memorial by the then Prime Minister of India, Morarji Desai on 11 February 1979.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://whc.unesco.org/en/tentativelists/5888/ |title=Cellular Jail, Andaman Islands |website=UNESCO World Heritage Centre |date=15 April 2014 |access-date= 22 August 2021}}</ref>

The centenary of the jail's completion was marked on 10 March 2006. Many former prisoners were celebrated on this occasion by the [[Government of India]].<ref name="ann100">{{cite web | title = Cellular Jail completes 100 years | publisher = Andaman & Nicobar Administration website | url = http://www.and.nic.in/cell/cell-jail.htm | access-date = 2 September 2006 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20060528040920/http://www.and.nic.in/cell/cell-jail.htm | archive-date = 28 May 2006 | url-status = dead }}</ref>

Apart from guided tours, a [[Son et lumière (show)|sound-and-light show]] is also run in the evenings narrating and showcasing the trials and tribulations of the inmates. It is available in English and Hindi.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.deccanherald.com/supplements/travel/prisons-of-freedom-755388.html|title=Prisons of freedom|date=2019-08-20|website=Deccan Herald|language=en|access-date=2020-04-13}}</ref>

==In popular culture==
''[[Kaalapani]]'', a 1996 Malayalam [[historical drama]] film was based on the prison and its inmates during 1915. Some scenes were shot in the actual prison.

[[Arthur Conan Doyle]]'s second [[Sherlock Holmes]] novel, ''[[The Sign of the Four]]'', centers around a group of characters who were inmates or guards at the colonial jail in the Andaman islands. One of the characters is an escapee who has returned to England with a native Andamanese man as a companion. The novel characterizes the Andamanese people in a racist manner, by contemporary standards.

==Gallery==
<gallery mode="packed" heights="160">
File:A model of Cellular Jail at Cellular Jail.jpg|Exhibit at Cellular Jail: model of the facility
File:Flogging frame exhibit at Cellular Jail.jpg|Exhibit at Cellular Jail: flogging frame
File:Man operated oil mill exhibit at Cellular Jail..jpg|Exhibit at Cellular Jail: oil mill
File:Cellular Jail, Port Blair, India, inner view of the cell of prisoners.jpg|Inner view of a cell
File:Cellular Jail, Port Blair, India, special condemned cell for keeping the prisoners before hanging to death.jpg|Special condemned cell for keeping prisoners before hanging
File:Cellular jail's hanging cell.JPG|The hanging cell, where three prisoners could be hanged at once
File:Closer view of a cell of Cellular Jail, Port Blair, India.jpg|Exterior view of one wing
File:Cellular Jail, Port Blair, India, night view, March 2016.jpg|Night time view
File:Kalapani 05.jpg|Cellular Jail in the evening
</gallery>

==See also==
{{Portal|India|Law}}
* [[Charles Tegart]], British police commissioner
* [[Communist Consolidation]]
* ''[[Kaalapani]]'', a 1996 Indian film set in the jail

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
* [https://cellularjail.com cellularjail.com]

{{commons category}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Government buildings completed in 1906]]
[[Category:British colonial prisons in Asia]]
[[Category:Prisoners and detainees of British India]]
[[Category:Defunct prisons in India]]
[[Category:History of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands]]
[[Category:Indian independence movement]]
[[Category:Tourist attractions in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands]]
[[Category:Buildings and structures in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands]]
[[Category:Monuments and memorials in India]]
[[Category:History museums in India]]
[[Category:Prison museums in India]]
[[Category:Port Blair]]
[[Category:1906 establishments in India]]
[[Category:20th-century architecture in India]]
[[Category:World Heritage Tentative List for India]]
[[Category:Prisons in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands]]
[[Category:British colonial architecture in India]]