Exile, empire and memory: Khergamker's '10/3' invites researchers into a living archive

Author and legal commentator Gajanan Khergamker has made his ebook '10/3: Exile, Empire And War In The Andamans' publicly accessible online, a month after its limited offline digital launch on 10 March 2026. What began as a publication has, in Khergamker's own framing, transformed into a live, evolving research framework — Project 10/3 — inviting participation from researchers, institutions and citizens.

"A month ago, on 10 March 2026, I released my e-book in a limited offline digital format, symbolically at Flag Point overseeing Ross Island, in Port Blair. It was never meant to be a finished product. It was, instead, the beginning of a conversation, one burgeoning with patriotic nostalgia", he notes.

A Journalism-Born History

The ebook emerged from an extended journalistic undertaking by The Draft, which travelled to and remained in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, reporting from the archipelago with a continuity described as unprecedented among Indian media houses. The publication is rooted in Khergamker's time on the islands alongside a cohort of journalists, environmentalists, researchers, and legal minds.

Khergamker describes the genesis plainly: "This journey began in the Andaman & Nicobar Islands, where I spent time alongside a remarkable cohort of journalists, environmentalists, researchers, and legal minds. What emerged from that experience was not a travelogue, nor a static documentary narrative, but a layered exploration of a geography that resists simplification."

The work traces the full arc of the islands' history — the establishment of the penal settlement after the 1857 Indian Rebellion, the construction of the Cellular Jail, the arrival of political prisoners who transformed it into what the author calls a crucible of nationalist resolve, the turbulence of Japanese wartime occupation during World War II, and the eventual integration of the islands into independent India.

The Andamans As A Living Archive

For many Indians, the Andaman Islands exist primarily as a distant symbol of colonial exile — defined by the forbidding walls of the Cellular Jail National Memorial. Khergamker's project pushes back sharply against this reductive framing. The islands, as he presents them, are a living archive of empire, resistance, war, memory and transformation.

Central to the book's argument is the relationship between development and disruption. The author writes: "Development here is not an abstract policy ambition; it is a lived disruption. Every road, every structure, every intervention redraws equations that have existed for centuries."

The work also grapples with the act of documentation itself. Khergamker writes: "The deeper I went, the clearer it became that documentation itself is not a neutral act." This self-reflexive strand runs through the book: "To document the Andamans is to confront a paradox. The more one observes, the clearer it becomes that visibility itself alters the subject."

Memory Beyond Monuments

One of the distinctive arguments in '10/3' concerns the nature of historical memory on the islands. Khergamker contends that the Andamans hold a kind of memory that official memorialisation consistently fails to capture. In his words: "Memory in these islands does not rest in monuments alone. It lingers in landscapes, in silences, and in narratives that remain deliberately unrecorded."

And beyond the visible record, he warns, "And beyond the visible lies memory, often unarticulated, frequently ignored." This argument positions the ebook as an intervention not merely in historiography but in the politics of what gets remembered and what is allowed to recede.

From Publication To Framework

The initial offline release on 10 March 2026 — made symbolically at Flag Point overlooking Ross Island in Port Blair — was described by Khergamker as a deliberate choice. The month that followed saw the work travel through lecture halls, seminar rooms, and discussion forums, drawing responses from academics, students, professionals, and policy observers. These interactions, the author says, have reshaped the work itself.

Khergamker is unambiguous about the shift: "Over the past month, the responses, critiques, and conversations around 10/3 have reshaped my own understanding of the work. What I had initially conceived as a publication has now evolved into something far more dynamic. Project 10/3 is no longer just a book. It is a live, evolving framework."

With the online release, the project openly invites collaboration. The author calls upon researchers, institutions, practitioners, and engaged citizens — not as passive readers but as participants. As Khergamker puts it: "I invite researchers, institutions, practitioners, and engaged citizens to read, question, critique, and contribute. The intent is not passive readership, it's participation."

The Road Ahead

Khergamker indicates that Project 10/3 will expand into deeper field studies, interdisciplinary collaboration, and continued documentation of what he terms 'vulnerable geographies that demand nuanced attention.' The online release is framed not as a conclusion but as an opening.

The author is frank about his ambitions for the work: "This is only the beginning. The road ahead will involve deeper field studies, interdisciplinary collaboration, and continued documentation of vulnerable geographies that demand nuanced attention. If 10/3 does anything, I hope it unsettles certainty and provokes inquiry. The work is now out there. What it becomes next will depend on how we choose to engage with it."