The Alipore Jail or Alipore Central Jail, also known as Presidency Correctional Home, is a defunct Indian prison in

Alipore Alipore is a neighbourhood of Kolkata, South Kolkata in Kolkata district in the Indian States and union territories of India, state of West Bengal. It is flanked by the Tolly Nullah to the north, Bhowanipore to the east, the Diamond Harbour R ...

Kolkata Kolkata, also known as Calcutta ( its official name until 2001), is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of West Bengal. It lies on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River, west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary ...

, where political prisoners were kept under

British rule The British Raj ( ; from Hindustani , 'reign', 'rule' or 'government') was the colonial rule of the British Crown on the Indian subcontinent, * * lasting from 1858 to 1947. * * It is also called Crown rule in India, * * * * or dire ...

. It also housed the Alipore Jail Press. It is no longer in operation as a jail, having been shut down on 20 February 2019. The jail site has been now developed into an independence museum in memory of the martyrs who were imprisoned and executed there.

Notable inmates

Sri Aurobindo Sri Aurobindo (born Aurobindo Ghose; 15 August 1872 – 5 December 1950) was an Indian Modern yoga gurus, yogi, maharishi, and Indian nationalist. He also edited the newspaper Bande Mataram (publication), ''Bande Mataram''. Aurobindo st ...

(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." * Dudu Miyan (1857–61) *

Subhas Chandra Bose Subhas Chandra Bose (23 January 1897 – 18 August 1945) was an Indian independence movement, Indian nationalist whose defiance of British raj, British authority in India made him a hero among many Indians, but his wartime alliances with ...

* Kanailal Dutta * Satyendra Nath Bosu *

Gopinath Saha Gopinath Saha ( ''Gopi Nath Saha'') or Gopi Mohan Saha (16 December 1905 – 1 March 1924) was a Bengali activist for Indian independence (from British rule) and member of the Indian independence movement On 12 January 1924, he attempted to ass ...

* Ananta Hari Mitra *

Dinesh Gupta Dinesh Chandra Gupta ( ''Dinesh Chôndro Gupto'') or Dinesh Gupta (6 December 1911 – 7 July 1931) was an Indian revolutionary against British rule in India, who is noted for launching an attack on the Secretariat Building - the Writers' Buil ...

* Birendranath Sasmal *

K. Kamaraj Kumaraswami Kamaraj (15 July 1903 – 2 October 1975), popularly known as Kamarajar was an Indian independence activist and politician who served as the Chief Minister of Madras from 13 April 1954 to 2 October 1963. He also served as the pr ...

(1930) * Ramakrishna Biswas *

Bidhan Chandra Roy Bidhan Chandra Roy (1 July 1882 – 1 July 1962) was an Indian physician and politician who served as Chief Minister of West Bengal from 1950 until his death in 1962. He played a key role in the founding of several institutions and cities like ...

(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). It was inaugurated and opened to the public in September 2022. 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. 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. There is an exclusive exhibition in the museum dedicated to

. 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.

References

External links

Martyrs of Indian Freedom
Defunct prisons in India Prisons in West Bengal Buildings and structures in Kolkata Alipore Law enforcement in West Bengal 1910 establishments in British India {{Prison-stub