From Battle of Verandah to gallows: How Alipore Independence Museum has frozen the frame on history

6:30 AM, 3 February, 2023

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Lead — The Alipore Jail, the nerve centre of British atrocities, has now been converted into a museum — Alipore Independence Museum. Photos: Debosree Chatterjee

It was around 12 noon on December 8, 1930. Writers Building, an important centre of British power in India, in central Calcutta (now Kolkata), was busy with regular office-hour activities ahead of lunchtime.

Three young men impeccably dressed as Europeans in suits, boots and ties, quietly sneaked into the sprawling Greco-Roman-styled building occupying around 58,000 square feet.

They crept through the long corridor of the well-guarded building to reach the second floor that housed the office of inspector general of prison, Col NS Simpson.