Alipore Jail Museum

Alipore Jail built in the colonial period, which has now been turned into a museum is like a living history book.  

The sprawling area of this erstwhile prison, the dark cells, the gallows, will certainly give one goosebumps and make one hallucinate the cry of the Indian freedom fighters who walked to the scaffolds with dauntless courage in their eyes.

Some educational and reformative measures taken at the correctional home for its inmates.

Besides educating the inmates, they were also made to use the loom, the handloom. One can notice the handloom, the spinning wheel or the charkha  a powerful symbol of the Swadeshi movement in the museum itself where prisoners were made to work. However, the finished product of the handloom was used in the interest of the British who maximised profit. 

The open windows opposite the scaffold were deliberately kept open for the inmates to witness the process of hanging. One of the strategies employed by the British to threaten or scare the prisoners. 

Alipore Jail covers a vast area of land and despite its sprawling area, the twitter of the free birds that one gets to hear, the irony lies in the fact that the those who were brought here were captives, confined to a small place from where some could barely catch a glimpse of the limitless sky. 

The place also has a cafeteria, a Biswa Bangla store and there is also a light and sound show whose timings and other details I forgot to note. 

How to reach:-

15-20 minutes walking distance from Jatin Das Park metro station.

One can also take an auto from J.D. Park metro station towards Alipore/ Judges' Court Road. 

The museum is open everyday.

#calcuttachronicler #calcuttatrotter~ MS.