Fri. Mar 29th, 2024
Freedom-Park

Freedom-Park

Bengaluru is generally famous as City of Gardens. There are thousands of small and big parks all around the city, one such famous of those is Freedom Park. This post is all about my visit to the awesome landmark of Bengaluru.

Before stepping onto my experience while being at this great place, let me take you through the history of Freedom park.

Freedom Park came into existence very recently in 2008, before that it was known as Central Jail. It was a place where the prisoners were kept. It was built by the Britishers way back in 1863. After the first war for independence in 1857, Britishers felt the need of more prisons to keep the prisoners or the freedom fighters.

When it was built, it had the capacity to accommodate around 300 prisoners, time passed, being one of the safest Jails in the state, the officials expanded it tome to time and finally made it comfortable for as much as 800 prisoners.

There are separate cell for VIP prisoners here, where the people who were considered as VIPs used to stay to complete the term awarded to them in Jail. At the time of emergency in 1975, former Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Lal Krishan Advani were kept in this jail to suppress their influence over a large section of population which could turn them violent against the decision taken by the government at that time.

Finally, when the number of prisoners in the state of Karnataka increased beyond the expectations, the government decided to move it to another campus.

and then came the idea to build a popular place to organize rallies and protests and it finally turned out to be freedom park. The inauguration was done by famous Indian leader LK Adwani who was kept as prisoner once in the same jail.

Freedom park came into news when it was a part of the famous Anna Hazare campaign against corruption.

Structure and Campus

There are still many things which give the feeling of a prison, however, the campus has been developed and constructed a lot. There are 2 entrances to the freedom park, the main entrance is on Sheshadri Road and the other one is Ramachandra Rao road.

The notable places in the campus are Asoka Pillar, Amphitheater, Jail Museum, Sculpture court, Barracks, Watch Tower, Children playing area, People Courtyard, Water Fountain, Book Museum, Cafeteria, Art and Craft Bazaar etc. There are a few whose images I could click

These are some of the statues inspired from the prisoners. Giving a clear picture that the prisoners were allowed to read.

This is considerably the central park of the campus which was very helpful to track the activities going on in the campus, because the while being at the top of this tower, the whole prison can be clearly seen.

The huge campus is sometimes used to host some stage shows related to dance and music, the picture above is of a cultural item.

This one is the main entrance which opens on Sheshadri road. The protests and rallies mainly start from this point.

Well, for now, I just have this much to share, I hope this was useful. Let me know if you have anything to say about this post.

By Prithviraj Singh Chauhan

Part time journalist, full-time observer. Editor-in-Chief at The Indian Wire. I cover updates related to business and startups.

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