|
Port Blair () is the largest town and a municipal council in Andaman district in the Andaman Islands and the capital of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, a union territory of India. It lies on the east coast of South Andaman Island and is the main entry point to the islands. Port Blair is the headquarters for the Indian district of South Andaman, and the local administrative sub-division (''tehsil''), which is also called Port Blair. It is the headquarters of the Andaman and Nicobar Command, the first integrated theatre command of the armed forces. It is home to several museums and a major naval base INS Jarawa of the Indian Navy, along with sea and air bases of the Indian Coast Guard and the Indian Air Force.〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=http://ids.nic.in/ancommand.htm )〕 Port Blair is also famous for the historic Cellular Jail and other small islands which were once home to British colonists. ==History== In 1789 the government of Bengal established a penal colony on Chatham Island in the southeast bay of Great Andaman, named Port Blair to honor Lieutenant Archibald Blair of the British East India Company. After two years, the colony moved to the northeast part of Great Andaman and was named Port Cornwallis after Admiral William Cornwallis. However, there was much disease and death in the penal colony, and the government ceased operating it in May 1796. In 1824 Port Cornwallis was the rendezvous of the fleet carrying the army to the First Anglo-Burmese War. In the 1830s and 1840s, shipwrecked crews who landed on the Andamans were often attacked and killed by the natives, alarming the British government. In 1855, the government proposed another settlement on the islands, including a convict establishment, but the Indian Rebellion of 1857 forced a delay in its construction. However, since the rebellion provided the British with a lot of new prisoners, it made the new Andaman settlement and prison an urgent necessity. Construction began in November 1857 at the renovated Port Blair, avoiding the vicinity of a salt swamp which seemed to have been the source of many of the old colony's problems. The penal colony was originally on Viper Island, named after Lieutenant Blair's vessel, ''The Viper''. The convicts, mostly political prisoners, suffered life imprisonment at hard labor under cruel and degrading conditions. Many were hanged, while others died of disease and starvation. Between 1864 and 1867 a penal establishment was also built with convict labor on the northern side of Ross Island.〔http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/features/andaman/stories/2004081500270300.htm T. Ramakrishnan, "Notorious Once, It Stands Shrouded in Silence"〕 These structures are now in ruins.〔http://www.galenfrysinger.com/ross_island.htm Ross Island〕 As the Indian freedom movement continued to grow in the late 19th Century, an enormous Cellular Jail was constructed between 1896 and 1906 to house Indian convicts, mostly political prisoners, in solitary confinement. The Cellular Jail is also known as ''Kala Pani'' (translated as "Black Waters"), a name given to it due to the torture and general ill-treatment towards its Indian convicts. The airport at Port Blair, Andaman and Nicobar's capital, has been named Veer Savarkar International Airport. The commemorative blue plaque on India House fixed by the Historic Building and Monuments Commission for England reads "Vinayak Damodar Savarkar 1883–1966 Indian patriot and philosopher lived here." From 1943–44 during World War II, Port Blair was the headquarters of the Azad Hind government under Subhas Chandra Bose. Although affected by the Tsunami and 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake, Port Blair survived sufficiently to act as a base for relief efforts in the islands. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Port Blair」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|