Alipore Central Jail

Alipore Jail

Location	Alipore, Kolkata
Coordinates	22.525275°N 88.339866°E / 22.525275; 88.339866
Status	Open
Security class	Maximum
Capacity	2000
Opened	1864; 161 years ago (1864)[1]
Former name	Old Alipore Jail
Website	http://independencemuseum.in/

The Alipore Gaol, Calcutta; in 1870

The Alipore Jail or Alipore Central Jail, also known as Presidency Correctional Home, is a prison in Alipore, Kolkata, where political prisoners were kept under British rule. It also housed the Alipore Jail Press. It is no longer in operation as a jail, having been shut down on 20 February 2019.[2] The jail site has been now developed into an independence museum in memory of the martyrs who were imprisoned and executed there.[3][4]

Notable inmates

• Sri Aurobindo (May 1908 – May 1909), imprisoned after the Alipore bomb case. During his stay, he wrote a series of articles in Bengali, in the journal Suprabhat, later published as Tales of Prison Life. He later said, "I have spoken of a year's imprisonment. It would have been more appropriate to speak of a year's living in an ashram or a hermitage. The only result of the wrath of the British Government was that I found God."[5]
• Dudu Miyan (1857–61)
• Subhas Chandra Bose
• Kanailal Dutta
• Satyendra Nath Bosu
• Gopinath Saha
• Ananta Hari Mitra
• Dinesh Gupta
• Birendranath Sasmal
• K. Kamaraj (1930)
• Ramakrishna Biswas
• Bidhan Chandra Roy (1930)
• Parul Mukherjee (1930s)
• Charu Mazumdar
• Pramod Ranjan Choudhury (1926)
• Dr. Jack Preger, MBE (1981)
• P. Kakkan
• Charu Chandra Bose

Alipore Jail Museum

The defunct Alipore Jail has been transformed into a museum, maintained by the West Bengal Housing Infrastructure Development Corporation (WBHIDCO).[6][7][8] It was inaugurated and opened to the public in September 2022.[9] Various prison cells and gallows of notable inmates have been curated for visitors to preserve the memory of those individuals who lost their lives for India to gain its independence. The museum project can broadly be categorised into ten parts: gallows, watchtowers, special cells, general cells, detention cells, jail canteen, jail hospital, hospital building exhibition, segregation ward, and an art studio.[8] Apart from these diverse presentations, the museum has an INA-themed food court, a souvenir shop, and "a light and sound show" dedicated to informing the visitor about the struggles and hardships endured by the freedom fighters.[10] There is an exclusive exhibition in the museum dedicated to Subhas Chandra Bose.

As of February 2023, the Police Museum Kolkata has also been shifted within the premises of the Alipore Jail Museum from the Acharya Prafulla Chandra Roy Road location in Kolkata.[11][12]

References

1. "Presidency Correctional Home". Archived from the original on 24 April 2023. Retrieved 4 May 2023.
2. "End of an era as Alipore Central jail closes down". Business Standard. India. Archived from the original on 9 November 2021. Retrieved 4 December 2010.
3. "Alipore jail to house museum on Independence movement". The Times of India. Archived from the original on 9 October 2021. Retrieved 9 October 2021.
4. "Kolkata's historical Alipore prison turns into a Museum". The Hindu. 22 September 2022. ISSN 0971-751X. Retrieved 30 June 2023.
5. "The Prison-Cell of Alipore". Sri Aurobindo Society. Archived from the original on 30 November 2010. Retrieved 4 December 2010.
6. "Alipore Jail Museum – History and Information". independencemuseum.in. Archived from the original on 18 March 2023. Retrieved 4 May 2023.
7. Roy, Suryagni (22 September 2022). "Kolkata's 116-year-old Alipore jail turns into museum, open for public – Details here". India Today. Kolkata. Archived from the original on 3 October 2022. Retrieved 4 May 2023.
8. Banerjee, Debanjana (26 November 2022). "Alipore Jail Museum: Where history is kept in a freeze frame". The Statesman. Kolkata. Archived from the original on 25 November 2022. Retrieved 4 May 2023.
9. "Alipore Independence Museum launches an exclusive navigation app for visitors". www.telegraphindia.com. Retrieved 29 June 2023.
10. Ghosh, Shreya (31 October 2022). "Kolkata's Century-Old Alipore Jail Is Now A Museum. It Has A Food Court, Souvenir Shop, And More". Curly Tales. Retrieved 29 June 2023.
11. "New-look police museum opens doors in Kolkata's Alipore". The Times of India. 12 February 2023. ISSN 0971-8257. Retrieved 29 June 2023.
12. MP, Team (11 February 2023). "Mayor opens shifting of several artefacts to Independence Museum". www.millenniumpost.in. Retrieved 30 June 2023.

External links

• Martyrs of Indian Freedom

22.5300°N 88.3300°E / 22.5300; 88.3300