Being sent to this prison was the worst of punishments that the British Raj could devise. For Sushil, it was like "being transported for life to the valley of death", says his son Anup, who tries to sum up what his father must have felt upon being given his sentence. "In those days the Andaman and Nicobar Islands were not considered as a part of mainland India. They were a foreign country. Transportation of the political prisoners to Andaman was conceived as if they were being sent for slow poisoning at that notorious island.
After crossing the "black waters", a journey that would last days, the daily grind that awaited Sushil was something that had been designed by the British to not only demoralise the men but completely break them. Their days would be monotonous and long. In the morning they would join a queue to be allocated a punishing work quota, the results of which would be scrutinised at the end of the day. If they failed to meet this quota they would be beaten or whipped. Sushil was given the job of endlessly pounding coconut husks to be used as fibre in certain fabrics, all under the watch of guards.
Famous freedom fighter Barindra Kumar Ghosh, who spent more than 10 years in the jail, described those who were given coconut or coir-pounding as living "in a state of suspense, as it were, between life and death". Ghosh said each prisoner was given the dry husks of 20 coconuts, which would have to be repeatedly hit with a wooden hammer until soft. The skin would then be removed and the coconut would be dipped in water and bashed again.
He said it was only by "sheer pounding" that the entire husk would drop off, leaving the precious fibres. Men, like Sushil, carrying out this quota were expected to produce over two pounds of fibre a day.
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The Horror House of Andaman
Horrorwalls have ears... walls witness fears... walls watched their tears... broken bones and ruined careers.. sweat and screams shattered dreams gates of steel which we can only hear but not feel
