Cameron O'Neill-Mullin's List: Black Hole of Calcutta

•               

  	In  history

         

  	The Black Hole of Calcutta (20 June  1756)

              

  The Black Hole of Calcutta was a small dungeon where troops of the  Nawab of Bengal held British prisoners of war after the capture of Fort William  on 20 June 1756. According to a disputed account by a survivor, 123 of 146  prisoners died of heat exhaustion in the confined conditions. Certain historians  now believe the number to have been at most  43.
•               

  	In  history

         

  	The Black Hole of Calcutta (20  June   1756)

              

  The Black Hole of Calcutta was  a small dungeon where troops of the   Nawab of Bengal held British  prisoners of war after the capture of Fort William   on 20 June 1756. According to a  disputed account by a survivor, 123 of 146   prisoners died of heat  exhaustion in the confined conditions. Certain historians   now believe the number to have  been at most   43.    Double-click on any word and see its definition  from Cambridge  Dictionaries Online   Read the article and then do an activity   Fort William had been established to    protect British East India Company trade in  the city of Calcutta , in the region of Bengal. In 1756, in preparation  for expected skirmishes with French forces, the British began building up Fort  William's military strength and defences. The Nawab of Bengal, Siraj Ud Daulah,  having achieved his station despite opposition by the East India Company, was  unhappy with British interference and perceived a direct threat to his own  rule.   Siraj organised an army and laid siege to the fort, whose defenders suffered  many casualties. The    garrison's commander organised an escape,  and left a token force in the military   fort under  the command of John Zephaniah Holwell, a former military surgeon who    was  a top East India Company civil servant . Desertions by allied troops,  mainly Dutch, made even this temporary defence untenable, and the fort was  taken. Indian soldiers    took the surviving 64 to 69 men of the  British contingent prisoner , together with an unknown number of  Anglo-Indian soldiers and other persons of mixed ancestry, many of them  civilians, who had been sheltering in the Fort. During this period some  prisoners were able to escape, and others attacked their guards. The troops,  apparently acting on their own, then packed the prisoners into a guard room     measuring 14 by 18 feet  (4.3 by 5.5  mertres) and locked them in overnight. Prisoners begged for water or escape,  growing delirious from heat exhaustion. As time passed, men collapsed from heat  stroke or suffocation, or were trampled on. It seems highly unlikely that the  Nawab was aware of the actions of his troops. The prisoners were not released  until morning, when Siraj ud-Daula awoke. By then, some modern historians  believe, some    43  members  of the garrison were dead or missing

•   The Black   Hole of Calcutta was      a small dungeon where troops of    the       Nawab  of   Bengal held British     prisoners  of war after the capture of Fort   William       on 20  June   1756. According to a      disputed account by a survivor, 123  of   146       prisoners   died of  heat     exhaustion in the confined  conditions.   Certain  historians       now   believe  the number to have     been at most        43.   

   

    Double-click      on any   word and  see its definition     from     Cambridge     Dictionaries   Online  

   

    Read the article and then do    an     activity  

   

    Fort William had been established    to     

    protect British East India Company  trade   in     the city  of   Calcutta     , in the  region of Bengal. In 1756, in   preparation     for  expected skirmishes with French   forces, the British began building up  Fort     William's   military  strength and defences. The Nawab of Bengal, Siraj Ud Daulah,      having achieved his station  despite   opposition by the East India Company,  was     unhappy   with  British interference and perceived a direct threat to his own      rule.  

   

    Siraj organised an army and laid siege  to   the fort, whose defenders  suffered     many   casualties. The     

    garrison's commander organised an    escape,     and left  a token force in the   military       fort  under     the   command  of John Zephaniah Holwell, a former military surgeon who        was     a  top   East India Company civil  servant     .   Desertions by allied  troops,     mainly Dutch, made even this  temporary   defence untenable, and the fort  was     taken.   Indian  soldiers     

    took the surviving 64 to 69 men  of   the     British  contingent   prisoner     ,  together with an unknown number   of     Anglo-Indian soldiers and other  persons   of mixed ancestry, many of  them     civilians, who had been sheltering in  the   Fort. During this period  some     prisoners were able to escape, and  others   attacked their guards. The  troops,     apparently acting on their own,  then   packed the prisoners into a guard  room     

    measuring 14 by 18  feet      (4.3 by 5.5     mertres)   and  locked them in overnight. Prisoners begged for water or escape,      growing delirious from heat  exhaustion.   As time passed, men collapsed from  heat     stroke or   suffocation, or were trampled on. It  seems highly unlikely that the     Nawab was  aware of the actions of his   troops. The prisoners were not  released     until   morning,  when Siraj ud-Daula awoke. By then, some modern historians      believe, some     

    43     members      of  the   garrison were dead or  missing   fo
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  The Black  Hole of Calcutta was   a small dungeon where troops of  the     Nawab of  Bengal held British   prisoners of war after the capture of Fort  William     on 20 June  1756. According to a   disputed account by a survivor, 123 of  146     prisoners  died of heat   exhaustion in the confined conditions.  Certain historians     now  believe the number to have   been at most     43.      Double-click   on any  word and see its definition   from   Cambridge   Dictionaries  Online     Read the article and then do  an   activity     Fort William had been established  to      protect British East India Company trade  in   the city of  Calcutta   , in the region of Bengal. In 1756, in  preparation   for expected skirmishes with French  forces, the British began building up Fort   William's  military strength and defences. The Nawab of Bengal, Siraj Ud Daulah,    having achieved his station despite  opposition by the East India Company, was   unhappy  with British interference and perceived a direct threat to his own    rule.     Siraj organised an army and laid siege to  the fort, whose defenders suffered   many  casualties. The      garrison's commander organised an  escape,   and left a token force in the  military     fort under   the  command of John Zephaniah Holwell, a former military surgeon who      was   a top  East India Company civil servant   .  Desertions by allied troops,   mainly Dutch, made even this temporary  defence untenable, and the fort was   taken.  Indian soldiers      took the surviving 64 to 69 men of  the   British contingent  prisoner   , together with an unknown number  of   Anglo-Indian soldiers and other persons  of mixed ancestry, many of them   civilians, who had been sheltering in the  Fort. During this period some   prisoners were able to escape, and others  attacked their guards. The troops,   apparently acting on their own, then  packed the prisoners into a guard room      measuring 14 by 18 feet     (4.3 by 5.5   mertres)  and locked them in overnight. Prisoners begged for water or escape,    growing delirious from heat exhaustion.  As time passed, men collapsed from heat   stroke or  suffocation, or were trampled on. It seems highly unlikely that the    Nawab was aware of the actions of his  troops. The prisoners were not released   until  morning, when Siraj ud-Daula awoke. By then, some modern historians    believe, some      43   members    of the  garrison were dead or missing
• • i dont no why it all highlighted, can't seem to figure out how to undo
• protect British East India Company trade in the city of Calcutta
• garrison's commander organised an escape, and left a token force in the military  fort under the command of John Zephaniah Holwell, a former military surgeon who  was a top East India Company civil servant
• took the surviving 64 to 69 men of the British contingent prisoner
• measuring 14 by 18 feet
• 43 members

8 more annotations...

• Calcutta, had dealt in Indian cottons and eastern spices to the great profit of  investors back home, but with negligible effect on the overall pattern of Asian  trade
• Your Williamsons and Dodwells, reading away, cheered up when the arrogant  Amphibians began to intervene in the politics of India as the Mughal emperors  lost their grip. The series of wars against France from the 1690s through to  1815 became a contest for world hegemony, and gave a context, as Linda Colley  has brilliantly shown, to the development among English, Welsh, Scots and many  Irish, of a composite and bellicose common 'British' identity--Protestant,  libertarian and deeply averse to the eating of garlic and snails, let alone  poncy French gallantry and sexual licence. As the East India Company responded  to French aggression in India, that remarkable man Robert Clive was positioned  to win the victory over the Nawab of Bengal at Plassey in 1757 which preluded  British conquest of the subcontinent. Imperialist historians felt able to  justify the cynical plundering of Bengal which followed, reducing India's  richest area to the poverty which prevails to this day, by working up the long  forgotten incident of the Black Hole of Calcutta. The East India Company had  defied the Nawab. He had, quite within his rights, conquered their fort. Like  every British garrison from Inverness to Jamaica, it had a 'Black Hole' in which  disorderly soldiers were deposited to rue their mischievous deeds. The Nawab  quite sensibly commanded that the vanquished Brits should be put into their own  prison. It was a hot night, some were wounded, water was in short supply, and  numbers died--though nothing anywhere near the number later alleged. So Plassey  was a valid 'revenge' for fiendish Asiatic cruelty. And it followed that the  barbaric ferocity with which the British suppressed the Sepoy mutiny of 1857 was  justified by the intrinsic viciousness of Indian natives who would rape every  white woman in sight if they weren't kept severely in their place.

• • See if I can locate this?
• 146 people are said to have been imprisoned, at the orders of the Nawab, in a  small and airless dungeon at Fort William
• John Zephaniah Holwell, and soon became the basis for representing Indians as a  base, cowardly, and despotic people
• universally conceded that Holwell greatly embellished his story

2 more annotations...