Cellular Prison, Port Blair, Andaman Islands, India

Port Blair, India, Tuesday, February 21 – After a warm, comfortable day crossing the Andaman Sea, we arrive on Tuesday at Part Blair, India. This town is the capital of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands that belong to India.  Compared to our other experiences, debarkation here was very complicated with much paper work which was a reflection of the beaurocracy of India.  Once ashore we went on a tour and learned a lot of its history and all about the aborigines who populate the different islands in the archipelago.  Several hostile native tribes still exist on the outer islands who continue to live as they have for centuries and whom the Indian government has decided not to disturb, and in fact, to protect.  The British founded the city as a penal colony for jailing Indians whom they were fighting on the mainland of India. They built a large prison with prisoner labor in the early 20^th century and jailed each inmate in a single cell, hence the name cellular prison. The prisoner’s life for as long as they lived was extremely unpleasant. The prison closed when India achieved its independence in 1947 but was occupied by the Japanese during WWII. Now it is an Indian national shrine to the Freedom Fighters of India.  Our guide was the grandson of one of these Freedom Fighters. The families of the prisoners would come and live on the island while during the imprisonment and many of the inhabitants now are descendants of these Freedom Fighters. Within the prison is a large white marble memorial to these men.  The British were not very gentle to these folks.