Black Hole of Calcutta

The Black Hole of Calcutta was a small dungeon where Indian troops held British prisoners of war after the capture of Fort William on June 20, 1756. According to a disputed account by a survivor, 123 of 146 prisoners died of heat exhaustion in the confined conditions, though historians now believe the number to be at most 43.

Contents

1 Background 2 The Holwell account 3 Controversy 4 External links

Background

Fort William had been established to protect British East India Company trade in the city of Calcutta, in the region of Bengal. In 1756, in preparation for expected skirmishes with French forces, the British began building up Fort William's military strength and defenses. The Nawab of Bengal, Siraj Ud Daulah, was unhappy with British interference, having achieved his station despite opposition by the East India Company, and perceived a direct threat to his own rule.

Siraj organized an army and laid siege to the fort, whose defenders took many casualties. The garrison's commander organized an escape, and left a token force in the military fort under the command of John Zephaniah Holwell, a onetime military surgeon who was a top East India Company civil servant. Desertions by allied troops, mainly Dutch, made even this temporary defense untenable, and the fort was taken. Indian soldiers took the surviving 64 to 69 men of the British contingent prisoner, binding them for security. During this period some prisoners were able to escape, and others attacked their guards. The Bengali troops, apparently acting on their own, then packed the prisoners in a guard room measuring 14 by 18 ft (4.3 by 5.5 m) and locked them in overnight. Prisoners begged for water or escape, growing delirious from heat exhaustion. As time passed, men collapsed from heat stroke, suffocation, or trampling. They were not released until morning. At the end of the incident, modern historians believe some 43 men were dead or missing for other reasons.

The corpses were thrown into a ditch. Holwell and three others were sent as prisoners to Murshidabad; the rest of the survivors obtained their liberty after the victory of a relief expedition under Robert Clive. The Black Hole was later used as a warehouse, and an obelisk, 50 feet (15 m) high, was erected in memory of the supposed victims.

At the apex of the Indian independence movement, the presence of the controversial monument in Calcutta was deeply resented. Subhash Chandra Bose, an influential Indian National Congress leader, lobbied for the removal of the disputed monument. The Congress and the Muslim League joined forces in the anti-monument movement. As a result, the obelisk was removed from Dalhousie Square in July, 1940.

The Holwell account

Holwell wrote an account of the incident in which he claimed that of 146 prisoners, 123 suffocated when imprisoned in the tiny room. His version of events, which was not challenged by other survivors, was widely accepted at the time in Britain and used for anti-Indian propaganda.

The following description from a 1911 encyclopedia portrays Holwell's point of view vividly:

The dungeon was a strongly barred room and was not intended for the confinement of more than two or three men at a time. There were only two windows, and a projecting veranda outside and thick iron bars within impeded the ventilation, while fires raging in different parts of the fort suggested an atmosphere of further oppressiveness. The prisoners were packed so tightly that the door was difficult to close.

One of the soldiers stationed in the veranda was offered 1,000 rupees to have them removed to a larger room. He went away, but returned saying it was impossible. The bribe was then doubled, and he made a second attempt with a like result; the nawab was asleep, and no one dared wake him.

By nine o'clock several had died. and many more were delirious. A frantic cry for water now became general, and one of the guards, more compassionate than his fellows, caused some to be brought to the bars, where Mr. Holwell and two or three others received it in their hats, and passed it on to the men behind. In their impatience to secure it nearly all was spilt, and the little they drank seemed only to increase their thirst. Self-control was soon lost; those in remote parts of the room struggled to reach the window, and a fearful tumult ensued, in which the weakest were trampled or pressed to death. They raved, fought, prayed, blasphemed, and many then fell exhausted on the floor, where suffocation put an end to their torments.

About 11 o'clock the prisoners began to drop off fast. At length, at six in the morning, Siraj-ud-Dowla awoke, and ordered the door to be opened. Of the 146 only 23, including Mr. Holwell (from whose narrative, published in the Annual Register for 1758, this account is partly derived), remained alive, and they were either stupefied or raving. Fresh air soon revived them, and the commander was then taken before the nawab, who expressed no regret for what had occurred, and gave no other sign of sympathy than ordering the Englishman a chair and a glass of water. Notwithstanding this indifference, Mr. Holwell and some others acquit him of any intention of causing the catastrophe, and ascribe it to the malice of certain inferior officers, but many think this opinion unfounded.

Controversy

The main controversy about the incident is the number of British soldiers confined inside the room. As described above, Holwell claimed it was 146; later accounts and analysis proved that number to be exaggerated. In 1915, British scholar J.H. Little challenged Holwell's claims in his article "The Black Hole — The Question of Holwell's Veracity", arguing that Holwell was an unreliable witness and his veracity is questionable. Little went so far as to label Holwell's version "a gigantic hoax". Other historians, including Indian scholar Brijen Gupta, disagreed with Little's strong belief, but nevertheless downplayed Holwell's account. Little's analysis does cast a shadow of doubt over the incident:

• As argued by Little, after the deaths in the Battle of Plassey and the subsequent evacuation and desertion, 146 British prisoners could not have been left in Siraj's hands three hours after the surrender.

• Bholanath Chunder, a Bengali landlord, opined that a floor area of 267 square feet (25 m²) could not contain 146 European adults. In order to prove this, Bholanath fenced round an area 15 by 18 feet (4.6 by 5.5 m) with bamboo stalks and counted the number of his Bengali tenants who could be crammed into it. The number was found to be much less than 146, and a Bengali villager's body occupies much less space than a British soldier's. (By comparison, modern subway standards specify 3 square feet for rush-hour standees.)

• Finally, no list was made of the British soldiers surrendering at the fort, not even a count of heads. Many escaped between the surrender and the confinement in the 'Black Hole'. Even Holwell was offered by a friend the chance to escape. Therefore, the true number of deaths in the so-called 'Black Hole' was considerably less.

External links

• The Straight Dope: Is the black hole of Calcutta a myth? (http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mblackhole.html)
• Banglapedia: Black Hole Incident (http://banglapedia.search.com.bd/HT/B_0546.htm) "As such it should be regarded as a deplorable incident, but not a deliberate atrocity."fr:Trou Noir de Calcutta