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Black Hole of Calcutta

Coordinates:22°34′24″N88°20′53″E/ 22.573357°N 88.347979°E/22.573357; 88.347979
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TheBlack Hole of Calcuttawas a dungeon inFort William, Calcutta,measuring 14 by 18 feet (4.3 m × 5.5 m), in which troops ofSiraj-ud-Daulah,theNawab of Bengal,held Britishprisoners of waron the night of 20 June 1756.[1][2]: 58 John Zephaniah Holwell,one of the British prisoners and an employee of theEast India Company,said that, after the fall of Fort William, the survivingBritishsoldiers,Indiansepoys,and Indian civilians were imprisoned overnight in conditions so cramped that many people died fromsuffocationandheat exhaustion,and that 123 of 146 prisoners of war imprisoned there died.[3]

Some modern historians believe that 64 prisoners were sent into the Hole, and that 43 died there.[4]Some historians put the figure even lower, to about 18 dead, while questioning the veracity of Holwell's account itself.[5][6]

Background[edit]

Further information:History of Calcutta
Fort William is located in Kolkata
Fort William
Fort William
class=notpageimage|
Location of Fort William

22°34′24″N88°20′53″E/ 22.573357°N 88.347979°E/22.573357; 88.347979

Fort William was established to protect theEast India Company's trade in the city ofCalcutta,the principal city of theBengal Presidency.In 1756 India, there existed the possibility of a battle with the military forces of theFrench East India Company,so the British reinforced the fort.Siraj ud-Daulahordered the fortification construction to be stopped by the French and British, and the French complied while the British demurred.

In consequence to that British indifference to his authority, Siraj ud-Daulah organised his army andlaid siege to Fort William.In an effort to survive the battle, the British commander ordered the surviving soldiers of the garrison to escape, yet left behind 146 soldiers under the civilian command ofJohn Zephaniah Holwell,a seniorbureaucratof the East India Company who had been once amilitary surgeon.[7]

The desertions ofIndian sepoysmade the British defence of Fort William ineffective and it fell to the siege of Bengali forces on 20 June 1756. The surviving defenders who were captured and made prisoners of war numbered between 64 and 69, along with an unknown number ofAnglo-Indiansoldiers and civilians who earlier had been sheltered in Fort William.[citation needed]The British officers and merchants based inKolkatawere rounded up by the forces loyal to Siraj ud-Daulah and forced into a dungeon known as the "Black Hole".

The Holwell account[edit]

A fenced display of the Black Hole of Calcutta (1908)

Holwell wrote about the events that occurred after the fall of Fort William. He met with Siraj-ud-Daulah, who assured him: "On the word of a soldier; that no harm should come to us".[8]After seeking a place in the fort to confine the prisoners (including Holwell), at8.00 p.m.,the jailers stripped the prisoners of their clothes and locked the prisoners in the fort's prison— "the black hole" in soldiers' slang—a small room that measured 14 by 18 feet (4.3 m × 5.5 m).[9][full citation needed]The next morning, when the black hole was opened, at6.00 a.m.,only about 23 of the prisoners remained alive.[7]

Historians offer different numbers of prisoners and casualties of war; Stanley Wolpert estimated that 64 people were imprisoned and 21 survived.[7]D. L. Prior estimated that 43 men of the Fort-William garrison were either missing or dead, for reasons other than suffocation andshock.[10]Busteed suggests that the many non-combatants present in the fort when it was captured make infeasible a precise number of people killed.[11]Regarding responsibility for the maltreatment and the deaths in the Black Hole of Calcutta, Holwell said, "it was the result of revenge and resentment, in the breasts of the lowerJemadars(sergeants), to whose custody we were delivered, for the number of their order killed during the siege. "[8]

Concurring with Holwell, Wolpert said that Siraj-ud-Daulah did not order the imprisonment and was not informed of it.[7]The physical description of the Black Hole of Calcutta corresponds with Holwell's point of view:

Thedungeonwas a strongly barred room and it was not intended for the confinement of more than two or three men at a time. There were only two windows, and a projectingverandaoutside, 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 1,000rupeesto 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; thenawabwas 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 water 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 spilled, 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-Daulah awoke and ordered the door to be opened. Of the 146 only 23, including Mr. Holwell [from whose narrative, published in theAnnual RegisterandThe Gentleman's Magazinefor 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 thenawab,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 officers, but many think this opinion unfounded.

Afterward, when the prison of Fort William was opened, the corpses of the dead men were thrown into a ditch. As prisoners of war, Holwell and three other men were transferred toMurshidabad.

British reaction[edit]

The remaining survivors of the Black Hole of Calcutta were freed the next morning on the orders of the Nawab, who learned only that morning of their sufferings.[12][2]: 71 After news of Calcutta's capture was received by the British inMadrasin August 1756,Lieutenant Colonel Robert Clivewas sent to retaliate against the Nawab. With his troops and local Indian allies, Clive recaptured Calcutta in January 1757, and defeated Siraj ud-Daulah at theBattle of Plassey,which resulted in Siraj being overthrown as Nawab of Bengal and executed.[7]

The Black Hole of Calcutta was later used as a warehouse.[citation needed]

Monument to the victims[edit]

The Black Hole Memorial, St. John's Church,Calcutta,India.

In memoriamof the dead, the British erected a 15-metre (50') highobelisk;it now is in the graveyard of (Anglican) St. John's Church, Calcutta. Holwell had erected a tablet on the site of the 'Black Hole' to commemorate the victims but, at some point (the precise date is uncertain), it disappeared.Lord Curzon,on becoming Viceroy in 1899, noticed that there was nothing to mark the spot and commissioned a new monument, mentioning the prior existence of Holwell's; it was erected in 1901 at the corner of Dalhousie Square (nowB. B. D. Bagh), which is said to be the site of the 'Black Hole'.[11]: 52–6 At the apex of theIndian independence movement,the presence of this monument in Calcutta was turned into a nationalistcause célèbre.Nationalistleaders, includingSubhas Chandra Bose,lobbied energetically for its removal. The Congress and theMuslim Leaguejoined forces in the anti-monument movement. As a result, Abdul Wasek Mia of Nawabganj thana, a student leader of that time, led the removal of the monument from Dalhousie Square in July 1940. The monument was re-erected in the graveyard ofSt John's ChurchinCalcutta,where it remains.

The 'Black Hole' itself, being merely the guardroom in the old Fort William, disappeared shortly after the incident when the fort itself was taken down to be replaced by the new Fort William which still stands today in the Maidan to the south of B.B.D. Bagh. The precise location of that guardroom is in an alleyway between the General Post Office and the adjacent building to the north, in the north west corner of B.B.D. Bagh. The memorial tablet which was once on the wall of that building beside the GPO can now be found in the nearby postal museum.

"List of the smothered in the Black Hole prison exclusive of sixty-nine, consisting of Dutch and British sergeants, corporals, soldiers, topazes, militia, whites, and Portuguese, (whose names I am unacquainted with), making on the whole one hundred and twenty-three persons."

Holwell's list of the victims of the Black Hole of Calcutta:

Of Counsel – E. Eyre, Esqr., Wm. Baillie, Esqr., the Rev. Jervas Bellamy.

Gentlemen in the Service – Messrs. Jenks, Revely, Law, Coales, Valicourt, Jeb, Torriano, E. Page, S. Page, Grub, Street, Harod, P. Johnstone, Ballard, N. Drake, Carse, Knapton, Gosling, Robert Byng, Dod, Dalrymple, V. Ament Theme.

Military Captains– Clayton, Buchanan, Witherington.

Lieutenants– Bishop, Ifays, Blagg, Simson, Bellamy.

Ensigns– Paccard, Scot, Hastings, C. Wedderburn, Dumbleton.

Sergeants, &c.–Sergeant-MajorAbraham,QuartermasterCartwright, Sergeant Bleau (these were sergeants of militia).

Sea Captains– Hunt, Osburne, Purnell (survived the night; died on the morn), Messrs. Carey, Stephenson, Guy, Porter, W. Parker, Caulker, Bendall, Atkinson, Leech, &c., &c.

The list of the men and women who survived their imprisonment in the Black Hole of Calcutta:

Messrs. John Zephaniah Holwell, Court, Secretary Cooke, Lushington, Burdett, Ensign Walcott, Mrs. Carey, Captain Mills, Captain Dickson, Mr. Moran, John Meadows, and twelve military and militia (blacks & whites).[13]

In popular culture[edit]

Text on the Memorial in St John's Churchyard
Black Hole Monument
Holwell Monument, c. 1905
Inscription dating relocation
Scene of the Black Hole, c. 1905

Literature[edit]

Mark Twain,on Chapter 20 in his travelogueInnocents Abroad(1867), describes a cell he and his fellow passengers were put into by police inBellagio, Italyas "...the Black Hole of Calcutta on a small scale."

Muriel Rukeyser,inThe Book of the Dead,[14]originally published as a group of poems inU.S. 1: Poems[15](1938),quotes fromVito Marcantonio's speech "Dusty Death"[16](1936). Rukeyser was writing about theHawk's Nest Tunneltragedy and referenced to Marcantonio's speech to compare the silicate tunnels to the Black Holes of Calcutta, writing "This is the place. Away from this my life I am indeed Adam unparadiz'd. Some fools call this the Black Hole of Calcutta. I don't know how they ever get to Congress."[17]

Thomas Pynchonrefers to the Black Hole of Calcutta in the historical novelMason & Dixon(1997). The characterCharles Masonspends much time onSaint Helenawith the astronomerNevil Maskelyne,the brother-in-law of LordRobert Cliveof India. Later in the story,Jeremiah Dixonvisits New York City, and attends a secret "Broad-Way" production of the "musical drama",The Black Hole of Calcutta, or, the Peevish Wazir,"executed with such a fine respect for detail...".[18]Kenneth Tynansatirically refers to it in the long-running musical revueOh! Calcutta!,which was played on Broadway for more than 7,000 performances.Edgar Allan Poemakes reference to the "stifling" of the prisoners in the introduction to "The Premature Burial"(1844).[19]The Black Hole is mentioned inLooking Backward(1888) byEdward Bellamyas an example of the depravity of the past.

In a story written by Indian authorMasti Venkatesha Iyengar,"Rangana Maduve" ( "Ranga's Marriage" ), the narrator Shyama describes Ranga's house as 'the Black Hole of Calcutta' because of the large crowd that had gathered to see Ranga when he came home after completing his studies. If all the people had gone inside, the house would have become as crowded as the Black Hole of Calcutta.

In the science-fiction novelOmega: The Last Days of the World(1894), byCamille Flammarion,the Black Hole of Calcutta is mentioned for the suffocating properties of Carbonic-Oxide (Carbon Monoxide) upon the British soldiers imprisoned in that dungeon.Eugene O'Neill,inLong Day's Journey into Night,Act 4, Jamie says, "Can't expect us to live in the Black Hole of Calcutta."Patrick O'BrianinThe Mauritius Command(1977) compared Jack Aubrey's house to the black hole of Calcutta "except that whereas the Hole was hot, dry, and airless", Aubrey's cottage "let in draughts from all sides".

In Chapter VII ofPearl S. Buck's biography of her father,Fighting Angel(1936), she compares the brutality of China's 1899-1901Boxer Rebellion(which she and her family survived while living in China) to that of the Black Hole of Calcutta: "The story of theBoxer Rebellion... remains, like the tale of the Black Hole of Calcutta, one of the festering spots of history. If the number of people actually dead was small, as such numbers go in these days of wholesale death by accidents and wars, it was the manner of death... that makes the heart shudder and condemn even while the mind can reason and weigh. "

Diana Gabaldonmentions briefly the incident in her novelLord John and the Private Matter(2003). The Black Hole is also compared with the evil miasma of Calcutta as a whole in Dan Simmons's novelThe Song of Kali.Stephen Kingmakes a reference to the Black Hole of Calcutta in his 1983 novelChristine,and his 2004 novelSong of Susannah.

In Chapter V ofKing Solomon's MinesbyH. Rider Haggard(1885) the Black Hole of Calcutta is mentioned: "This gave us some slight shelter from the burning rays of the sun, but the atmosphere in that amateur grave can be better imagined than described. The Black Hole of Calcutta must have been a fool to it". InJohn Fante's novelThe Road to Los Angeles(1985), the main character Arturo Bandini recalls when seeing his place of work: "I thought about the Black Hole of Calcutta." InVanity Fair,William Makepeace Thackeraymakes a reference to the Black Hole of Calcutta when describing the Anglo-Indian district in London (Chapter LX).Swami Vivekanandamakes a mention of the Black Hole of Calcutta in connection with describingHolwell's journey toMurshidabad.[20]

When discussing deep unconsciousness in her bookHow to be Human,Ruby Waxdescribes this as: "It's like the black hole of Calcutta of our souls."

InHellblazer:Event Horizon,John Constantinesays that a mad Brahmin in the Black Hole made a stone because he wanted revenge. The stone causes one to have insane thoughts and hallucinations.

InThe Other Side of Morningby Stephen Goss (2022), the events of the Black Hole of Calcutta are described from the perspective of John Holwell. The book is the story of Holwell's life leading up to the incident.

The Black Hole of Calcutta is also mentioned in Chapter IV of Sara Jane Lippincott's book titled "History of my Pets," in reference to a pet toad (named Phibby) she had left locked in the cabin of a wooden ship. The poor toad was later found suffocated as a result. Upon telling her sympathetic father, he compared the unfortunate blunder to the Black Hole of Calcutta.

Television[edit]

In the period dramaTurn: Washington's Spies,the character ofJohn Graves Simcoeclaims in Season 4 that he was born in India and that his father died in the Black Hole of Calcutta after beingtortured.(In historical reality, Simcoe was born in England and his father died ofpneumonia.)

In the 1963 episode ofSteptoe and Sonentitled "The Bath", when Harold Steptoe displaces his father from his bedroom in order to install a bathroom, Albert Steptoe angrily describes his new 'bedroom' – the cupboard under the stairs – as being "like the Black 'Ole of Calcutta!"

In an episode of the British sitcomOpen All HoursArkwright orders his assistant and nephew Granville to clean the outside window ledge. He attempts to say "There's enough dirt there to fill the Black Hole of Calcutta", but his extensive stuttering when trying to say 'Calcutta' causes him to change it to "There's enough dirt there to fill theHanging Gardens of Babylon".

In an episode of British sitcomOnly Fools and Horses,while discussing Uncle Albert's history of falling down numerous holes, Del Boy infers that the only hole Albert has not fallen down is "the black one in Calcutta".[citation needed]

In an episode ofThe Andy Griffith Show,S. 6 Ep. 11 "The Cannon",Deputy Warren is placed in charge of security at the Mayberry Founders Day ceremony and he becomes obsessed with the town decorative cannon. He peers into the fuse breach and claims" It is darker than the Hole of Calcutta in there ".

In an episode ofThe L Word,Alice refers to the bad vibes in the coffee shop as "The Black Hole of Calcutta".[citation needed]

In an episode of British television seriesYes Minister,the permanent secretary refers to a packed train compartment as the Black Hole of Calcutta.

In an episode ofHave Gun, Will Travel,S. 2 Ep. 10 "The Lady", Paladin warns a British woman of the danger of an imminent Comanche attack by reminding her of indigenous reprisals in India, including "the Khyber Pass, the Sepoy Mutiny, and the Black Hole of Calcutta".

In an episode of the British comedyPeep Show,the character Mark says "The more, the merrier, they said as another poor soul was crammed into the Black Hole of Calcutta."

Film[edit]

The Black Hole of Calcutta is referenced early in the filmAlbert R.N.,a 1953 British film dealing with a German prisoner-of-war camp for allied naval officers.

There's also a reference in the 1987 film Hiding Out, where the protagonist's aunt criticizes her teenage son's messy room by comparing it to the Black Hole.

It is also referenced in the 1991 filmThe Addams Familyas one of the locations visited by Gomez and Morticia Addams during their second honeymoon.[citation needed]

Astronomy[edit]

According toHong-Yee Chiu,anastrophysicistatNASA,the Black Hole of Calcutta was the inspiration for the termblack holereferring to objects resulting from thegravitational collapseof very heavystars.He recalled hearingphysicistRobert Dickein the early 1960s compare such gravitationally collapsed objects to the prison.[21]

Prison reform[edit]

A minority opinion in the August 1910 report of the Penitentiary Investigating Committee of the State of Texas (USA) referred to the prison conditions in this way:

I trust that this report will sufficiently arouse the people of Texas to the atrocities daily heaped upon this mass of thirty-six hundred breathing, human souls, wards of the State, to such an extent that the people will rise up and demand a Called Session of the Legislature of this State in order that legislation may be enacted whereby this organized hell and "Black Hole of Calcutta" will be in the course of a few months only a ghastly memory in the minds of the people.

— C. B. Hudspeth, Report of the Penitentiary Investigating Committee (1910)[22]

See also[edit]

Notes[edit]

  1. ^Gupta, Brejen K. (1962).Siraj-ud-daullah and the East India Company, 1756–1757.Leiden: E. J. Brill. p. 76.
  2. ^abCummins, Joseph (2013).The World's Bloodiest History: Massacre, Genocide, and the Scars They Left on Civilization.New York: Crestline. pp. 56–73.ISBN9781616734633.Retrieved12 April2020.
  3. ^Little, J. H. (1916). "The Black Hole – The Question of Holwell's Veracity".Bengal: Past and Present.12:136–171.
  4. ^Dalrymple, William; Fraser, Olivia (10 September 2019).The anarchy: the relentless rise of the East India Company.New York.ISBN978-1-63557-395-4.OCLC1076511649.{{cite book}}:CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  5. ^Gupta, Brijen K. (1966).Sirajuddaullah and The East India Company, 1756–1757: Background to the Foundation of British Power in India.Leiden, Netherlands:E. J. Brill.pp. 70–80.
  6. ^Dirks, Nicholas B. (2008).The Scandal of Empire – India and the Creation of Imperial Britain.Cambridge, Massachusetts:The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.pp. 3–4.ISBN978-0-674-02724-4.
  7. ^abcdeWolpert, Stanley(2009).A New History of India(8th ed.). New York: Oxford University Press. p. 185.ISBN978-0-19-533756-3.
  8. ^abHolwell, John Zephaniah;Friends (1764)."A Genuine Narrative of the Deplorable Deaths of the English Gentlemen, and Others, who were suffocated in the Black-Hole in Fort-William, at Calcutta, in the Kingdom of Bengal; in the Night succeeding the 20th Day of June, 1756".India Tracts(2nd ed.). London: Becket & de Hondt. pp. 251–276.Retrieved16 September2011.
  9. ^Partridge, Eric.Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English
  10. ^D. L. Prior, Holwell's biographer in theOxford Dictionary of National Biography,estimated figures of 64 prisoners and 21 survivors.
  11. ^abBusteed, H. E. (1908).Echoes from Old Calcutta(4th ed.). London: W. Thacker. pp. 30–56.
  12. ^Holwell, John Zephaniah (1905)."A Genuine Narrative".In Hill, S. C. (ed.).Bengal in 1756–1757: A Selection of Public and Private Papers Dealing with the Affairs of the British in Bengal during the Reign of Siraj-Uddaula, Vol. 3.London: John Murray. p. 144.
  13. ^Busteed, 1888 appendix section of Echoes of Old Calcutta
  14. ^Rukeyser, Muriel (2018).The Book of the Dead.West Virginia University Press.ISBN978-1-946684-21-9.
  15. ^Rukeyser, Muriel (1938).U.S. 1.Covici, Friede.
  16. ^"Vito Marcantonio Online".Vito Marcantonio.Retrieved22 March2022.
  17. ^Rukeyser, Muriel (1994).Out of Silence: Selected Poems.Northwestern University Press.ISBN978-0-8101-5015-7.
  18. ^Pynchon, Thomas,Mason & Dixon,pp. 562–564.
  19. ^"The Works of Edgar Allan Poe, Volume 2".Retrieved25 December2015.
  20. ^Vivekananda, Swami (2002).Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda.Kolkata: Advaita Ashrama. p. 307.ISBN81-85301-75-1.
  21. ^Siegfried, Tom (23 December 2013)."50 years later, it's hard to say who named black holes".Science News.
  22. ^Report of the Penitentiary Investigating Committee(PDF)(Report). August 1910. pp. 20–21.

References[edit]

External links[edit]

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