Lucknow, Nov 6 (PTI) Lieutenant Governor of Andaman and Nicobar Islands Dinesh Sharma said on Friday that both the Andaman

Lucknow, Nov 6 (PTI) Lieutenant Governor of Andaman and Nicobar Islands Dinesh Sharma said on Friday that both the Andaman

Lucknow, Nov 6 (PTI) Lieutenant Governor of Andaman and Nicobar Islands Dinesh Sharma said on Friday that both the Andaman

    Lucknow, Nov 6 (PTI) Lieutenant Governor of Andaman and Nicobar Islands Dinesh Sharma said on Friday that both the Andaman Islands and Lucknow represent symbols of courage, sacrifice, and patriotism in the struggle against British rule.

     Speaking at a seminar on the importance of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands in the Freedom Movement, held at Kalicharan Degree College in Lucknow, Sharma emphasised that the Andaman Islands, rich in natural resources and beauty, housed a prison used by the British regime to suppress and torment revolutionaries, according to a statement.

     "While the Cellular Jail (in Port Blair) in the Andaman Islands tells the story of oppression, torture, and sacrifices endured by freedom fighters, Lucknow served as a prominent centre during the 1857 revolution that dealt a severe blow to the British. The Andaman jail preserves within its walls the countless sacrifices made for the cause of freedom --- a flame that was first ignited during the 1857 revolution," Sharma said.

     Freedom fighters such as Veer Savarkar and Batukeshwar Dutt were kept in the Cellular Jail and subjected to inhumane treatment. The British authorities utilised the prison to isolate revolutionaries from the mainstream, establishing a penal colony where they were subjected to harsh punishments. For this reason, it also came to be known as 'Kala Pani'.

     Speaking about the literary connection between the Andaman Islands and Lucknow, the lieutenant governor said that the book 'Black Water: The Strange History of Port Blair', written in 1892 by Lucknow resident Mohammad Zafar, which provides an account of the penal colony in the Andamans and the suffering endured by the prisoners, was published by the Munshi Nawal Kishore Press, a publishing house based in Lucknow.

     He noted that between 1909 and 1938, 18 of the 585 revolutionaries imprisoned in the Cellular Jail were from Uttar Pradesh, according to the statement.

(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)