Dagshai Jail Museum tells stories of confinement and solitude- The New Indian Express

Specific Information Service

Strolling by means of the tree-lined hillside of the military cantonment of Dagshai in Solan, Himachal Pradesh, one comes throughout lush pine forests, winding roads and quaint cafes—options attribute of a quintessential hill station. Within the midst of this calm, nonetheless, rests a stark reminder of India’s colonial previous, the Dagshai Jail Museum.

Originating from ‘daag-e-shahi’, the Persian time period denoting the ‘royal mark’ that was branded on criminals through the Mughal reign, the trendy city of Dagshai was based in 1847 by Lord Robert Napier. Its distant location made it perfect for a maximum-security jail. It functioned on this capability for almost 100 years. When writer Anand Sethi moved to this scenic city in 2008, he discovered the jail unrecognisable. “It was getting used as a dump yard. The location was iconic—no escapes had ever occurred from right here as there have been three ranges of gates, and a sheer cliff drop on one aspect. It has an exceptional historical past,” says Sethi, who swiftly started championing its conversion into a museum. His dream grew to become a actuality in 2011.

With the assist of the military, meticulous analysis performed in India and England, and by reaching out to all of the regiments that had been posted within the city, he curated a museum that captures the pre-Independence historical past of the jail. 

A particular exhibit highlights Dagshai’s Scottish reference to the Gordon Highlanders whose regimental tune stays the ‘Dagshai Hills’.

The jail housed quite a few high-profile prisoners, together with Gorkha mutineers after 1857, Punjabis who had been incarcerated after the Komagata Maru incident of 1914, prisoners of the South African Boer battle, and a bunch of Irish troopers from the Connaught Rangers regiment, who mutinied in opposition to their British superiors in 1920.

Following the latter, the jail was visited by its most well-known resident, Mahatma Gandhi, who voluntarily spent the night time right here to indicate solidarity with the Irish trigger. His VIP jail cell was the one one to have two rooms, a hearth and a door main outdoors. In its present kind, the cell bears {a photograph} of the Mahatma, together with a charkha to mark his presence. A long time later, the final inmate of the jail was to be Gandhi’s murderer, Nathuram Godse, who spent an evening right here when he was being transported to Shimla to face trial on the Excessive Courtroom there in 1948.

Its standing as a most safety jail meant that the jail had many solitary imprisonment cells couched in absolute darkness, in addition to a torture chamber. One in all its most heinous types of punishment, nonetheless, was revealed after the jail opened to public. “I used to be contacted by Alan Learn, a British citizen, who informed me that his grandfather had been an inmate right here. His data revealed a ‘bread and water’ punishment, the place the prisoner could be informed to face in a three-feet-wide enclosure between the door of the cell and iron bars out entrance that severely restricted motion.

They got solely bread and water for sustenance, and the punishment could possibly be meted out for hours or days,” recounts Sethi, including that the museum remains to be a piece in progress. He hopes to showcase the post-Independence historical past of Dagshai in additional rooms of the advanced, that are at the moment locked. “We obtain 1000’s of tourists yearly, lots of whom are foreigners. It exhibits us that this historical past pursuits individuals and must be preserved,” he says.

<br /> Strolling by means of the tree-lined hillside of the military cantonment of Dagshai in Solan, Himachal Pradesh, one comes throughout lush pine forests, winding roads and quaint cafes—options attribute of a quintessential hill station. Within the midst of this calm, nonetheless, rests a stark reminder of India’s colonial previous, the Dagshai Jail Museum.</p> <p>Originating from ‘daag-e-shahi’, the Persian time period denoting the ‘royal mark’ that was branded on criminals through the Mughal reign, the trendy city of Dagshai was based in 1847 by Lord Robert Napier. Its distant location made it perfect for a maximum-security jail. It functioned on this capability for almost 100 years. When writer Anand Sethi moved to this scenic city in 2008, he discovered the jail unrecognisable. “It was getting used as a dump yard. The location was iconic—no escapes had ever occurred from right here as there have been three ranges of gates, and a sheer cliff drop on one aspect. It has an exceptional historical past,” says Sethi, who swiftly started championing its conversion into a museum. His dream grew to become a actuality in 2011.</p> <p>With the assist of the military, meticulous analysis performed in India and England, and by reaching out to all of the regiments that had been posted within the city, he curated a museum that captures the pre-Independence historical past of the jail. googletag.cmd.push(operate() {googletag.show(‘div-gpt-ad-8052921-2’); });</p> <p>Dagshai Jail Museum</p> <p>A particular exhibit highlights Dagshai’s Scottish reference to the Gordon Highlanders whose regimental tune stays the ‘Dagshai Hills’.</p> <p>The jail housed quite a few high-profile prisoners, together with Gorkha mutineers after 1857, Punjabis who had been incarcerated after the Komagata Maru incident of 1914, prisoners of the South African Boer battle, and a bunch of Irish troopers from the Connaught Rangers regiment, who mutinied in opposition to their British superiors in 1920.</p> <p>Following the latter, the jail was visited by its most well-known resident, Mahatma Gandhi, who voluntarily spent the night time right here to indicate solidarity with the Irish trigger. His VIP jail cell was the one one to have two rooms, a hearth and a door main outdoors. In its present kind, the cell bears {a photograph} of the Mahatma, together with a charkha to mark his presence. A long time later, the final inmate of the jail was to be Gandhi’s murderer, Nathuram Godse, who spent an evening right here when he was being transported to Shimla to face trial on the Excessive Courtroom there in 1948.</p> <p>Its standing as a most safety jail meant that the jail had many solitary imprisonment cells couched in absolute darkness, in addition to a torture chamber. One in all its most heinous types of punishment, nonetheless, was revealed after the jail opened to public. “I used to be contacted by Alan Learn, a British citizen, who informed me that his grandfather had been an inmate right here. His data revealed a ‘bread and water’ punishment, the place the prisoner could be informed to face in a three-feet-wide enclosure between the door of the cell and iron bars out entrance that severely restricted motion.</p> <p>They got solely bread and water for sustenance, and the punishment could possibly be meted out for hours or days,” recounts Sethi, including that the museum remains to be a piece in progress. He hopes to showcase the post-Independence historical past of Dagshai in additional rooms of the advanced, that are at the moment locked. “We obtain 1000’s of tourists yearly, lots of whom are foreigners. It exhibits us that this historical past pursuits individuals and must be preserved,” he says.<br />