2016-02-11 Thu

Bastille of India, the Cellular Jail, was declared as the National Memorial on 11th February 1979.

Morarji Desai, the Prime Minister of India, in 1979 declared this historic exile of political prisoners during the British rule as National Memorial.

Cellular Jail also known as Kala Pani is situated on South Andaman Island. Although the prison complex itself was constructed between 1896 and 1906, the British had been using the Andaman Islands as a prison after the First War of Independence in 1857. The construction of Cellular Jail building started in 1893 by the settlement order No.423 dated 13th September 1893. It was completed in 1905-06 using prisoners only as construction labour.

This prison housed many of our freedom fighters, most noted amongst them were Veer Savarkar and Batukeshwar Dutt.

India celebrated 50 years of Independence in 1997 and to honour and felicitate the Freedom Fighters, the Government of India issued INR 1 coins and INR 2 commemorative stamps which depict the Cellular Jail on them.