V
14 Turnberry Walk
MK41, 8AZ
U.K
2 April 2007
The Deputy Manager
Sound and Light show
National Monument
Cellular Jail
Port Blair
Sound and Light
show in Cellular Jail.
Dear Sir/Madam,
My wife and I had the privilege of visiting the
Cellular jail and attending your Sound and
Light show, in January, this year. It is an excellent
reminder of the rigours faced by our
freedom fighters and must not be missed by visitors to
Andaman.
As a school boy I have attended public speeches by
Veer Savarkar in Pune on two
occasions, in 1952 and in 1956.
In
on the house in
Gandhi first met Savarkar in 1906.
Since 1987 I have been conducting a Special Tour of
London showing places associated
with Indian freedom fighters. I have also been studying
the Secret files kept in
Office Library,
Please allow me therefore to make some comments and
suggestions for improvements
in the show by presenting some facts.
(1)
Background
In the presentation, the narrator must make a
distinction between vicious criminals
and
political
prisoners. The Cellular Jail was built for the criminals
who were dangerous and
violent and who could not be controlled in normal
jails in
labour prescribed for them.
The 'political prisoners', on the other hand, were
mostly educated, middle class men,
who were not used to hard physical labour but were
still allocated the same physically
demanding tasks to break their resolve. They were not
recognised as ‘Political Prisoners’, and were always treated worse than
criminals, and even denied medical help.
A large number of prisoners were first sent to Andaman
after the 1857-59 War of
after having been in jail for more than 50 years and
was released almost at the same
time as Savarkar entered the Cellular jail. He sent a
message of support to Savarkar.
(2) Changes
made due to persistent agitation by Savarkar
The show creates an impression that conditions in
prison DID NOT change even after
• Veer Savarkar
entered the jail on 4 July 1911. For the first 6 months he was kept in
isolation. Only during meals could he mix with other
prisoners. And yet with his
inspiration, prisoners started to organise themselves.
Within a matter of 10 months a
letter written by the prisoner Hotilal Varma was
smuggled out and sent to the Moderate
leader, Surendranath Banerjee in
Bengalee
(in English) on 27 April 1912 (page 4 columns A and B). I have seen this
Bengalee
issue in India Office Library,
you wish.
• Another
letter was smuggled to Pune about Indubhushan Roy's suicide and torture of
Ullahassagar Dutta in prison , which made news on 28 July
1912 in the paper Maratha
(in English) of Pune. This gave publicity to conditions
of Political prisoners in
Andaman jail.
• In October
1912, Guy Aldred, in his paper Herald of
Revolt published in
gave publicity to conditions of Political prisoners in
Andaman jail.
• Due to such
wide publicity about the treatment of Political prisoners in Andaman jail,
Sir Reginald Cradock, Home Member in Viceroy's
Council, visited the jail in November
1913. He met Savarkar. After Sir Cradock had gone, no
changes were announced by
the prison authorities, therefore Savarkar organised
the 3rd strike in jail.
Eventually
concessions were made to the prisoners.
• In the
British Parliament, Keir Hardie, a Labour Party M.P raised the question of
treatment of political prisoners in
longer get away with impunity, with their treatment of
prisoners.
•
arrival of Savarkar, this number NEVER became zero.
Some one or the other kept on
fighting against the inhuman treatment of prisoners.
• Despite its
fearful reputation, more and more revolutionaries were prepared to face
Cellular
jail in Andaman and a large number of them were sent
there during 1914 -1918. Savarkar
learned from the new prisoners that Indian merchants,
while passing through the Indian
Ocean used to bow in the direction of Andaman, to show
their respect for the Indian
freedom fighters imprisoned there.
• Savarkar
asked the new prisoners to refuse to work on KOLU. Very soon the prison
authorities dropped that punishment.
• By 1918,
Savarkar had become a mere skeleton and weighed only 98 pounds.
• Lokamanya
Tilak died in Mumbai on 1 August 1920. A telegram was received in the
office of Chief Commissioner on the
that the news, despite all the obstacles, reached the
cellular jail and spread quickly among the inmates. All the prisoners refused to take food as a mark
of respect for Tilak. When Savarkar first entered the jail, 9 years earlier,
hardly any prisoner had heard of Tilak and now they were all refusing to take
food despite being physically exhausted due to whole day's
hard work. What a tremendous change Savarkar had made!
Prison authorities were
astonished.
• The sentence
of Transportation for Life, twice,
did not mean 50 years in jail. Usually,
after serving 2-3 years, prisoners were sent to work
outside the jail with lighter work.
Eventually, they were allowed to settle on the Island
and bring their families from
This was denied to Savarkar even after 10 years. In
May 1921, due to mounting public
outcry, he and his elder brother Babarao were sent to
prison in mainland
of being allowed to settle on the
(3) Other
events
• During World
War I (1914 -18) attempts were made by German submarine Emdane
to attack Andaman and rescue Savarkar. Unfortunately
they did not succeed. But the
Island became a fortress.
• In March
1942, Chief Commissioner, his staff, along with 200 prisoners were
evacuated to
the defeat of
the prisoners. (Ref:- Secret Files kept in India
Office Library,
All the facts are given in Savarkar's book My Transportation for Life.
I do hope that the above information is of assistance
to you and that you will make
necessary improvements to your excellent show so that
visitors could appreciate even more the History of our freedom struggle.
If you need any more information, please do not
hesitate to ask.
Please acknowledge the receipt of this letter.
Yours faithfully
(V