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| Site of Black Hole(1756), KolkataAlamy |
Infuriated Nawab's orders to the British to stop the fortification work fell on deaf ears. The British didn't care a fig. Now, offended, Siraj-ud-Daulla arrived before the gate of Fort William at Calcutta on 16th June,1756 with a formidable force of 30,000 foot soldiers, 20,000 cavalrymen, 400 trained elephants and 80 pieces of cannon to capture it from the English for their failure to pay trade taxes.
Governor Roger Drake found it
impossible to tackle the onslaught of the Nawob's
forces and, on June 19th, escaped to the fort at Fultah to avoid
capture under the cover provided by other soldiers, leaving behind women and children and a garrison of 170 soldiers headed by non-military official John Holwell The responsibility
to save the fort from the marauding
forces of Nawob fell on John Zephaniah Holwell, a magistrate and Member
of the Council, with a few other Englishmen left in the fort. On 20th
June, only 14 men were left to serve the guns as 25 English soldiers
were killed and 70 wounded. They fought tooth and nail till evening. The
main gate, having been opened by a Dutchman, the
Nawob's forces entered and several British soldiers lost their life in
the fierce fighting and at last Holwell surrendered to the invading
army. That night
an unexpected horrible thing had occurred that was blown out of
proportion and made to look like a legend in history showing the Nawob
in poor light making the British war heroes.
Above image: Nawob Siraj-ud-daulah and Z.Z.Holwell,Black hole incident (1756), Calcutta.......
According to the survivor John Zephaniah Holwell, Siraj-ud-Daulla put 146 English prisoners in a small military prison - a lock-up (a sort of dungeon measuring 15 feet by 18 feet) in the fort meant for minor offenders. The room being not good enough for 143 people and with no ventilation, following morning, 123 of the prisoners had died. This incident was recalled by the survivor and tagged Indians as a base, cowardly, and despotic people. Holwell, however, pointed out suffocation is one reason and the other reason was prisoners, who had been inside the dungeon, were short of breath bordering on heavy panting and in the me-lee to get fresh air from the only small window available, they panicked and initially resorted to violence, then fighting and ultimately killing - Darwin's theory of natural selection came into play: survival of the fittest, so to speak.
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| www.historic-uk.com |
According to the survivor John Zephaniah Holwell, Siraj-ud-Daulla put 146 English prisoners in a small military prison - a lock-up (a sort of dungeon measuring 15 feet by 18 feet) in the fort meant for minor offenders. The room being not good enough for 143 people and with no ventilation, following morning, 123 of the prisoners had died. This incident was recalled by the survivor and tagged Indians as a base, cowardly, and despotic people. Holwell, however, pointed out suffocation is one reason and the other reason was prisoners, who had been inside the dungeon, were short of breath bordering on heavy panting and in the me-lee to get fresh air from the only small window available, they panicked and initially resorted to violence, then fighting and ultimately killing - Darwin's theory of natural selection came into play: survival of the fittest, so to speak.
It is now almost universally conceded that
Holwell greatly embellished his story. Indian scholars have shown the
Nawob
had no hand in this affair, and that the number of incarcerated
prisoners was no higher than 69. Professor Brijen Gupta mentioned in
the 1950s, the total of prisoners shut in the black hole was probably
sixty-four, of whom twenty-one came out alive. He also showed evidence
that Siraj-ud-daula did not order the prisoners to be shut in the black
hole and knew nothing about it until afterwards.
John Zephaniah Holwell was born in Dublin on17 September 1711, the son of Zephaniah Holwell (d. 1729), a timber merchant. In 1732 Holwell became a surgeon's mate on board an India-bound ship for Calcutta and later he settled there in1736. Subsequently he went back to England and in 1751 he returned to India now as a "covenanted civilian".
Coming back to the black hole tragedy. having survived the night in the "Black Hole," Holwell was taken as a prisoner along with three others to Murshidabad. He was in a bad state of health and covered with boils. Holwell was eventually released on July 17, 1756, at the interference of the Begum of Bengal, who, it is said, recognized his services to ailing Indians. Holwell, then returned to England in February 1757; the voyage took five months, during which time he wrote an account of the events in the "Black Hole". Holwell's narrative 'his experience as a night of horrors' and other subsequent publications by famous people on Black Hole inspired the patriotic zeal of several generations of Britons and at the same time they accentuated their rage at Indian perfidy.
He returned to Calcutta in 1759 and was appointed Governor in 1760. However, his disagreement with the Board of Directors in September of the same year made him to resign the covetous post. He died on 5 November 1798 and, as for his personal life, he was twice married and was survived by two daughters.
The original inscription gave only a few names that Holwell could remember, and he gave some of them inaccurately. The present more accurate lists are due to a careful examination of contemporary records, lists, and registers, which was conducted by Lord Curzon, in co-operation with Mr. S. C. Hill. The inscription is as follows:
'This monument was erected by Lord Curzon, Viceroy and Governor-General of India,
In the year 1902,
Upon the site and in reproduction of the design
Of the original monument'.
'To the memory of the 123 persons
Who perished in the Black Hole prison
Of Old Fort William
On the night of the 20th of June, 1756.
The former memorial was raised by
Their surviving fellow-sufferer
J. Z. Holwell, Governor of Fort William,
On the spot where the bodies of the dead
Had been thrown into the ditch of the raveling.
It was removed in 1821.'
As per Treaty of Alinagar in 1757 between leaders from Britain and India, the finally Indians agreed to pay compensation for attacks on British citizens. Surprisingly there was no mention of the Black Hole incident of Calcutta. Wily British never talked about payment of huge tax arrears due from EIC to the Nawob.
The list of casualty legally declared was based on solitary evidence given by Holwell. The list of 123 dead British officer in a small prison cell that could accommodate only 50 to 60 people at a time was a cock and bull story promoted by Holwell and his buddies backed by the biased British media to gain political millage out of this unfortunate incident and to win the sympathy and support of the British public in favor of company's confrontation against the Nawob. This way they could show the Nawob in poor light and portray him as the real villain or culprit whose motive was to kill the British mercilessly. Siraj-ud daulah was not a cruel man and this act was committed most probably out of negligence
Ref:
Old Fort William in Bengal - By Charles Robert Wilson
John Zephaniah Holwell (1711-1798) and the Black Hole of Calcutta - By H. P. Bayo.
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| Black hole (1756),Calcutta,people fighting to stay alive. missedinhistory.com |
John Zephaniah Holwell was born in Dublin on17 September 1711, the son of Zephaniah Holwell (d. 1729), a timber merchant. In 1732 Holwell became a surgeon's mate on board an India-bound ship for Calcutta and later he settled there in1736. Subsequently he went back to England and in 1751 he returned to India now as a "covenanted civilian".
Coming back to the black hole tragedy. having survived the night in the "Black Hole," Holwell was taken as a prisoner along with three others to Murshidabad. He was in a bad state of health and covered with boils. Holwell was eventually released on July 17, 1756, at the interference of the Begum of Bengal, who, it is said, recognized his services to ailing Indians. Holwell, then returned to England in February 1757; the voyage took five months, during which time he wrote an account of the events in the "Black Hole". Holwell's narrative 'his experience as a night of horrors' and other subsequent publications by famous people on Black Hole inspired the patriotic zeal of several generations of Britons and at the same time they accentuated their rage at Indian perfidy.
He returned to Calcutta in 1759 and was appointed Governor in 1760. However, his disagreement with the Board of Directors in September of the same year made him to resign the covetous post. He died on 5 November 1798 and, as for his personal life, he was twice married and was survived by two daughters.
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| John Zephaniah Holwell upload.wikimedia.org |
'This monument was erected by Lord Curzon, Viceroy and Governor-General of India,
In the year 1902,
Upon the site and in reproduction of the design
Of the original monument'.
'To the memory of the 123 persons
Who perished in the Black Hole prison
Of Old Fort William
On the night of the 20th of June, 1756.
The former memorial was raised by
Their surviving fellow-sufferer
J. Z. Holwell, Governor of Fort William,
On the spot where the bodies of the dead
Had been thrown into the ditch of the raveling.
It was removed in 1821.'
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| Black Hole memorial St. John's Church, Kolkata. tripadvisor.com |
As per Treaty of Alinagar in 1757 between leaders from Britain and India, the finally Indians agreed to pay compensation for attacks on British citizens. Surprisingly there was no mention of the Black Hole incident of Calcutta. Wily British never talked about payment of huge tax arrears due from EIC to the Nawob.
 |
| PictureQuotes.com |
The list of casualty legally declared was based on solitary evidence given by Holwell. The list of 123 dead British officer in a small prison cell that could accommodate only 50 to 60 people at a time was a cock and bull story promoted by Holwell and his buddies backed by the biased British media to gain political millage out of this unfortunate incident and to win the sympathy and support of the British public in favor of company's confrontation against the Nawob. This way they could show the Nawob in poor light and portray him as the real villain or culprit whose motive was to kill the British mercilessly. Siraj-ud daulah was not a cruel man and this act was committed most probably out of negligence
Ref:
Old Fort William in Bengal - By Charles Robert Wilson
John Zephaniah Holwell (1711-1798) and the Black Hole of Calcutta - By H. P. Bayo.
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, Calcutta and eye witness John Holwell ){kind=link}