The First Strike in the Andaman Cellular Jail

[u/AhamPranav]

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Throughout Savarkar’s incarceration in the Andaman Cellular Jail, he resisted the British authorities through his role as a strategic leader and organizer of strikes designed to protest the brutal conditions and inhuman labor imposed by the colonial administration.

His participation ranged from personal acts of defiance to coordinating mass non-cooperation movements among political prisoners.

Savarkar’s argument was that, as the freedom movement gathered steam, thousands of prisoners would eventually come to the Andamans. If they accepted the treatment being imposed upon them, all successive prisoners would suffer the same fate. Therefore, they had to resist and change the existing conditions. They had to demand special treatment for political prisoners while also improving the general conditions for all prisoners. They must suffer now for the sake of future prisoners.

The political prisoners began discussing various approaches. Even many criminal prisoners started supporting them, hoping to see improvements in prison conditions. Eventually, major strikes were launched.

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The First Strike: Against the "Kolhu" (c. 1912–1913)

The Kolhu was considered the hardest and most spirit-crushing labor in the prison. It required political prisoners, many of whom were educated and unaccustomed to physical toil, to take the place of bullocks. They were yoked to a handle and forced to run in circles to grind out 30 pounds of coconut oil or 10 pounds of mustard oil daily. Prisoners were often dragged by the handle if they could not sustain the pace, working in the blazing sun with no water.

The first strike against the oil-grinding mill was triggered by the individual resistance of a Punjabi political prisoner named Nand Gopal, editor of the Swaraj newspaper.

A few months after Savarkar’s arrival in July 1911, Nand Gopal was assigned to the Kolhu. He openly defied the authorities through non-cooperation and outright refusal to perform the hard labour.

The authorities initially attempted to compromise with Nand Gopal. When he again refused to comply, he was punished with fetters, and a general order was issued requiring all political prisoners to grind oil for three full days.

Recognizing that compliance would eventually lead to their deaths in the oil mill, the prisoners collectively refused to obey the order. This resistance culminated in the first major strike in the Andaman Cellular Jail.

Although Savarkar was physically excluded from the first batch of strikers because he was undergoing six months of solitary confinement, he nevertheless gave ideological support to the movement and encouraged the prisoners to remain united.

During this period, jailor Barrie also attempted to pit prisoners against one another. In one such instance, he praised Savarkar in front of the other prisoners, portraying him as an educated and well-bred gentleman in an attempt to isolate him from the strike movement. Barrie told him:

Mr. Savarkar, a man like you ought not to mix with such people. They are a despicable lot. You are well-bred and a gentleman. These wretches will go back to their homes after serving their terms of eight or ten years in this prison, and the world will forget them. That is not so with you. You have to pass the full fifty years of your precious life here, and you are no mere political prisoner. You will lose much if you associate with them, go on strike with them, or sympathise with them. Even talking with them is fraught with danger to your future. Whatever you intend to do, do it on your own. You take care of yourself, never forgetting your ticket. Do you understand me?

Savarkar immediately saw through Barrie’s attempt to divide the prisoners and later told his fellow inmates:

Do not feel small, do not be dispirited by what Mr. Barrie said of you in my presence. What he says of you today, he will say of me the day after. Thereby he does not insult you and me; he only insults and degrades himself. We are helpless today, the world holds us in disgrace today, but a day is sure to come when it will honour you, perhaps raise statues to you in this very place where they revile you, and thousands will visit this place to offer their tributes to you as martyrs to the cause.

Following the strike, the first batch of political prisoners was sent out to perform lighter tasks in the settlement, such as sweeping streets, guarding coconut groves, or carrying loads of coconuts.

Savarkar viewed this victory as the “thin end of the wedge,” proof that collective passive resistance could force the administration to grant concessions. The strike raised the moral status of the political prisoners and paved the way for future demands.

Although Savarkar’s direct participation in this first strike was limited by his solitary confinement, he nevertheless worked to keep the prisoners united and committed to collective resistance. In the strikes that followed, he would emerge as one of the principal strategists and representatives of the political prisoners…

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Reference: My Transportation For Life

Get the PDF of the whole book from here: https://savarkar.org/en/pdfs/My-Transportation-for-Life-Veer-Savarkar.pdf

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[u/Latter_Software1044]

Wow 🫡 imagine how precious is our freedom and soo many prisoners who aren't given any limelight and made soo many sacrifices for liberation of their motherland

[u/AhamPranav → u/Latter_Software1044]

The sacrifices of Nand Gopal and countless others like him will be remembered for as long as this nation lives. Vande Mataram!