black hole tragedy in kolkatta

The Black Hole Tragedy 20th June 1756

Siraj-ud-Daullah, the young, inexperienced and impulsive Nawab of Bengal, was neither very fond of the Europeans nor of their expansion plans. He was aroused by the open defiance of his authority by Governor Drake when one of his messengers was summarily expelled. This aroused the young Nawab who reached Kolkata on 16^th June, 1756 at the head of a 30000 strong infantry, ably supported by a battery of artillery led by a detatchment of 25 Europeans and Indo-Portuguese. He camped at the house of a wealthy Sikh named Amirchand or Umichand, situated at Shimulia (Shimla area near Manicktala) and adjacent to the Marhatta Ditch. The major part of Siraj’s brigade crossed the ditch near Sealdaha on 18^th June, 1756 and the “Battle of Laldighi” was fought. The British army, positioned on the eastern side of the tank square, was not suitably geared up to sustain the Nawab’s offensives and consequently submitted to the forces of the Nawab and drove back to an inner line of defence around the fort. An informal council was convened by Governor Drake and the decision to abandon the fort was taken, though how and when still remained to be known.
The Nawab’s army increased pressure on the English army and the European women and children were evacuated by boats. Even a few white men, including Governor Drake, escaped. Finally there remained within the fort about 170 white men led by J. Z. Holwell, the Magistrate-Collector of Bengal. Confusion and panic mounted. Demoralization led to total pandemonium. On the afternoon of June 20^th 1756 Holwell decided to surrender. What followed was the confused course of events associated in English chronicles with the infamous “Black Hole Tragedy”. But the European version of the incident is overtly exaggerated and no authenticity could be attributed to these accounts, which state that upon the ill fated night, around 146 European Men were forced into the fort prison, a room measuring about 18’ by 14’10” of whom about 23 came out alive the next day, as observed by Holwell, who claimed to have been one of the survivors.
This account by Holwell is really questionable, because by no stretch of imagination could 146 White men be accommodated into a room of the size of the prison at the Fort William. This theory is corroborated by the 19^th Century historian name Bholanath Chandra, who tried to accommodate the same number to lean Bengali men into an enclosure of about the same size (18’ by 15’) as the ill reputed room.
Authentic sources pointed out that there could not probably have been 146 white men in Kolkata, that evening, because after his victory Siraj allowed many Europeans to escape. Even Holwell, as he himself admitted, was also given the chance.
Authenticity has been attributed to the account that put the number at 60 out of which not more than twenty emerged alive the next morning. What happened was definitely unfortunate, but the European accounts of the event were grossly exaggerated. Historians unearthed reports that showed that Siraj himself, probably, did not have a direct bearing upon the incident. It was probably the result of over enthusiasm on the part of his men in carrying out certain orders from the Nawab.

Other European Accounts of the Event
Stanley Wolpert argues that only 64 people were imprisoned and 21 survived. D.L. Prior argues that 43 members of the garrison were dead or missing for reasons other than suffocation and shock, while Busteed argues that, because so many non-combatants were present in the fort when it fell, the number who died cannot be stated with any precision. Regarding responsibility, Holwell believed that it “was the result of revenge and resentment in the breasts of the lower Jemmaatdaars [sergeants], to whose custody we were delivered, for the number of their order killed during the siege.” Wolpert concurs and argues that Siraj did not order it and was not informed about it.