Behind The Headlines

This year more than 40 British prisoners of war were suffocated to death, in an incident that would become a symbol used to justify the country’s domination of India.

The major events of 1750–1759

The tragedy started with the British administrators of the East India Company worrying about the increasing French influence on their interests. The French were gaining a significant presence in the subcontinent, and in response the Company reinforced Fort William, the main defence of Calcutta.

However, this upset the balance of power in the region and the Nawab of Bengal, Siraj ud-Daulah, feared that the British were going to expand. To forestall a military attack, he assembled an army of 50,000 with 500 elephants and marched on Calcutta.

The garrison was ill-prepared. The governor and most of the British staff retreated to the East India Company’s ships, leaving the fort to its fate under the command of the most junior member of the council, tax collector John Holwell.

Holwell tried to defend the fort, but was obliged to surrender to the Nawab on 20 June 1756. He later said that the Nawab assured him “on the word of a soldier” that no harm should come to him or the other defenders. Having taken them prisoner, the Nawab’s men had them locked in the fort in a small prison cell known as the Black Hole.

This space measuring 14 x 18 feet was intended as a holding cell for two or three prisoners. Now dozens were packed in so tightly that the door was difficult to close, on a hot night with little ventilation and no water.

The prisoners begged for water and one of the guards obliged, allowing Holwell and others to receive it in their hats. They passed them to the men behind, but in their urgency to drink almost all of it was spilt. Self-control was soon lost; men were suffocated when those out of reach of the window struggled to get to it to breathe fresh air.

When the doors were opened at 6am the next day, only 21 of the 64 prisoners who had entered the cell remained alive.

These numbers were much exaggerated by Holwell and others who were eager to secure the reconquest of Calcutta. This was achieved by Robert Clive in 1757. From this year Britain dominated India, but the country would gain independence in 1947.

‘ The cell was for two or three prisoners’