My Visit to Alipore Jail Museum

The infamous Alipore Jail of Kolkata has now been converted to a museum while the actual correctional home has been shifted to another location. Today I visited this Jail Museum. 

The Museum has opened its doors to visitors very recently and my experience of the place was phenomenal. Soft patriotic songs were being played over the entire museum campus. I saw the gallows where men were hanged and the prison cells. Some of those cells have housed very famous Indian leaders of that time. There were also multiple information boards all over the place where incidents from the freedom struggle which took place in Bengal was written. 

I read about the ways the Indian political prisoners were treated and it was horrible. The lack of empathy and consciousness displayed by the jailers who meted out such treatment to our ancestors is beyond imagination. The pain that those walls had seen was palpable.

But apart from feeling sad and empathy for those brave souls who were tortured so brutally, I felt an immense sense of pride and gratitude. It is because of the sacrifice of those selfless people, that I could stand inside the jail as a “tourist” and above all as a Proud and Free Citizen of our nation. We, the people who have lived in free India stand witness to the success of our freedom fighters. And what a success it has been! From being a suppressed nation to a nation which is of global importance at present. 

Pictures of boys who were about my age and some even younger were displayed, who didn’t even blink twice before being hanged or shot dead. I can say for sure, that the level of intensity with which our freedom fighters fought and lived, not to mention the austerities they observed, can only done by an accomplished sadhaka. Serving the Motherland was their sadhana!

The least we can do is remember our bravehearts who gave up everything and fought for us. And bow our heads in respect and gratitude to their sacrifices. 

VANDE MAATARAM!