Cellular jail, a national memorial monument located at Atlanta Point, Port Blair, Andaman and Nicobar Islands was constructed by British government to ensure that political prisoners and revolutionaries are isolated from each other.
The another name for this massive structure is 'kala pani' which is derived from sanskrit words i.e; 'kal' meaning time or death and 'pani' means water.
The Architectural style is cellular, pronged. The concept is of Jeremy Bentham's having an idea of Panopticon theory.
The design inspiration of Cellular jail is 'spokes of a wheel'. The building materials were brought from #burma. 30,00,000 puce color bricks and 20,000 cubic feet of local stone were used in the structure.
Besides this, iron grills, iron triangular frame, leg iron chains, cross bar fetters, flogging stands, oil mills, and neck ring shackles were imported from England. Seven unequal wings were designed radially, and in centre a watch tower was planned. Each wing have three stories. And, in total 693 cells were planned.
The dimensions of each cell was 4.5M X 2.7 M respectively. 4' of gallery/verandah is there, which was used by jailers and assistant jailers to keep an eye on the inmates. No toilet facility is designed in any cell.
The cells were secured with heavy grill doors, with specially designed latch system.
Ventilator with louver is at height of 3' which marks as a complete isolation of the prisoner and ensures no communication. Out of the seven wings 4 got demolished after the earthquake in 1941 and 3 are conserved as a National Memorial Monument.
#jaihind #jaibharat
#british #indianhistory #kalapani #Cellularjail #respect #freedom #fighters #prisonment #torture
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