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This photo is the front view of Cellular Jail, located at Port Blair, Andaman Nicobar Islands, India, By Jomesh – Own work,

Top 10 Interesting Facts about the Cellular Jail

Cellular jail was a colonial prison in the Andaman and Nicobar Island, India. It was used by the British government to expatriate the political prisoner. It was popularly known to imprison most of the famous Indian freedom fighters and political activists during the struggle for India’s independence. It was the most feared and formidable colonial prison that was in existence. This is because the prisoners were given the cruelest punishment and then they would be hanged to death. The concept of the architectural design of the jail was to enable a single watchman to observe the inmates in the institution without them knowing if they were being watched.

It now serves as a national Memorial on the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. It is also referred to as Kalapani Jail or Andaman jail. It is, therefore, one of the most important national monuments since the struggle for Indian freedom.

It is located near G.B. Pant Hospital, Atlanta Point, Port Blair. The Cellular Jail attracts many visitors as it displays the life of prisoners in its cellular prison, therefore it is a tourist attraction site.

Here are the Top 10 Interesting Facts About the Cellular Jail that you should know, in case you are considering visiting the monument.

1. It is a National Museum

The Cellular Jail has presently received tourists, it is a form of the popular national monument. It was considered one of the major jails throughout Asia. It has been given the title of the National memorial.

The main attraction of the place is its fascinating museum that displays life in prison and the struggles faced by prominent prisoners of India. It is illuminated by colorful lights in the memory of martyrs. The museum stores all the weapons that the British used to fight against the freedom fighters.

2. It served as a colonial prison

Cellular Jail was a colonial prison in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, India. The prison was used by the British government to excommunicate the political prisoners to the remote archipelago. It was later taken over by the Japanese troops in 1942 at the time of world war II, a lot of the British troops were detained in the jail in the form of prisoners. 

3. The unique designed structure

Cellular Jail, By Aliven Sarkar – Own work, Wikipedia

The design of the Cellular Jail was inspired by the Panopticon concept of the English philosopher and social thinker Jeremy Bentham. The jail has got the shape of an octopus and had also had 7 straight wings that were joined to the tower in the middle. The tower is constructed in the center of the prison that was used by the jailor to keep watch on the prisoners without their knowledge.

4. Most of the prisoners were a freedom fighter

Most of the freedom fighters of India who fought during the epic Indian freedom movement were detained in the prison. Some of these freedom fighters include the Batukeshwar Dutt, Yogeshwar Shukla, Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, and Veer Savarkar, around 733 freedom fighters were brought from Karachi.

5. Why it was also called Blackwater or Kala Pani

Exhibit at Cellular Jail: flogging frame, By Durgadattc – Own work,

Cellular Jail was also referred to as Kala Pani or black water. Kala  Pani or Blackwater virtually meant cruel treatment to the prisoners till death. Once a prisoner was given a sentence of deportation to Kala Pani it meant a warrant for throwing the prisoner into a living hell to face heard or unheard trial and tribulations to live a life of beast or worse than that. The Indian revolutionaries were doomed to Kala Pani to undergo the harsh punishments but they instead immortalized the islands by their selfless sacrifices. 

Before the Cellular jail was built there was an open jail in Andamans. It was later built by the British in 1906 after the war of 1857. The purpose of building the jail was to provide severe torture to the freedom fighters of India, who fought for its independence. It was therefore referred to as the Kala Pani Jail among the freedom fighters in mainland India during the independence movement.

7. statue of Vinayak Damodar Savarkar at the Cellular jail

Statue of Vinayak Damodar Savarkar at Cellular Jail, By Aniket Khadilkar – Own work,

After independence, the statue of Vinayak Damodar Savarkar was erected in the port of Blair’s Shaheed Park along with other eight martyrs of the Andaman cellular jail to honor his sacrifices during the Indian independence movement.  

He was an Indian revolutionary for freedom and an accomplished politician and author. Vinayak Savarkar was sentenced to imprisonment of fifty years in 1911 and released from jail in 192 after several petitions of mercy to the British government.

8. It was the first place to be declared independent.

Between 1937 and 1938 the government decided to send the political prisoners from the Cellular Jail after stalwarts that are Gandhi, Nehru, and Subhas Chandra Bose intervened and put pressure on the British Government an later on the later the Cellular Jail was closed down in 1939 and the Japanese seized it two years later and transformed it t  a war camp and in 1945 it became the first piece of India to be declared independent.

9. Cellular jail has 696 cells