I am behind the bars even though I am not a criminal. The crouching sound it made when I opened it would remind me of a movie scene.
Dagshai Jail museum was inaugurated by Major General SK Gadeock on 13th Oct 2011 for the public. It was built by East India Company in 1847 to protect 5 villages one of which was called Dagshai. It is 6087 feet above sea level, 11 Km away from Solan, Himachal. This place was mentioned as Dag-E-Shai in some old stories.
This cantonment area is perfect to learn about martyrs who fought in Indo-China conflict 1962 (Major Dhan Singh Thapa) awarded as Param Veer Chakra , Major Udai Singh and many more. During our visit we got to know about them even more deeply after reading about them on different boards which were erected on each side of the road.
So there are two sights of interest together. One is the Dagshai Heritage museum and another is the old jail. You can see photos of Steam Engines, railway lines, old customs of Dagshai, a brief mention of monkey point and some old notes on what this place was during war time.
After that we went to the old Jail. The first thing you notice when you enter it is the sound of your footsteps on the wooden floor. Once you move further you see Jail gates and Cells on both sides. Most of the gates are open and you can see electrical wiring and switchboards that are so old that you start to feel like you have travelled back in time. Some cells were very small and there were some others with no access to natural light. There was an assembly area which I’m sure had been used as a stage to give orders. Once we came out of the Museum, we could literally feel that we were finally free. We could see a warehouse and a green park. The air and the environment was so relaxing that we realized how depressing it would have been to be in these dark confinements.
When we reached the Museum, we found it closed because of lunchtime so we had to wait till the lunch time was over. Other nearby places of interest were Old Cemetery which was established in 1845, Catholic Church and Graveyard which was also closed when we reached there. So we decided to wait and sat on Seats there and enjoyed watching clouds and beautiful mountains. We also got a little hungry so had some snacks to eat from a shop just nearby the Jail Museum.
We felt the contrast of beautiful nature around this place to the darkness of the Jail. We also got to learn about martyrs. In the end, the whole trip was very enjoyable, inspiring and fulfilling.
Some highlighting fact I got to know are:
- It is the only jail museum in India.
- Mahatma Gandhi was kept here for a day.
- Outside the courtyard there is a solid gun-metal fire hydrant made in UK 1865.
- Nobody ever escaped from this jail.
- The Jail has 54 security cells. Where rough dimensions may be estimated 8'x12' with 20-foot in height.
