Bareilly Central Jail was built in 1848 at

Bareilly Bareilly () is a city in Bareilly district in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. It is among the largest metropolises in Western Uttar Pradesh and is the centre of the Bareilly division as well as the historical region of Rohilkhand. The c ...

Uttar Pradesh Uttar Pradesh (; , 'Northern Province') is a state in northern India. With over 200 million inhabitants, it is the most populated state in India as well as the most populous country subdivision in the world. It was established in 1950 ...

, India, at a time when the authorities of the

British East India Company The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (the Indian subcontinent and South ...

were introducing a policy of constructing central prisons to house those convicted for long terms. The prisons were located in proximity to military bases, so that soldiers could be called upon to quell any violence within them. This policy arose from a two-year enquiry that had begun in 1836 and included Macaulay among its members. As another strand of the policy, these new prisons were governed by police inspectors rather than, as previously, being under the control of district collectors. It was deemed that the collectors' many and varied other responsibilities caused them to have little time to oversee matters relating to the prison system but in due course it was also found that the police officers were similarly affected and thus dedicated prison superintendents were introduced. The change in responsibility caused members of the

Indian Medical Service The Indian Medical Service (IMS) was a military medical service in British India, which also had some civilian functions. It served during the two World Wars, and remained in existence until the independence of India in 1947. Many of its officer ...

to take over from those of the

Indian Civil Service The Indian Civil Service (ICS), officially known as the Imperial Civil Service, was the higher civil service of the British Empire in India during British rule in the period between 1858 and 1947. Its members ruled over more than 300 million p ...

and reflected the enquiry's concern regarding prison conditions, which it had considered to be chaotic, arbitrary, unsanitary and disease-ridden and the cause of high death rates. Despite these progressive conclusions, which also created a two-tier designation of "simple imprisonment" and " rigorous imprisonment", the principal purpose of the central prisons remained that of punishment rather than rehabilitation, with prisoners kept occupied in the performance of dull, repetitive tasks and with no provision for education or reward for good behaviour. An outbreak of anthrax in December 1905 among people working with

wool Wool is the textile fibre obtained from sheep and other mammals, especially goats, rabbits, and camelids. The term may also refer to inorganic materials, such as mineral wool and glass wool, that have properties similar to animal wool. ...

at the jail caused seven deaths. Bareilly Central Jail housed various

political prisoner A political prisoner is someone imprisoned for their political activity. The political offense is not always the official reason for the prisoner's detention. There is no internationally recognized legal definition of the concept, although n ...

s during the British Raj era, including

Yashpal Yashpal (3 December 1903 – 26 December 1976) was a Hindi-language writer who is sometimes considered to be the most gifted writer since Premchand. A political commentator and a socialist, he wrote in a range of genres, including essays ...

, whose marriage on 7 August 1936 while imprisoned there was the first such ceremony in an Indian jail. The perceived humanising touch to the strictures of imprisonment led to a change in prison manuals, effectively preventing any further such events. An early study of

homosexuality Homosexuality is romantic attraction, sexual attraction, or sexual behavior between members of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality is "an enduring pattern of emotional, romantic, and/or sexual attractions" to pe ...

among male prisoners in India, published by S. P. Srivastava in 1974, indicated that 10–15 percent of inmates at Bareilly were

situational Situational ethics or situation ethics takes into account ''only'' the particular context of an act when evaluating it ethically, rather than judging it only according to absolute moral standards. With the intent to have a fair basis for judgment ...

and habitual homosexuals and 3 per cent were "committed" thus.

Notable prisoners

Ghaffar Khan Abdul Ghaffār Khān (; 6 February 1890 – 20 January 1988), also known as Bacha Khan () or Badshah Khan (), and honourably addressed as Fakhr-e-Afghan (), was a Pakistani Pashtun, independence activist, and founder of the Khudai Khidmatgar ...

(ca. 1935) *

Jawaharlal Nehru Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru (; ; ; 14 November 1889 – 27 May 1964) was an Indian anti-colonial nationalist, secular humanist, social democrat— * * * * and author who was a central figure in India during the middle of the 20t ...

(February - June 1932, March-June 1945) * M. N. Roy (ca. 1932) *

Chandra Shekhar Chandra Shekhar ( 17 April 1927 – 9 August 2015) was an Indian politician who served as the 8th Prime Minister of India, between 10 November 1990 and 21 June 1991. He headed a minority government of a breakaway faction of the Janata Dal with ...

(ca. 1954) *

(ca. 1936)

References

Citations Bibliography * * * * * * *

Notable prisoners

References

Further reading