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He is one revolutionary, history books both by the saffronites or leftists -are ominously silent about. The wait for justice has proved agonisingly long - 132 years to be precise - for Sher Ali, convict number 15557 lodged in Viper Jail, who assassinated the Viceroy of India Lord Mayo by “The Order of Allah”.
Ali’s trial would go down in history as the speediest trial ever recorded. Held aboard Glasgow, a steam launch, it lasted just one day. First a magisterial inquiry by Major Playfair, the presiding magistrate, where he confessed to the killing, followed by a sessions trial the same day by General Stewart, superintendent of Port Blair, where Ali pleaded not guilty the second time. The verdict announced in record time was “to suffer death by hanging”.
The death sentence was put before the appellate court in Calcutta for confirmation on February 16 and on February 21, the Calcutta High Court put its seal on the verdict. A copy of judgment was urgently dispatched to Andaman by Scotia, a steam boat and reached there on February 27.
On March 11, the 25-year-old Pathan, a former sepoy in the Punjab Mounted Police, was hanged in Viper Island without being given any opportunity of being heard or represented despite the fact that the Indian Penal Code 1861 and Criminal Procedure Code were already in existence.
F.A.M Dass’ “The Andaman Islands”, published in 1937 and dedicated to the “great administrator” Mayo, describes in detail how authorities sent native officers to ferret a confession from the “fiendish Pathan”.
The text books are openly dismissive. For instance, Modern India by VD Mahajan refers to Lord Mayo’s assassination by a “fanatical Pathan” while the History of India by Professor L Mukherjee also contains two lines about Mayo being stabbed to death by a Pathan convict.
So while we may know his brain at the post-mortem “weighed 47-1/2 ounces and the heart was very small”, what propelled this gutsy youth to challenge the mighty British empire would always remain a mystery.
Unfortunately, even in our Islands, where Ali serving a sentence for an honour killing and influenced obviously by other revolutionaries, plotted the murder of the viceroy, remains an obscure figure.
The only reminder to his existence is his photograph in the gallery of freedom fighters in the government museum and a plaque near Hope Town Jetty, where it talks more about the Viceroy than the brave young man.
And, a small plaque in the now deserted Viper Island’s crumbling and ill-maintained gallows, where he was hanged.
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