Port Blair, Sept. 2: Although much has been written about the history of the Andaman Islands, no one has been interested in a serious lengthy research; but this is no longer the case. A local historian, Dr. Pronob Kumar Sircar, who was born, studied and brought up in Andaman Islands, and has written a book “History of the Andaman Islands” based on his research on the history of Andaman, has made another important discovery in addition to his previous unprecedented discoveries in the recent years.
Dr. Sircar, in a communication, produced some photographs and video clips stating, “Although there is a lot of information available in the documents about the Convict Settlements or say Convict Stations in the Andaman Islands, unfortunately no serious researcher has conducted to find out what is the current condition of these barracks and where are their actual locations”.
On Saturday 30th Aug 2024, Dr. Sircar, with the help of some old local people, made a very important discovery in this regard, which no one had noticed till now. Dr Sircar further said that he has discovered the remains of a British era convict barrack at Hope Town, which is one of the biggest discoveries in the history of the Andaman Islands. The GPS location of the discovered site he said is 11°41'49"N and 92°43'44"E. This place is not far from the spot where Sher Ali assassinated Lord Mayo on 8th February 1872.
Dr. Sircar's logic is that Sher Ali, Convict No 15557 transported to Andaman in 1869, in all probabilities was detained in the convict station at Hopetown, whose remains are still present, he discovered. There were three convict stations mentioned in the documents in this region, the first near North Bay, second at Bambooflat and the third at Hopetown. Proving his argument further, Dr. Sircar further says that Lord Mayo had suddenly decided to visit Mount Harriet (now Mount Manipur) on the day of his murder. There was no prior planning for this. Sher Ali also suddenly came to know that Lord Mayo would come to his area and if he had been in the barrack near North Bay or Bambooflat, he would not have been able to reach here in time to kill Lord Mayo. Since Sher Ali lived very close to the place where Lord Mayo was murdered, he had complete knowledge of the area and hence he was able to hide behind the rocks in advance and no one noticed him.
In the light of all these facts, we can definitely say that this historical discovery made by Dr. Sircar is going to open many doors of research in the future.