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Ross Island Penal Colony
Ross Island Penal Colony was a convict settlement that was established in 1858 in the remote Andaman Islands by the British colonial government in India, primarily to jail a large number of prisoners from the Indian Rebellion of 1857, also known as the Indian Mutiny. With the establishment of the penal colony at Ross Island, the British administration made it the administrative headquarters for the entire group of Andaman and Nicobar Islands and built bungalows and other facilities on the site. This colony was meant as "manageable models of colonial governance and rehabilitation". The Chief Commissioner's residence was located at the highest point on the island. Over time, several other islands including Chatham and Viper were used for the penal colony.

The penal colony became infamous as "Kalapani" or "black water" for the brutalities inflicted by the British authorities on the political prisoners from India, and most of whom had died by 1860 due to illness and torture suffered during the initial stages of the clearance of the forest to establish the colony. In later years the colony experimented for a short time with civilizing the indigenous people of Andamans. The penal colony was used as an experimental station for various methods of torture and medical tests[citation needed]. During World War II, the island was invaded by the Japanese army, forcing the British to evacuate. The administrative buildings were destroyed but the penal colony remained. After the Allied forces reoccupied the island the penal colony was disbanded on 7 October 1945.

India’s Abandoned Island of Colonial Horror

Eerie and desolate, Ross Island harbors a tale of oppression and disaster

Malaria, cholera and other water-borne diseases were common on Ross Island.

For decades, an obscure speck of an island—measuring less than one-third of one square mile—was the site of the brutalization of thousands of convicts and political prisoners amidst a luxurious British colonial settlement. Today, the jungle has reclaimed the land of Ross Island, shrouding in foliage its gruesome past. Giant knots of Ficus tree roots ensconce the dilapidated remains of opulent bungalows, and have taken over a ballroom where couples once waltzed. Some 800 miles away from the coast of mainland India, the island in the Indian

After the Indian Mutiny (also known as the Sepoy Mutiny or Indian Rebellion) of 1857, considered to be the first war of eventual Indian independence, British colonists who were caught unawares by the rebellion immediately sought to establish a faraway penal settlement to subdue the rebels. As the British contained the revolt, mainland India's provincial jails became overcrowded. “This decided the British in favor of setting up a penal settlement on the Andaman islands to ease the situation,” says Aparna Vaidik, a professor of history at India's Ashoka University.

British doctor James Pattison Walker arrived at the Andaman & Nicobar archipelago in March of 1858 and established the penal colony while in the company of 200 convicts and rebels. Ross Island, the smallest of the 576 islands that form the archipelago, was chosen as the colony's administrative headquarters as its strategic location provided safety from attackers. Thus began an era of unprecedented penal cruelty on Indian soil. The tiny island was an unlikely seat of power, but it ultimately became the center of a penal settlement that expanded across many of the other islands.

For years, the inmates were forced to clear the island's impenetrable, humid forests to make way for an opulent colonial complex. They constructed everything from a luxurious commissioner’s bungalow with carved gables and shaded verandas, to a Presbyterian church fitted with stained glass window panels from Italy. Ross Island's colonial masters could entertain themselves in manicured gardens, tennis courts and swimming pools, and in fact, no expense was spared in making Ross a comfortable haven. “Life on Ross wasn't all hunky dory," though, notes Vaidik. Residents felt isolated and bored, and "the posting was seen as a punishment by most officials."

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