BLACK HOLE OF CALCUTTA

scene of an incident (June 20, 1756) in which the remaining European defenders of Calcutta were shut away and many died, following the capture of the city by the nawab Siraj-ud-Dawlah, of Bengal, and the surrender of the East India Company's garrison under a member of the council, John Z. Holwell. The incident became a cause clbre in the idealization of British imperialism in India and a subject of controversy. The nawab attacked Calcutta because of the company's failure to stop fortifying the city as a defense against its rivals in anticipation of war (the Seven Years' War, 175663). Following his surrender, Holwell and the other Europeans were placed for the night in the company's local lockup for petty offenders, popularly known as the Black Hole. It was a room 18 feet (5.5 m) long and 14 feet 10 inches wide, and it had two small windows. According to Holwell, 146 people were shut up, and 23 emerged alive. The incident was held up as evidence of British heroism and the nawab's callousness. In 1915 J.H. Little pointed out Holwell's unreliability as a witness and other discrepancies, and it became clear that the nawab's part was one of negligence only. The details of the incident were thus opened to doubt. A study in 1959 by Brijen Gupta suggests that the incident did occur but that the number of those entering the Black Hole was about 64 and the number of survivors was 21.