It was the Black Hole tragedy that eventually led to Bengal’s last Nawab, Siraj-ud-Daulah’s execution on the midnight of 2 July 1757. Interestingly, after 201 years, it had lent scientist Albert Einstein’s ageless theory a name, making Kolkata an inevitable part of the Theory of Relativity.
A couple of days after he was defeated in the Battle of Plassey, Bengal’s last Nawab Siraj-ud-Daulah was executed as a penalty for Black Hole deaths – a gruesome tragedy inside Fort William.
Einstein described the mysteries of the never-ending universe in his ‘Theory of Relativity’ in 1915. As Hong Yee Chiu – an astrophysicist at NASA, USA claimed, “The Black Hole of Calcutta was the inspiration for Einstein to choose the term ‘Black Hole’, which referred to objects resulting from the gravitational collapse of stars.” In 1916, Physicist Karl Schwarzschild found the first modern solution of Einstein’s General Relativity that would characterise a black hole, but the term was borrowed from the Kolkata ‘massacre’ by American astronomer John A Wheeler, who then named the astronomical mystery as Black Hole in 1967.
But what was the ‘Black Hole’ of Calcutta in reality?
At 6:00 AM, on 21 June 1756, Kolkata witnessed countless bodies of European traders, soldiers and garrison staff being taken out of a petty dungeon inside the Fort William courtyard by the sepoys of Nawab Siraj-ud-Daulah.
The Britannica – a British knowledge agency explained the massacre as a “Scene of an incident which took place on 20 June, 1756, in which a number of Europeans were imprisoned in Calcutta and many died.” It added, “The Europeans were the remaining defenders of Calcutta following the capture of the city by Nawab Siraj-ud-Daulah and the surrender of the East India Company’s garrison under the self-proclaimed Governor of Bengal John J Holwell.” The Nawab had attacked Kolkata because of the Company’s failure to stop fortifying the city as a defence hub against its rival. Following the surrender, Holwell and others were placed for the night in the Company’s dungeon lockup, which actually was dug by the Company for petty local offenders, which Holwell had termed as ‘Black Hole’.
Siraj first took control of the English post at Cossimbazar, Murshidabad. With the onset of his arrival in Calcutta on 16 June 1756, the majority of garrison staff and a sizable British population by then had fled Fort William to protect the English ships in the harbour, which resulted in a weaker resistance against the Nawab’s aggressive army. The Fort collapsed at 8 PM on 20 June- the very night of the Black Hole massacre.
British Admiral Charles Watson and Statesman Robert Clive, who were then posted in Madras, were later assigned by the British to recover Kolkata on 2 January 1757. This, in later course, accelerated the fall of Murshidabad, and Siraj was killed between midnight of 2 and 3 July 1757.
Many researchers, however, had found anomalies about the actual number of deaths in the tragedy. Holwell, a heavyweight survivor, later claimed 146 Europeans were pushed inside the Black Hole to die; of them, just 23 had survived till the next morning when the Nawab’s army had opened the door.
How was the Black Hole?
It was an underground chamber that was 18 feet long and 14 feet wide and had just two small windows. Holwell later claimed that the deaths were results of suffocation and acute dehydration. However, in 1915, a British researcher, J H Little, pointed out Holwell’s unreliability about the discrepancies and death figures. Holwell’s figures were also rubbished by a Bengali researcher, Brijen Gupta. In 1959, Gupta suggested that the incident occurred, but that the number of those who were pushed to the Black Hole was about 64, and of them, 21, including Holwell, survived.
In memory of the dead, the British Viceroy Lord Curzon had then erected an octagonal obelisk structured like a phallic symbol named as Holwell Monument in the North West corner of Dalhousie Square in 1902, which following strong opposition by freedom fighters headed by Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, resulting in the relocation of it to the cemetery of the St John Church in 1940. Bose had embarked on a Satyagraha demanding its removal and had mobilised mass support. He had also organised a meeting at the Town Hall to vindicate Nawab’s memory and give a true account of his life and achievements. Bose stated, “The Holwell Monument is not only a stain on the memory of Nawab, but it has stood in the heart of Calcutta for the last 150 years or more as the symbol of our slavery and humiliation. That Monument must go.” Further, he’d declared that 3 July would be marked as ‘Siraj-ud-Daulah Day.’
Somnath Mukherjee, former president of Asiatic Society, who had authored a book Vision & Creation, which contained a descriptive survey of architecture of old Kolkata from 1630 till 1947, said, “A bulletin published by Nikhil Sarkar also had a good description about the said Black Hole.” Prof. Saifullah of Aliah University said, “The number of deaths purposely was inflated by Holwell to throw a heavily cruel image of Siraj, which later was quashed by the Britishers themselves.”
File Pic of 1) Inscriptions in Holwell Monument, Kolkata
2)Albert Einstein and Black Hole (representation)
3) Holwell Monument
4) The site of Black Hole chamber inside the Fort William, Kolkata