The Battle of Aberdeen

6

Sitting by the stairs of Port Blair's Cellular jail many thoughts cross your mind... what kind of men were they who left their lands and spent their lives in those tiny cells... behind bars.. locked for life... But there is a story of man that goes beyond the times of the Cellular jail...the story of Dudhnath Tewari. And history has been indecisive about judging him.... whether he was a savior.. a patriot... or a traitor who led a whole race to its annihilation.. Dudhnath.... convict number 286 was transported for life to the penal settlement of Andamans in 1857 on charges of mutiny during the First war of Indian Independence. In 1858.. Dudhnath along with 90 fellow prisoners escaped from Port Blair.... with hopes of crossing over to Burma... oblivious of the fact that Andamans was a island group with no land connectivity to Burma... The short-lived freedom....