The term “Black Hole of Calcutta” often resonates in contemporary conversations as a vivid metaphor, conjuring images of mystery and darkness. Used colloquially by many who may be unaware of its historical origins, this phrase has transcended its roots in a grim event that took place during the British East India Company’s foothold in India in 1756. Today, it frequently finds its way into discussions, taking on a symbolic significance that is divorced from the historical tragedy it once represented. Delving into the historical context reveals a stark and harrowing incident, contrasting with the casual usage of the phrase in modern language.
I recall in the 1970s my own family sometimes used the phrase; “it’s like the Black Hole of Calcutta”, and although both my parents are no longer alive to ask, I’m pretty certain they had absolutely no idea of the origin of the phrase. I too was totally ignorant at the time, so while in Kolkata last year I seized the chance to delve into the history of this notorious event and locate the precise site where it unfolded.
The Black Hole of Calcutta, a dungeon situated in Fort William, Calcutta, had dimensions of just 14 by 18 feet (4.3m × 5.5m). On the night of June 20, 1756, troops under Siraj-ud-Daulah, the Nawab of Bengal, confined British prisoners of war within its confines. John Zephaniah Holwell, an East India Company employee and one of the British captives, recounted that following the capture of Fort William, the surviving British soldiers, Indian sepoys, and local civilians were held overnight in extremely cramped conditions. The overcrowded space led to numerous fatalities due to suffocation and heat exhaustion, with 123 out of the 146 prisoners succumbing to these harsh circumstances. While some contemporary historians suggest that 64 prisoners entered the Hole, with 43 perishing, others argue for even lower numbers, questioning the accuracy of Holwell’s narrative.
Jan Van Ryne, 1754
The fort was captured by the Nawab of Bengal, Siraj-ud-Daulah, in June 1756. Captured British soldiers who had defended the fort were then imprisoned in the infamous Black Hole of Calcutta.
Fort William was established to safeguard the East India Company’s trade in Calcutta, the primary city of the Bengal Presidency. In the context of the 1756 Indian scenario, the potential for conflict with the military forces of the French East India Company prompted the British to strengthen the fort. Siraj ud-Daulah, the Nawab of Bengal, ordered a halt to the fortification efforts by both the French and British. While the French complied, the British hesitated, leading to consequences.
In response to British defiance, Siraj ud-Daulah mobilized his army and initiated a siege on Fort William, comprising of a reported 50,000 soldiers, 500 elephants, and 50 canons. Attempting to ensure the survival of the garrison, the British commander instructed the remaining soldiers to escape. However, 146 soldiers, under the civilian leadership of John Zephaniah Holwell, a senior tax collector of the East India Company and former military surgeon, were left behind.
The desertion of Indian sepoys weakened the British defense, resulting in the fall of Fort William to Bengali forces in the afternoon of June 20, 1756. The captured defenders, numbering between 64 and 69, along with an unspecified count of Anglo-Indian soldiers and civilians previously sheltered in the fort, became prisoners of war. British officers and merchants from Calcutta were rounded up by forces loyal to Siraj ud-Daulah and confined in a dungeon infamous as the “Black Hole.”
Unknown artist
Right : John Zephaniah Holwell (1711-1798)
Johann Joseph Zoffany
Holwell documented the events following the fall of Fort William. During a meeting with Siraj-ud-Daulah, the Nawab assured him, “On the word of a soldier, that no harm should come to us.” Despite this assurance, after searching for a place to confine the prisoners, including Holwell, the jailers, at 8pm, stripped the prisoners of their clothes and confined them in the fort’s prison, colloquially known as “the black hole,” a small room measuring 14 by 18 feet (4.3m × 5.5m). When the black hole was opened the next morning at 6am, only about 23 prisoners were still alive.
Historians provide varying figures for the number of prisoners and casualties. American historian and Indologist Stanley Wolpert estimated 64 people imprisoned with 21 survivors, while D. L. Prior, Holwell’s biographer in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, suggested that 43 men from the Fort William garrison were either missing or dead due to reasons other than suffocation and shock. H.E. Busteed, in Echoes from Old Calcutta (1908), pointed out the challenge of determining an exact count of those killed, considering the presence of numerous non-combatants in the fort during its capture.
Samuel de Wilde
While the incident itself is not disputed, the controversy revolves around the details and the extent to which it was used as a rallying point for anti-Indian sentiment and anti-Nawab sentiment in Britain. Some argue that the Black Hole of Calcutta was exploited for propaganda purposes to justify British military actions in India and the expansion of their colonial rule. It’s essential to approach historical events with a critical perspective, considering different accounts and interpretations to gain a more nuanced understanding of the past.
Holwell, attributing the maltreatment and deaths in the Black Hole of Calcutta to revenge and resentment among lower Jemadars (sergeants), stated, “it was the result of revenge and resentment, in the breasts of the lower Jemadars (sergeants), to whose custody we were delivered, for the number of their order killed during the siege.”
Supporting Holwell’s account, most scholars now agree that Siraj-ud-Daulah did not order the imprisonment and was not informed of it.
The dungeon in question was originally designed to hold no more than two or three individuals at a time, featuring strong bars and minimal ventilation. With only two windows and obstructed airflow due to a projecting veranda and thick iron bars, the room became oppressively hot, exacerbated by fires burning in various parts of the fort. The situation was made worse as the prisoners were densely packed, making it difficult to close the door.
Hutchinson’s Story of Nations
Right : An artist’s conception of conditions inside the “Black Hole,” based on Holwell’s account
Unknown artist
A soldier stationed in the veranda was offered a substantial bribe of 1,000 rupees to relocate the prisoners to a more spacious room. Despite making two attempts, he returned with the news that it was impossible as the nawab was asleep, and no one dared disturb him. As the night wore on, several prisoners succumbed to the dire conditions, with many others becoming delirious. A desperate cry for water echoed through the room, prompting a guard to bring some water to the bars. Holwell and a few others received it in their hats and passed it on, but in the frenzy, much of the water was spilled, only intensifying their thirst.
Rischgitz/Stringer/Getty Images
By 9pm deaths occurred, and the situation escalated into chaos. The room descended into a tumultuous scene, with prisoners in remote corners struggling to reach the windows. Weaker individuals were trampled or crushed to death, and the room became a chaotic mix of raving, fighting, praying, and blasphemy. Exhaustion took its toll, and some prisoners fell lifeless on the floor due to suffocation.
Around 11pm, the pace of deaths accelerated, and by 6am the next morning, Siraj-ud-Daulah awoke and ordered the door to be opened. Of the initial 146 prisoners, only 23, including Holwell, were still alive, though in a state of stupor or delirium. Fresh air revived them, and Holwell was brought before the nawab, who showed no remorse for the tragic events. The nawab’s only gesture of sympathy was to offer the Englishman a chair and a glass of water. Despite this apparent indifference, Holwell and some others absolved the nawab of any deliberate intention to cause the catastrophe, attributing it instead to the malice of certain officers. However, opinions on this matter remain divided, with many considering the accusation unfounded.
The most detailed report on the the Black Hole incident comes from Holwell. His account is documented in 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 June 1756, which was published in 1758.
Click on any image above to read his account
Holwell’s survival can be attributed to his fortunate proximity to one of the cell’s two windows amidst the chaotic crush of people.
“We had been but a few minutes confined before everyone fell into a perspiration so profuse, you can form no idea of it. This consequently brought on a raging thirst, which still increased, in proportion as the body was drained of its moisture…every man’s thirst grew intolerable, and respiration difficult…Now everybody, except those situated in and near the windows, began to grow outrageous, and many delirious: Water, Water, became the general cry…at last I became so pressed and wedged up, I was deprived of all motion.”
Another survivor gave the following testimony to the British Parliament:
“Some of our company expired very soon after being put in: others grew mad, and having lost their senses, died in high delirium. All we could urge to the guard set over us, could not prevail upon them either to set us at liberty, or separate us into different prisons; which we desired, and offered money to obtain; but to no purpose: and when we were released at eight o’clock the next morning, only twenty-three came out alive.”
The episode was recorded more concisely by the Mughal chronicler Yusuf Ali Khan:
“[Officials] confined nearly 100 Firangis [foreigners] who fell victim to the claws of fate on that day in a small room. As luck would have it, in the room where the Firangis were kept confined, all of them got suffocated and died.”
The survivors of the harrowing Black Hole of Calcutta were released the following morning under the orders of the Nawab, who had only learned of their suffering that day. The corpses of the dead men were thrown into a nearby ditch. In response to the capture of Calcutta, the British in Madras received the news in August 1756, prompting Lieutenant Colonel Robert Clive’s dispatch to retaliate against the Nawab. With his troops and local Indian allies, Clive successfully recaptured Calcutta in January 1757 and emerged victorious in the Battle of Plassey. This decisive battle led to the overthrow and execution of Siraj ud-Daulah as the Nawab of Bengal on 23 June 1757.
Holwell went to some lengths to document the names of those who perished in the cell that night, and also to list the lucky survivors.
“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.”
Victims :
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-Major Abraham, Quartermaster Cartwright, 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.
Survivors :
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).
The infamous Black Hole of Calcutta, once a site of tragedy, was later repurposed into a warehouse. Fort William was subsequently demolished and a new one constructed farther south, with an unobstructed field of fire. The latter fort, completed in 1781, still stands.
In memory of the deceased, the British erected a 15-meter (50′) high obelisk, now situated in the graveyard of St. John’s Church, Calcutta. Initially, Holwell had placed a tablet at the Black Hole site to honor the victims, but it disappeared at some point (the exact date is uncertain). In 1899, Lord Curzon, upon becoming Viceroy, noticed the absence of any marker at the location and commissioned a new monument, acknowledging Holwell’s prior effort.
This monument, erected in 1901 at the corner of Dalhousie Square (now B.B.D. Bagh), is believed to mark the site of the ‘Black Hole.’ During the Indian independence movement, the presence of this monument in Calcutta caused widespread controversy. Nationalist leaders, including Subhas Chandra Bose, actively advocated for its removal. The Congress and the Muslim League collaborated in the anti-monument movement. Consequently, Abdul Wasek Mia of Nawabganj thana, a student leader at the time, led the removal of the monument from Dalhousie Square in July 1940. It was then re-erected in the graveyard of St John’s Church in Calcutta, where it stands to this day.
The precise location of the guardroom is in an alleyway between the General Post Office and the adjacent building to the north, in the northwest corner of B.B.D. Bagh.
Holwell’s original plaque at the site of the Black Hole which went missing was also replaced by Curzon, who marked the location of Old Fort William using brass lines in the pavement and marble plaques on the walls. Of the 12 tablets that Curzon had erected around the fort’s footprint, only 3 remain visible to the public, one of which is on the walls of the GPO. The brass lines are all gone, except the ones on the eastern steps of the GPO.
At the site of the Black Hole, Curzon had the area paved with black polished marble, and protected by a railing. Above it was placed a marble tablet, which read:
THE MARBLE PAVEMENT BELOW THIS SPOT
WAS PLACED HERE
BY LORD CURZON, VICEROY AND GOVERNOR GENERAL OF INDIA,
IN 1901
TO MARK THE SITE OF THE PRISON IN OLD FORT WILLIAM
KNOWN AS THE BLACK HOLE
IN WHICH 146 BRITISH INHABITANTS OF CALCUTTA
WERE CONFINED ON THE NIGHT OF THE 20TH JUNE, 1756,
AND FROM WHICH ONLY 23 CAME OUT ALIVE
———- o ———-
THE PAVEMENT MARKS THE EXACT BREADTH OF THE PRISON 14 FEET 10 INCHES
BUT NOT ITS FULL LENGTH 18 FEET.
ABOUT ONE THIRD OF THE AREA AT THE NOTH END BEING COVERED
BY THE BUILDING ON WHICH THIS TABLET IS FIXED
By the early 20th century the site of the Black Hole had become a place well known to locals and early tourists. Numerous postcards were produced showing the location, with Curzon’s plaque mounted on the back wall of a later building.
Right : Black Hole postcard from the early 20th century
Stereo-Travel Company, Corona, New York City
Right : Black Hole postcard published in Germany around 1913
The memorial tablet that once adorned the wall of the building beside the GPO was at some point removed, and can now be found in the nearby GPO postal museum.
The removal of Curzon’s tablet marks the start of obscurity for the site of the Black Hole. With the original building demolished and Curzon’s plaque removed, there was nothing to mark or protect this historically significant place. With the growing urbanisation and development of Calcutta in the 20th century, the site has become more or less erased from public memory.
Thankfully, Lord Curzon had commissioned a map in 1925 which details the original Fort William footprint against modern buildings. This was an adaptation of an earlier map by C.R. Wilson, who in 1891, using a 1753 map of Calcutta drawn by Lt. Wells, traced the bastions, curtain walls, and the Black Hole prison of the old Fort William. I suspect these earlier maps were specifically commissioned to assist Curzon in the placement of marble plaques and brass lines, marking the various points of the old fort. This later 1925 map includes the locations of the 12 plaques he had erected.
British Government in India, Volume One, by Lord Curzon of Kedleston – Cassell and Company Ltd, London
The map clearly shows the exact location of the Black Hole, as can be seen below.
The exact location of the Black Hole is clearly marked on this map, highlighted above in red.
Curzon’s memorial tablet is also marked on this map.
Armed with this map, finding the location on the ground is trivial. This in itself is no great discovery, I’m treading in the footsteps of many bloggers who have been here before me, although I do have a couple of new observations.
Unfortunately you can’t get super close to the site of the Black Hole, the land is now owned by the GPO and the gate that would give access is locked. However, there is a curious thing immediately in front of the right gate pillar by the kerb. To me this looks like a cannon that has been buried vertically, and now painted blue to match the colour scheme of the kerb. I suspect the workman who painted this just assumed it was a bollard.
Beyond the gate on the right side is the location of the infamous Black Hole prison cell.
Top : Circled in red, what appears to be a vertically buried cannon
Bottom : Close-up of the canon, now painted blue as if just a kerbside bollard
This cannon is obviously purposely placed, and is most likely a “guard stone”, also known as a jostle stone or chasse-roue (French lit. “wheel chaser”). These are projecting metal, concrete, or stone exterior architectural elements located at the corner and/or foot of gates, or narrow entrances, their purpose being to protect the walls or pillars and prevent damage from vehicle wheels. Guard stones are almost always found in pairs, flanking an entrance or routeway.
It strikes me as a little strange to use an old cannon for this purpose, but it would seem this is not an isolated case. Below are reports from 2023 detailing yet more cannons found in Kolkata that were likewise buried up-right. These examples were discovered near to Dun Dum central jail, buried in the exact same fashion, and discovered as a pair.
Peering through the locked gate, it is just possible to get a view of the assumed site of the Black Hole cell, now just an empty space. Since my visit I have learnt that another cannon was buried upright next to the same gate pillar on the inside of the passageway, but that has in recent years been excavated and removed, leaving just a hole that you can see in the following image (bottom right).
A second vertically buried cannon once existed on the bottom right of this image, but that has clearly been removed at some point in the last decade.
It is only upon returning back to the UK and preparing this blog that I made a bit of a discovery, one that nobody else seems to have noticed or commented upon. Everyone assumes this empty square platform with walls on three sides is the exact location of the now demolished Black Hole, but it clearly isn’t.
The critical evidence comes from architectural details on the wall of the adjacent building to the GPO, the red wall behind this open square space. This wall has more or less remained unchanged since all those early 20th century photographs of the actual site with Curzon’s plaque in-situ, there’s just a few differences in the form of additional drain pipes, air conditioning units, and a now brick-filled low window.
This wall elevation has a slight projection that forms the south-east corner of the building, which is visible in the early photographs, Curzon’s 1925 map, and now in my own photographs. There is also a single low window, now bricked up, that is clearly identifiable in the old photographs.
When comparing all this evidence, it becomes clear that the actual site of the Black Hole is further west than the assumed site, and is located broadly where today a small square single-storied white building stands. Hopefully the image below presents the evidence a little more clearly than my words.
Irrespective of the precise location of the Black Hole, it is disheartening that the site lacks visual recognition today. Even though the area is privately owned, placing a commemorative plaque along the adjacent main road would be fitting for an event that has left an indelible mark on both history and modern language. Despite lingering controversy over specific details, the undeniable fact remains that the Black Hole incident did occur. Rather than shying away from this historical event, it presents an opportunity to educate visitors about the broader context of British rule in India, perhaps also acknowledging the estimated 60-100 million Indian lives lost due to conflict, oppression, and famine.
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Categories: India, Kolkata, The Black Hole of Calcutta, West Bengal
Kevin Standage 
Outstanding and that is saying a lot as an old professor and also considering the extremely high quality of your work I have seen. Makes me want to go see this although I would have to mask it to my spouse by saying GPO, museum, Bengali food…
Much appreciated!
edwardseco
LikeLiked by 1 person
Surely Bengali food is the only excuse you would need ? 🙂 Thank you so much for your kind words, they are very much valued.
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