Question

The cellular jail built by Britishers in the Andaman and Nicobar Island is known by which of the following name ?
1. Maut ka kuan
2. Kala pani
3. Antim Yatra
4. Band Darwaja

Answer 1

Correct Answer - Option 2 : Kala pani

The correct answer is Kala Pani.

• The cellular jail built by Britishers in the Andaman and Nicobar Island is known as Kala Pani.
• The construction of the Cellular Jail started in 1893 and was completed in 1905-06.
• Prisoners were used as labour.
• It is built in a way that no communication of any kind was possible between prisoners in the same or different wings.
• The remoteness and terror of the facility gave it a name, ‘Kala Pani’ (Blackwaters).

• Cellular Jail was designed to check the exchange of ideas.
• Many famous activists like Batukeshwar Dutt, Yogendra Shukla, and V.D Savarkar were imprisoned here.
• Distressed prisoners in Cellular Jail frequently rebelled against the tyranny of the jail officials.
  • Mass hunger strikes were undertaken by prisoners especially between 1932 and 1937.
  • The last strike that began in July 1937 continued for 45 days.
  • The strike was terminated only on the intervention of Mahatma Gandhi and Rabindra Nath Tagore.
• The Government decided to close it down.
  • All the political prisoners of Cellular Jail were repatriated to their respective states by January 1938.
• Four out of the original seven wings of the Jail were demolished after the earthquake in 1941.
• Cellular Jail was declared a National Memorial on 11th February 1979.
  • Since then, it has been protected by the Union Territory Administration of Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
• There are no sites at the national level that are comparable to Cellular Jail.