Latitudes of the past!
The islands looked like tiny diamonds strewn in the backdrop of the clear blue waters. Kalindi peeped out of the aircraft window gloating at the richness of this conglomerate of tiny land masses called the Andaman & Nicobar Islands….so far away from main land India & yet so much a part of her.
The Andamans held a special place in her heart. She had come here accompanied by her husband to look for history. A history which had a personal connection with her family’s past & the events that unfolded thereafter.
Kalindi’s maternal grand dad had served time in the cellular jail here as a freedom fighter. She had come looking for that part of her ancestor’s life that no one from her immediate family had witnessed. She had grown up hearing how her nanaji* had participated in the freedom struggle. He adored Gandhi but had pretty much leftist views.
The freedom fighters in his group were young men between the age of 18 to 25 who braved physical hardships to swim across the Padma river to reach Bangladesh which was a part of India in those days. They brought back formulas to make crude bombs to blow-up British contingents.
In the year 1933, Keshav Prasad was finally arrested by the British. They had burnt to death a ruthless British officer & had gone underground due to the intensive search organized by the British Raj. As he hid in the underground cell in his home, the police had hookwinked a child in the family into telling them where Keshav was hiding. Keshav & his friends were never found guilty of homicide but since a substantial amount of gun powder & fire arms were confiscated from their respective houses, they were booked & sentenced to 7 years rigorous imprisonment in the cellular jail in the Andamans.
The cellular jail is situated at the Atlanta Point, on the eastern side of Port Blair in south Andamans. Port Blair is the capital of these untouched islands and was named thus after Lieutenant Archibald Blair who had first surveyed these islands to establish a penal settlement in 1788. The construction of the cellular jail started almost a century later.
The most feared freedom fighters were banished to this place. It was infamous as Kal Pani. Kal meaning death & Pani in hindi means water. The island was infested with Anopheles Mosquitos that cause malaria, centipedes & snakes. The chance of anyone coming back from this place alive was remote.
The freedom fighters would be tortured mercilessly by whipping them till they fainted only to be later tortured again by rubbing salt into their open wounds. Any Swatantrata Sainiks* who chanted the Vande Mataram would be tied to the ice slabs specially designed to crush the enthusiastic freedom fighters spirits. Dr Keshav would more often than ever irk the jail officials, even if it meant sleeping on the ice slabs till he turned blue with cold & lost consciousness. The prisoners went without proper food, clothing & medical treatment that left them terribly sick & malnutritioned.
The tough convicts were tied together in one chain & were required to work & sleep with the common chain tied to their iron fetters. Coconut trees were abundant on the island & each prisoner was tied like cattle to extract oil, pound coir, make ropes & cane items.
After settling down in Hotel Sinclair, Kalindi & her husband visited the cellular jail the next day. The stark history written on each brick made her heart bleed thinking of the hardships her grand dad had suffered fighting for his country. The same grand dad under whose favouritism she had basked teasing her other four brothers.
As dusk approached, Kalindi witnessed the light & sound program that conceptualized the torturous experiences of the prisoners so graphically that it left the viewers stunned. The political prisoners had gone on a fast unto death strike to protest against the inhuman treatment meted out to them as “C” grade convicts. The force feeding of the prisoners wherein an inmate losses his life as he chokes on food while shouting “vande mataram”* has been so realistically visualized in the program that Kalindi broke down…sobbing broken heartedly, lamenting the past. Her husband sat teary eyed himself unable to comprehend the drive these hero’s must posses to assimilate such tortures.
She felt pride knowing how both her grand parents were a solid team. Where her grand dad was a freedom fighter, his wife was a pillar of strength whose unstinted support pumped him with herculean convictions to carry on the struggle. They sent messages of encouragement to one another in a language they had invented so as to not give away what was being conveyed.
Keshav was repatriated from Kal Pani in 1937. He was thirty-one then. Within two years he lost his wife to child birth. This was a major blow to him personally. He didn’t marry again as he felt there was no room for another in his heart. He carried on the freedom struggle till India achieved its freedom in the year 1947.
Kalindi reminiscences about the score of events on the eve of 15th August, 1947. She was just 5 years old then but remembers vividly how her nanaji had heard Pandit Nehru announce independence on the all India radio. Nanaji ran ecstatically into each room of their palatial house yelling on top of his voice that Bharat Mata* was at last free from her bondage.
Everyone was shouting in excitement till their eyes filled with tears of deliverance & solace. The whole family wore their best outfits & headed towards the Gandhi Maidan where the entire ground was lit with a million diya’s* in celebration of the new found azadi.* Strangers were hugging one another & crying in disbelief of the end of a servitude that stretched for almost 2 centuries & left India raped & plundered.
The task of uniting everyone under one banner was formidable. Pandit Nehru worked relentlessly towards balancing the freshly germinated democracy with Sardar Vallabh Bhai Patel arm twisting the princely states to come under the common flagship of free India.
Back to the Andamans….Kalindi is at last at peace getting to know a new facet about her grandfather that had been hear say until now. As she mentioned to one of the officials at the cellular jail about being a relative of one of the prisoners & behold! everyone who was present there looked at her in awe. They asked her questions in a hurry to know more about a an unsung hero who had suffered unrelentingly for us to breathe in free India.
To know more visit…..
http://www.andamancellularjail.org/Default.htm
http://www.andamancellularjail.org/ListOfRevolutionaries.htm
FEEDOM FIGHTERS INCARCERATED IN (CELLUALR JAIL 1932-1938)
1 Shri Biswanath Mathur Bihar
2 Shri Chandrika Singh Bihar
3 Shri Gouri Shankar Dubey Bihar
4 Shri Gulab Chand Gupta Bihar
5 Shri Jogendra Shukul Bihar
6 Shri Kamal Nath Tiwari Bihar
7 Shri Kanhaiya Lal Misir Bihar
8 Shri Kedarmoni Shukul Bihar
9 Shri Keshav Prasad Bihar
10 Shri Mihabir Misir Bihar
11 Shri Malay Bramachari Bihar
12 Shri Mohit Adhikari Bihar
13 Shri Nanku Singh Bihar
14 Shri Pramatha Nath Ghosh Bihar
15 Shri Ram Pratap Singh Bihar
16 Shri Shyam Krishna Agarwal Bihar
17 Shri Shyama Charan Bharatwar Bihar
18 Shri Shyamdeo Narayan Bihar alias Ram Singh
19 Shri Suraj Nath Chaure Bihar
http://www.andamancellularjail.org/P1.htm
Keshav Prasad Gaya Conspiracy Case
Born in Gaya, Bihar, participated in Civil disobedience movement. Joined Hindusthan Socialist republican Army. Arrested in gaya in connection wuth Explosives and Arms Seizure incidence. Sentenced to prison term of 7 years in 1933. and deported to the Andamans. Took part in second hunger strike. Repatriated in 1937 and released in 1938. In early seventies he became a sanyasi and took an ashram life in Vrindavan.
Note : Details downloaded from the cellular jail site
* Swatantrata Sainiks – Freedom fighters
* vande mataram – Salutations to my mother land
* Bharat Mata – India
* Nanaji – Maternal Grand Father
* Diya’s – oil lamps
* Azadi - Freedom
Copyright © BuntysBanter 2007
The Andamans held a special place in her heart. She had come here accompanied by her husband to look for history. A history which had a personal connection with her family’s past & the events that unfolded thereafter.
Kalindi’s maternal grand dad had served time in the cellular jail here as a freedom fighter. She had come looking for that part of her ancestor’s life that no one from her immediate family had witnessed. She had grown up hearing how her nanaji* had participated in the freedom struggle. He adored Gandhi but had pretty much leftist views.
The freedom fighters in his group were young men between the age of 18 to 25 who braved physical hardships to swim across the Padma river to reach Bangladesh which was a part of India in those days. They brought back formulas to make crude bombs to blow-up British contingents.
In the year 1933, Keshav Prasad was finally arrested by the British. They had burnt to death a ruthless British officer & had gone underground due to the intensive search organized by the British Raj. As he hid in the underground cell in his home, the police had hookwinked a child in the family into telling them where Keshav was hiding. Keshav & his friends were never found guilty of homicide but since a substantial amount of gun powder & fire arms were confiscated from their respective houses, they were booked & sentenced to 7 years rigorous imprisonment in the cellular jail in the Andamans.
The cellular jail is situated at the Atlanta Point, on the eastern side of Port Blair in south Andamans. Port Blair is the capital of these untouched islands and was named thus after Lieutenant Archibald Blair who had first surveyed these islands to establish a penal settlement in 1788. The construction of the cellular jail started almost a century later.
The most feared freedom fighters were banished to this place. It was infamous as Kal Pani. Kal meaning death & Pani in hindi means water. The island was infested with Anopheles Mosquitos that cause malaria, centipedes & snakes. The chance of anyone coming back from this place alive was remote.
The freedom fighters would be tortured mercilessly by whipping them till they fainted only to be later tortured again by rubbing salt into their open wounds. Any Swatantrata Sainiks* who chanted the Vande Mataram would be tied to the ice slabs specially designed to crush the enthusiastic freedom fighters spirits. Dr Keshav would more often than ever irk the jail officials, even if it meant sleeping on the ice slabs till he turned blue with cold & lost consciousness. The prisoners went without proper food, clothing & medical treatment that left them terribly sick & malnutritioned.
The tough convicts were tied together in one chain & were required to work & sleep with the common chain tied to their iron fetters. Coconut trees were abundant on the island & each prisoner was tied like cattle to extract oil, pound coir, make ropes & cane items.
After settling down in Hotel Sinclair, Kalindi & her husband visited the cellular jail the next day. The stark history written on each brick made her heart bleed thinking of the hardships her grand dad had suffered fighting for his country. The same grand dad under whose favouritism she had basked teasing her other four brothers.
As dusk approached, Kalindi witnessed the light & sound program that conceptualized the torturous experiences of the prisoners so graphically that it left the viewers stunned. The political prisoners had gone on a fast unto death strike to protest against the inhuman treatment meted out to them as “C” grade convicts. The force feeding of the prisoners wherein an inmate losses his life as he chokes on food while shouting “vande mataram”* has been so realistically visualized in the program that Kalindi broke down…sobbing broken heartedly, lamenting the past. Her husband sat teary eyed himself unable to comprehend the drive these hero’s must posses to assimilate such tortures.
She felt pride knowing how both her grand parents were a solid team. Where her grand dad was a freedom fighter, his wife was a pillar of strength whose unstinted support pumped him with herculean convictions to carry on the struggle. They sent messages of encouragement to one another in a language they had invented so as to not give away what was being conveyed.
Keshav was repatriated from Kal Pani in 1937. He was thirty-one then. Within two years he lost his wife to child birth. This was a major blow to him personally. He didn’t marry again as he felt there was no room for another in his heart. He carried on the freedom struggle till India achieved its freedom in the year 1947.
Kalindi reminiscences about the score of events on the eve of 15th August, 1947. She was just 5 years old then but remembers vividly how her nanaji had heard Pandit Nehru announce independence on the all India radio. Nanaji ran ecstatically into each room of their palatial house yelling on top of his voice that Bharat Mata* was at last free from her bondage.
Everyone was shouting in excitement till their eyes filled with tears of deliverance & solace. The whole family wore their best outfits & headed towards the Gandhi Maidan where the entire ground was lit with a million diya’s* in celebration of the new found azadi.* Strangers were hugging one another & crying in disbelief of the end of a servitude that stretched for almost 2 centuries & left India raped & plundered.
The task of uniting everyone under one banner was formidable. Pandit Nehru worked relentlessly towards balancing the freshly germinated democracy with Sardar Vallabh Bhai Patel arm twisting the princely states to come under the common flagship of free India.
Back to the Andamans….Kalindi is at last at peace getting to know a new facet about her grandfather that had been hear say until now. As she mentioned to one of the officials at the cellular jail about being a relative of one of the prisoners & behold! everyone who was present there looked at her in awe. They asked her questions in a hurry to know more about a an unsung hero who had suffered unrelentingly for us to breathe in free India.
To know more visit…..
http://www.andamancellularjail.org/Default.htm
http://www.andamancellularjail.org/ListOfRevolutionaries.htm
FEEDOM FIGHTERS INCARCERATED IN (CELLUALR JAIL 1932-1938)
1 Shri Biswanath Mathur Bihar
2 Shri Chandrika Singh Bihar
3 Shri Gouri Shankar Dubey Bihar
4 Shri Gulab Chand Gupta Bihar
5 Shri Jogendra Shukul Bihar
6 Shri Kamal Nath Tiwari Bihar
7 Shri Kanhaiya Lal Misir Bihar
8 Shri Kedarmoni Shukul Bihar
9 Shri Keshav Prasad Bihar
10 Shri Mihabir Misir Bihar
11 Shri Malay Bramachari Bihar
12 Shri Mohit Adhikari Bihar
13 Shri Nanku Singh Bihar
14 Shri Pramatha Nath Ghosh Bihar
15 Shri Ram Pratap Singh Bihar
16 Shri Shyam Krishna Agarwal Bihar
17 Shri Shyama Charan Bharatwar Bihar
18 Shri Shyamdeo Narayan Bihar alias Ram Singh
19 Shri Suraj Nath Chaure Bihar
http://www.andamancellularjail.org/P1.htm
Keshav Prasad Gaya Conspiracy Case
Born in Gaya, Bihar, participated in Civil disobedience movement. Joined Hindusthan Socialist republican Army. Arrested in gaya in connection wuth Explosives and Arms Seizure incidence. Sentenced to prison term of 7 years in 1933. and deported to the Andamans. Took part in second hunger strike. Repatriated in 1937 and released in 1938. In early seventies he became a sanyasi and took an ashram life in Vrindavan.
Note : Details downloaded from the cellular jail site
* Swatantrata Sainiks – Freedom fighters
* vande mataram – Salutations to my mother land
* Bharat Mata – India
* Nanaji – Maternal Grand Father
* Diya’s – oil lamps
* Azadi - Freedom
Copyright © BuntysBanter 2007
posted by Bunty's Banter at 7:30 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home