The Andamans' place in the freedom struggle is that of a destination rather than a source. No movement was organised here; people were sent here, and the sentence itself - kala pani, transportation across the water - was the punishment. From 1858 the settlement received men convicted after the revolt of 1857; from 1909 it received the revolutionaries convicted in the conspiracy cases on the mainland, and from 1921 the men convicted after the disturbances in Malabar. The list below is therefore a list of prisoners. Two things are deliberately kept out of it. The armed encounter at Aberdeen in 1859 was a defence of ground by the Great Andamanese against a settlement, and it is recorded as its own event rather than annexed to a national narrative it had nothing to do with. And the killing of Lord Mayo in 1872 is recorded in the history section as a dated event, because the record describes it as an act of private revenge by a convict and not as part of any movement.
Transportation after 18571858 onward
From 10 March 1858 men convicted after the revolt of the previous year were transported to Port Blair; a further 733 arrived from Karachi in April 1868. The settlement's first population was formed almost entirely from them, and the creole Hindi still spoken in the islands grew out of a barracks where convicts, guards and officials had no common language.
परिणाम: The settlement became permanent. Most of those transported were never repatriated, and their descendants form part of the islands' present population.
The encounter at Aberdeen17 May 1859
An armed encounter between Great Andamanese and the garrison of the penal settlement at Aberdeen, near Port Blair, as the settlement expanded onto ground the community used.
परिणाम: The settlement held and continued to expand. Contact from this decade onward brought introduced disease, and the census returns from 1901 record the consequence.
The Cellular Jail hunger strikes1933 and 1937
Political prisoners in the Cellular Jail struck over rations, work and their classification as ordinary convicts. Thirty-three took part in the strike of May 1933; three men died during forcible feeding. Further strikes followed in 1937.
परिणाम: With a campaign on the mainland pressing the same demand, political prisoners were repatriated to mainland jails between 1937 and 1939 and the Cellular Jail ceased to hold them.
The Japanese occupation23 March 1942 - 7 October 1945
The islands were held by Japanese forces for three and a half years. Labour and food were requisitioned, espionage trials were held, and forty-four civilians were shot at Homfreyganj on 30 January 1944. Political control was transferred to the Provisional Government of Azad Hind on 29 December 1943, when Subhas Chandra Bose raised the flag at Port Blair, but supply, defence and policing stayed with the Japanese command.
परिणाम: British forces reoccupied Port Blair on 7 October 1945. The occupation is the only period since 1858 in which the islands were held by a power other than Britain.