BUXA FORT

BUXA FORT: A SILENT WITNESS OFTHE FREEDOM FIGHT IN INDIA

Buxa Fort is a mute witness to a long history, some of which are dazzling in the tales of valour of the marching soldiers & the fearless freedom fighters, while some are cruel ones with sadistic prowess of the ruler over the subjects who dared to protest.

The inscription of the text of the message of the prisoners to Rabindra Nath Tagore

Situated at an altitude of 867 metres (2844 feet) on the Sinchula Range of the Eastern Himalayas inside the Buxa Tiger Reserve in the Jalpaiguri district of West Bengal, India, & guarding an important route to the Kingdom of Bhutan, this fort –cum-detention camp is a nice place to visit. For the patriotic Indians, this fort, though in ruins now, is a place of National heritage & an equal to the most holy pilgrimage places, as this was the place where the British detained many freedom fighters including Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose in early twentieth century.

HISTORY OF BUXA FORT

The actual ancient history is shrouded in mystery, though many believe that the first Koch King of Kamtapur (present day Cooch Bihar) Sangaldwip constructed the fort with bamboo & wood in the 7^th century CE.

The fort was an object of dispute between the Kings of Bhutan & the Koch Kings, as the military importance of the fort was very high, as it guarded one of the most important routes to Bhutan. The fort was later occupied by the Bhutanese army, & the King of Bhutan used it to guard the famous Silk Route that connected Tibet with India through Bhutan.

THE FORT AS IT IS NOW

The Koch King requested the British to reoccupy the fort by defeating the Bhutanese, which the British did & captured the fort which was formally handed over to the British on November 11, 1865 as part of the Treaty of Sinchula.

The British rebuilt the fort & the old bamboo & wooden structure was replaced by stone.

The fort was later converted into a high security prison to detain the freedom fighters who fought against the British. The fort, almost inaccessible at that time, was only second to the Cellular Jail in the Andaman Island in notoriety. The small cells devoid of the basic facilities, the cruelty of the guards, the dense forest surrounding the fort with wild carnivorous animals like tigers & leopards roaming freely & the inhospitable terrain of the area as a whole made the fort-cum-prison a veritable hell on earth. After India’s freedom, the fort was abandoned.