# The Horrifying Story of the Black Hole of Calcutta

An episode of [Scary Interesting Podcast](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1705969819), 8 Apr 2026, 20 min.

Audio: https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/api.spreaker.com/download/episode/71170213/the_horrifying_story_of_the_black_hole_of_calcutta.mp3

Ambient Songs: By CoAg https://www.youtube.com/@co.agmusic1823 Intro Theme by Swift Junai: https://www.instagram.com/swiftjunai/?hl=en https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6hf5nMJ8s6LJJfFR4OQ3lg https://open.spotify.com/artist/1PoG2b18MHocWZA8zQgWjO Writers and researchers: Jay Adams https://instagram.com/jayadamsdigital?igshid=MzMyNGUyNmU2YQ== Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/scary-interesting-podcast--5945096/support.

## Transcript

[0:00] Speaker 1: On June twentieth, seventeen fifty six, after months of rising
[0:04] Speaker 1: tension between the British East India Company and the rulers
[0:07] Speaker 1: of Bengal India, the company's fortified headquarters at Fort William
[0:11] Speaker 1: was besieged by thousands of soldiers. When the fighting ended
[0:15] Speaker 1: and the British defenders were overwhelmed, more than one hundred
[0:18] Speaker 1: prisoners were taken captive. With nowhere else to hold these men,
[0:23] Speaker 1: the captives were forced into a small basement cell inside
[0:26] Speaker 1: the fort. What would going to happen inside that room
[0:29] Speaker 1: would become one of the most infamous and disturbing stories
[0:32] Speaker 1: in colonial history. It would be so horrifying that it
[0:35] Speaker 1: would become known as the Black Hole of Calcutta. As always,
[0:39] Speaker 1: viewer discussion is strong advised. In the middle of the
[0:52] Speaker 1: eighteenth century, India was a place where the old order
[0:55] Speaker 1: was slowly beginning to loosen its grip. For generations, the
[0:58] Speaker 1: Mughal Empire had ruled over vast stretches of the country,
[1:01] Speaker 1: with its authority extending across cities, farmland, and major trade routes.
[1:06] Speaker 1: The Emperor and Delhi still carried immense power, but by
[1:08] Speaker 1: the seventeen hundreds, the Empire's reign had begun to weaken.
[1:12] Speaker 1: In many provinces, control had shifted into the hands of
[1:15] Speaker 1: regional rulers known as nawabs. These men technically governed on
[1:19] Speaker 1: behalf of the emperor, but in practice they ruled with
[1:22] Speaker 1: considerable autonomy. One of the richest and most important of
[1:25] Speaker 1: these provinces was Bengal, located in the Fertile Delta where
[1:30] Speaker 1: the Ganges and Brahmapucha rivers meet the ocean. The region
[1:33] Speaker 1: had long been a center of agriculture and trade. As
[1:36] Speaker 1: you might imagine, this wealth naturally attracted foreign merchants. European
[1:41] Speaker 1: traders had been arriving more than a century, with the
[1:43] Speaker 1: Portuguese first, followed with the Dutch and then the French.
[1:46] Speaker 1: The British then joined later through the East India Company.
[1:50] Speaker 1: Like its rivals, the company operated coastal trading posts where
[1:53] Speaker 1: agents bought and sold goods. But while officially commercial enterprises,
[1:57] Speaker 1: these companies often maintained fortified settlements, hired soldiers, and negotiated
[2:01] Speaker 1: directly with local rulers. Then, as their influence grew, they
[2:05] Speaker 1: began acting less like merchants and more like political powers
[2:08] Speaker 1: operating inside someone else's territory. In the sixteen nineties, company
[2:12] Speaker 1: agents founded a settlement along the Hooly River that eventually
[2:15] Speaker 1: grew into the city of Calcutta. What began as a
[2:18] Speaker 1: modest outpost expanded into a busy commercial center of warehouses, docks,
[2:22] Speaker 1: and markets, serving both European and Indian merchants. To protect
[2:26] Speaker 1: this settlement and its valuable goods, the British constructed Fort
[2:29] Speaker 1: William near the river, which became the military and administrative
[2:32] Speaker 1: heart of the company operations in Bengal, and for years,
[2:35] Speaker 1: the British presence struck a fragile balance. The company controlled
[2:39] Speaker 1: only a small area round its settlement and dependent heavily
[2:42] Speaker 1: on good relations with the Nuab who ruled the province.
[2:45] Speaker 1: As long as those ties held, commerce flourished and both
[2:48] Speaker 1: sides benefited. But by the mid eighteenth century that balance
[2:51] Speaker 1: was straining. European competition intensified, and local rulers grew wary
[2:56] Speaker 1: of the expanding power of foreign companies within their borders.
[3:00] Speaker 1: When saraj oud Llah became the Nawab of Bengal in
[3:03] Speaker 1: April of seventeen fifty six, at just twenty three years old,
[3:06] Speaker 1: he inherited one of India's wealthiest provinces and one of
[3:09] Speaker 1: his most politically complicated. Rising to power after his grandfather's death,
[3:13] Speaker 1: he faced rival factions within his own court and mounting
[3:16] Speaker 1: external pressures, and many doubted his ability to rule in
[3:20] Speaker 1: that environment. Maintaining authority required decisiveness, and the presence of
[3:24] Speaker 1: powerful foreign trading companies operating insid is territory was a
[3:27] Speaker 1: problem he could ignore, and of all the Europeans in Bengal,
[3:31] Speaker 1: the British East India Company concerned. In most the company
[3:35] Speaker 1: had built a profitable commercial network, but its behavior increasingly
[3:38] Speaker 1: tested the limits. One of the central issues involved trade
[3:42] Speaker 1: privileges granted under early rulers that allowed British merchants to
[3:46] Speaker 1: avoid many customs duties. In theory, the exemptions applied only
[3:50] Speaker 1: to company goods, but in practice they were widely extended
[3:53] Speaker 1: to private traders, allowing large volumes of merchandise to move
[3:56] Speaker 1: through Bengal untaxed. The situation then on worsened when the
[4:00] Speaker 1: company began strengthening the defenses of Fort William without his permission.
[4:05] Speaker 1: British officials claimed the upgrades were meant to guard against
[4:08] Speaker 1: a possible French attack, but to Saraj, a foreign company
[4:11] Speaker 1: was expanding a military stronghold inside his province without consultation.
[4:15] Speaker 1: It suggested the British belief they could act independently of
[4:19] Speaker 1: his authority. He then ordered construction to stop immediately, but
[4:22] Speaker 1: company officials ignored the command and continued their work. For Saraj,
[4:27] Speaker 1: the devince was intolerable, so faced with what he saw
[4:29] Speaker 1: as a direct challenge to his rule, he decided to
[4:31] Speaker 1: take action. In June of seventeen fifty six, Sharroje began
[4:35] Speaker 1: assembling a large army to deal with the problem directly.
[4:39] Speaker 1: Contemporary accounts describe afore snummering around fifty thousand soldiers, supported
[4:43] Speaker 1: by artillery, and accompanied by hundreds of elephants that carried
[4:46] Speaker 1: supplies and equipment. Once assembled, the army began moving south
[4:50] Speaker 1: toward Calcutta. On June sixteenth, Sarraj's forces reached the outskirts
[4:55] Speaker 1: of the British settlement, and as they advanced through the
[4:57] Speaker 1: surrounding areas, they quickly overwhelmed the limited resistance they encountered.
[5:02] Speaker 1: The approach of such a large army also sent shockwaves
[5:04] Speaker 1: through the European community in Calcutta and inside Fort William.
[5:08] Speaker 1: The British only found themselves facing a crisis they had
[5:10] Speaker 1: not expected. As Saraja's army moved closer to Calcutta, fear
[5:15] Speaker 1: and confusion began spreading through the British settlement. The news
[5:19] Speaker 1: that a massive force was approaching left many residents uncertain
[5:22] Speaker 1: about what to do. Fort William had been built to
[5:24] Speaker 1: offer protection, but few people had expected it to be
[5:26] Speaker 1: tested by an army of that size, so rather than
[5:30] Speaker 1: preparing for a prolonged defense, many of the British officials
[5:33] Speaker 1: chose to flee. Instead, the governor of Calcutta and several
[5:37] Speaker 1: senior officials fled towards the ships anchored in the harbor
[5:39] Speaker 1: along the river. Their departure, though, left the city in chaos.
[5:44] Speaker 1: Women and children were heard towards the waterfront in hopes
[5:47] Speaker 1: of reaching the safety of the ships, while merchants and
[5:49] Speaker 1: residents scrambled to save what property they could. Then, those
[5:53] Speaker 1: who were unable to escape took shelter inside Fort William,
[5:55] Speaker 1: believing its walls would offer at least some protection. The
[5:59] Speaker 1: unit that remained behind to defend the fort, though, was
[6:01] Speaker 1: small and poorly organized. In total, the defenders numbered only
[6:05] Speaker 1: a few hundred men. Among them were roughly one hundred
[6:08] Speaker 1: and seventy to one hundred and eighty English soldiers, along
[6:10] Speaker 1: with a mixture of European volunteers and militia. And although
[6:14] Speaker 1: the number of defenders varies slightly depending on the source,
[6:17] Speaker 1: one thing was clear. They were badly outnumbered against Sir
[6:21] Speaker 1: Raja's army that numbered in the tens of thousands. The
[6:23] Speaker 1: small force inside Fort Williams stood little chance of holding
[6:26] Speaker 1: out for long, and the situation was even more difficult
[6:29] Speaker 1: because the British had lost much of their leadership when
[6:32] Speaker 1: the governor fled. In the absence of a clear commander,
[6:35] Speaker 1: those who remained at the fort had to decide quickly
[6:37] Speaker 1: who would take charge of the defense. The man they
[6:40] Speaker 1: ultimately turned to was John Zephanil Holwell. Earlier in his
[6:44] Speaker 1: life he had served as a military surgeon, but by
[6:46] Speaker 1: seventeen fifty six he was just a senior administrator within
[6:49] Speaker 1: the East India Company. Faced with an approaching army and
[6:52] Speaker 1: fuel alternatives, he agreed, and once he took command, it
[6:55] Speaker 1: quickly became clear that the defenders of Fort william were
[6:58] Speaker 1: in a procurious position. On top of everything else, many
[7:01] Speaker 1: of the fort's weapons and supplies had been neglected for years.
[7:05] Speaker 1: Some of the gunpowder stored in the fort had become
[7:07] Speaker 1: damp and could not be used. Ammunition stocks were also unreliable,
[7:11] Speaker 1: and in some cases the ammunition intended for the fort's
[7:14] Speaker 1: cannons had deteriorated badly while sitting in storage. The fortifications
[7:18] Speaker 1: themselves were also far from ideal. Portions of the defenses
[7:22] Speaker 1: had been hastily reinforced in recent months, but the work
[7:25] Speaker 1: had not been completed. To make matters worse, some of
[7:27] Speaker 1: the Indian soldiers who had been serving with the British
[7:30] Speaker 1: forces deserted as Saraja's army approached. John and the remaining
[7:34] Speaker 1: soldiers did what they could to prepare for the attack,
[7:36] Speaker 1: but the odds were heavily stacked against them. The approaching
[7:39] Speaker 1: army was far larger, better supplied, and determined to bring
[7:42] Speaker 1: the British settlement under Saraga's control. Over the next several days,
[7:47] Speaker 1: the Nuab's forces continued to press in around Calcutta outside
[7:51] Speaker 1: the walls of Fort William. Saraja's army continued to close in,
[7:54] Speaker 1: and as it did, it brought artillery fire onto the fort.
[7:58] Speaker 1: By Sunday, June twentieth, the citchuation and reached the inevitable
[8:01] Speaker 1: breaking points inside the fort, John was faced with impossible decision.
[8:06] Speaker 1: Continuing the fight would almost certainly result in the building's
[8:09] Speaker 1: complete destruction. He understood that if the battle continued much longer,
[8:13] Speaker 1: many of the men under his command would be killed unnecessarily,
[8:17] Speaker 1: so faced with those circumstances, he chose to seek an
[8:19] Speaker 1: agreement with Saraj rather than allowed the effort of the
[8:22] Speaker 1: troops to end in a blood bath. Sometimes during the
[8:25] Speaker 1: afternoon of June twentieth, John raised the white flag to
[8:27] Speaker 1: signal a surrender. The fighting then came to an end
[8:30] Speaker 1: soon afterward, and the surviving British soldiers, along with the
[8:33] Speaker 1: company officials and other residents, were rounded up by the
[8:36] Speaker 1: Naab's troops. The prisoners were then disarmed and placed under
[8:40] Speaker 1: guard as Saraja's forces secured control of the settlement from
[8:44] Speaker 1: many of those who had surrendered. The expectation was that
[8:46] Speaker 1: they would be held temporarily while arrangements were made for
[8:49] Speaker 1: their custody, because prisoners of war were not uncommon in
[8:51] Speaker 1: conflicts of the period. As evening approached and the captives
[8:55] Speaker 1: were gathered inside Fort William, however, the Naab's guards began
[8:58] Speaker 1: searching for a place too whole them for the night.
[9:01] Speaker 1: In doing so, they chose a small room within the
[9:04] Speaker 1: fort that had been built years earlier for a different purpose.
[9:07] Speaker 1: This room would soon become known as the Black Hole
[9:10] Speaker 1: of Calcutta. Inside Fort William there were several small holding
[9:14] Speaker 1: cells used to detain minor offenders, like drunken sailors, disorderly soldiers,
[9:18] Speaker 1: or anyone who caused trouble within the settlement. One of
[9:21] Speaker 1: these cells was a small room located within the fort's guardhouse.
[9:24] Speaker 1: It measured roughly fourteen feet by eighteen feet or four
[9:28] Speaker 1: point three meters by five point five meters, a space
[9:31] Speaker 1: large enough to comfortably hold a handful of people under
[9:34] Speaker 1: normal circumstances. It might have been used to confine two
[9:36] Speaker 1: or three prisoners at a time, but it was never
[9:38] Speaker 1: intended to house a large group. The room had only
[9:41] Speaker 1: two small windows on one side, both fitted with thick
[9:44] Speaker 1: iron bars, and ventilation inside was limited. The windows also
[9:48] Speaker 1: opened toward a narrow veranda outside the building, which blocked
[9:51] Speaker 1: much of the air that might have otherwise circulated throughout
[9:53] Speaker 1: the cell. The iron bars themselves further restricted the flow
[9:57] Speaker 1: fresh air, making for a stuffy environment even known was
[10:00] Speaker 1: being held within the room. On most nights, this would
[10:03] Speaker 1: have been uncomfortable but manageable for the few individuals normally
[10:06] Speaker 1: confined there. On the night of June twentieth, however, conditions
[10:10] Speaker 1: inside the fort were far from ordinary. Calcutta in June
[10:14] Speaker 1: that year was brutally hot. The monsoon rains that usually
[10:16] Speaker 1: brought some relief from the heat had not arrived yet,
[10:19] Speaker 1: and the air was thick with humidity. The weather that
[10:22] Speaker 1: evening was particularly oppressive, as temperatures were said to have
[10:25] Speaker 1: reached around one hundred fort degrees fahreneight or forty celsius outside.
[10:29] Speaker 1: Adding to the misery were fires burning in various parts
[10:31] Speaker 1: of the fort and the surrounding settlement. During the fighting
[10:35] Speaker 1: earlier in the day, Several buildings had been set ablaze
[10:37] Speaker 1: and smoke drifted through the air, and the heat from
[10:39] Speaker 1: the fires only made the atmosphere around the guardhouse even
[10:42] Speaker 1: more suffocating. As the evening progressed, British soldiers, company officials,
[10:47] Speaker 1: and others captured during the fall of Fort William were
[10:49] Speaker 1: gathered in this very room. The exact number of captives
[10:53] Speaker 1: has been debated by historians ever since, but according to
[10:55] Speaker 1: the count later written by John. A total of one
[10:57] Speaker 1: hundred and forty six prisoners were eventually assembled shortly after
[11:01] Speaker 1: eight o'clock that night. The guards began forcing the prisoners
[11:04] Speaker 1: toward the small cell, driving them forward with threats of
[11:06] Speaker 1: blows from clubs and swords. In their attempts to avoid
[11:10] Speaker 1: being struck. The prisoners surged toward the doorway to the
[11:12] Speaker 1: cell all at once, and this rush of bodies quickly
[11:16] Speaker 1: became chaotic. Men at the back pushed forward while those
[11:19] Speaker 1: near the entrance tried desperately to squeeze inside the narrow room.
[11:23] Speaker 1: The pressure eventually grew so intense that once the prisoners
[11:26] Speaker 1: began filling the cell, the guards struggled to close the
[11:28] Speaker 1: cell door behind them, and by the time it was
[11:31] Speaker 1: finally shut, an enormous number of people had been crammed
[11:33] Speaker 1: into a space never meant to hold more than a few.
[11:36] Speaker 1: You can just imagine stuffing almost one hundred and fifty
[11:38] Speaker 1: people to a slightly larger than average bedroom. At first,
[11:42] Speaker 1: though the prisoners seemed to believe that the situation, while uncomfortable,
[11:45] Speaker 1: would only last a short time. Many assumed that they
[11:48] Speaker 1: were being held there temporarily while the guards figured out
[11:50] Speaker 1: what to do with them. But as the minutes passed
[11:52] Speaker 1: and the door remained firmly shut, the reality of their
[11:54] Speaker 1: situation began to sink in. The room was so crowded
[11:58] Speaker 1: that many of the men could barely move. According to John,
[12:01] Speaker 1: the prisoners had been forced into the cell so suddenly
[12:04] Speaker 1: that there was no chance to organize themselves inside. Almost immediately,
[12:08] Speaker 1: sweat began pouring from the bodies pressed together and suffocating heat.
[12:12] Speaker 1: Many of the prisoners then stripped off their clothing an
[12:14] Speaker 1: attempt to cool themselves and gain even the slightest bit
[12:16] Speaker 1: of additional space, but the relief was minimal. The heat
[12:19] Speaker 1: alone would have been difficult to endure, but thirst soon
[12:22] Speaker 1: became even greater problem. As perspiration drained moisture from their bodies,
[12:26] Speaker 1: the prisoners began craving water. Their breathing also grew labored
[12:30] Speaker 1: as the supply of fresher inside the cell was rapidly consumed.
[12:35] Speaker 1: The two small windows offered the only connection to the
[12:37] Speaker 1: outside world, and before long, many of the men near
[12:40] Speaker 1: the center of the room began struggling toward them in
[12:42] Speaker 1: hopes of trying to catch a breath of air, and
[12:45] Speaker 1: this movement created immediate mayhem. Those closer to the windows
[12:49] Speaker 1: fought to hold their positions while others push forward from behind,
[12:52] Speaker 1: each man trying to improve his chance of survival. During this,
[12:56] Speaker 1: John became so tightly wedged among the crowd that he
[12:58] Speaker 1: was almost unable to of his limbs. The pressure of
[13:02] Speaker 1: the bodies around him made it difficult to even shift
[13:04] Speaker 1: his position. Desper for relief of some kind, several prisoners
[13:08] Speaker 1: tried to appealing to the guards outside. At one point
[13:11] Speaker 1: a large bribe was even offered. A soldier staced near
[13:15] Speaker 1: the window was promised a thousand rupees if he could
[13:17] Speaker 1: arrange for the prisoners to be moved to a larger room.
[13:20] Speaker 1: The guard then briefly left his post and attempted to
[13:23] Speaker 1: obtain permission from his superiors, but when he returned, he
[13:26] Speaker 1: brought the discouraging news that the request had been denied.
[13:30] Speaker 1: The prisoners then doubled the offer, and once again the
[13:32] Speaker 1: guard went to see if anything could be done, but
[13:34] Speaker 1: the result was the same. Surroge had already gone to
[13:37] Speaker 1: sleep for the night, and none of the officers on
[13:39] Speaker 1: duty were willing to waken and ask for instructions, so
[13:42] Speaker 1: the prisoners would remain where they were as the hours
[13:45] Speaker 1: dragged on, the conditions inside the cell steadily grew worse.
[13:48] Speaker 1: By around nine o'clock, several men had already collapsed, some
[13:51] Speaker 1: had fainted from exhaustion, while others were beginning to succumb
[13:54] Speaker 1: to the intense heat and lack of air. A frantic
[13:57] Speaker 1: cry for water spread throughout the room, and eventually one
[14:00] Speaker 1: of the guards outside took pity on the prisoners and
[14:02] Speaker 1: brought a small amount. The water was then passed through
[14:05] Speaker 1: the bars of the window, where John and a few
[14:07] Speaker 1: others attempted to collect it in their hats before handing
[14:10] Speaker 1: it to men further inside the cell. In their desperation
[14:14] Speaker 1: to drink, though, many prisoners lunged forward at once, spilling
[14:16] Speaker 1: most of the water before could reach those near the back,
[14:19] Speaker 1: and what little of it was consumed only made their
[14:21] Speaker 1: thirst grow. Meanwhile, the struggle near the windows became increasingly violent.
[14:26] Speaker 1: Men fought desperately for a space where they could get
[14:28] Speaker 1: fresh air, pushing and clowing their way forward. Those who
[14:32] Speaker 1: were weaker or already exhausted were easily knocked down, and
[14:34] Speaker 1: once on the floor there was a little chance of
[14:36] Speaker 1: getting back up in the crushing press of bodies. The
[14:39] Speaker 1: guards outside watched the scene through the barred windows, and
[14:42] Speaker 1: some even brought lamps closer so they could observe what
[14:44] Speaker 1: was happening inside the crowded cell. At one point in
[14:48] Speaker 1: the night, a man named mister Bailey attempted to impose
[14:50] Speaker 1: some sort of order on the situation, Hoping to create
[14:53] Speaker 1: some movement of air within the room, he suggested that
[14:55] Speaker 1: everyone tries sitting down at the same time and then
[14:57] Speaker 1: standing up again together on command. The idea was that
[15:01] Speaker 1: this coordinated motion might help stir the stagnant air and
[15:04] Speaker 1: bring some relief to the prisoners, but the result was disastrous.
[15:08] Speaker 1: The men were so tightly packed together that it required
[15:10] Speaker 1: tremendous effort to simply move from a standing position to sitting.
[15:14] Speaker 1: When the signal was given to stand again, many the
[15:16] Speaker 1: prisoners struggled to regain their footing. Those who couldn't stand
[15:20] Speaker 1: quickly enough were knocked down by the movement of the
[15:22] Speaker 1: crowd around them, and the result was more confusion and
[15:24] Speaker 1: more deaths, and things only grew worse inside the stuff
[15:28] Speaker 1: sell as the night wore on. The heat, the lack
[15:31] Speaker 1: of air, and the mounting panic took a heavy tone
[15:33] Speaker 1: the prisoners. By round eleven PM, men were dying in
[15:36] Speaker 1: increasing numbers, and the atmosphere inside the room had become unbearable.
[15:40] Speaker 1: The smell of sweat and the presence of so many
[15:42] Speaker 1: bodies crowded together filled the air with a suffocating stench.
[15:46] Speaker 1: One by one, men continued to collapse as the long
[15:49] Speaker 1: night diregged toward the morning, and by the early hours
[15:51] Speaker 1: before dawn, the crowded dungeon had grown eerily quiet. The
[15:55] Speaker 1: desperate cries and frantic struggles that had filled the room
[15:58] Speaker 1: earlier had begun to fade as exhaustion and death claimed
[16:00] Speaker 1: more of the prisoners. Shortly after sunrise on June twenty first,
[16:05] Speaker 1: Suraje woke and gave orders for the prisoners to be
[16:07] Speaker 1: brought before him. When the door was finally opened at
[16:10] Speaker 1: around six o'clock that morning, the sight was shocking, even
[16:13] Speaker 1: to those who had watched the events unfold through the
[16:15] Speaker 1: windows during the night. The small room was filled with bodies.
[16:20] Speaker 1: Men were slumped against one another in every part of
[16:22] Speaker 1: the cell. Some lay crumpled on the floor, while others
[16:25] Speaker 1: remained standing where they had died, their bodies held upright
[16:28] Speaker 1: by the press of those around them. The crowd had
[16:31] Speaker 1: been so tightly packed that many didn't even have the
[16:33] Speaker 1: space to fall. After the door was opened, the arriving
[16:36] Speaker 1: prisoners staggered out into the morning air. Many were barely
[16:40] Speaker 1: conscious and gasping for breath after hours trapped in the
[16:43] Speaker 1: suffocating heat of that room. The sudden rush of fresh
[16:46] Speaker 1: air revived some of them, though they were weak and
[16:48] Speaker 1: disoriented from the our deal they had endured. John later
[16:51] Speaker 1: wrote that it took him nearly twenty minutes to make
[16:53] Speaker 1: his way out of the crowded room. The bodies had
[16:56] Speaker 1: formed such a dense barrier near the doorway that those
[16:58] Speaker 1: still living had difficulty forced the way past them. When
[17:02] Speaker 1: the living were finally out of the cell, they numbered
[17:03] Speaker 1: just twenty three of the original one hundred and forty
[17:06] Speaker 1: six that went in the night before. Once the survivors
[17:09] Speaker 1: were accounted for, the guards began the grim work of
[17:12] Speaker 1: cleaning the cell. The bodies were then dragged out one
[17:15] Speaker 1: at a time and carried away, and, according to several accounts,
[17:18] Speaker 1: some were thrown into a nearby ditch without ceremony. The
[17:21] Speaker 1: handful of survivors were soon brought before Saraje, and John
[17:24] Speaker 1: later claimed that the Nawab showed little concern when he
[17:26] Speaker 1: learned what happened during the night, and whether he had
[17:29] Speaker 1: been aware of the prisoner's condition before morning has remained
[17:32] Speaker 1: a matter of debate among historians, as would other aspects
[17:35] Speaker 1: of the story, but more in London in a moment.
[17:37] Speaker 1: John and three other survivors were later transferred as prisoners
[17:40] Speaker 1: to the wwap's capital, and news of the instant would
[17:42] Speaker 1: soon spread far beyond bengaal. Within a matter of months,
[17:45] Speaker 1: the story of what happened inside the small dungeon at
[17:48] Speaker 1: four Allim would reach Britain itself, where it would provoke
[17:50] Speaker 1: outrage and demands for revenge. In the aftermath of the
[17:55] Speaker 1: Black Hole of Calcutta tragedy, John would write the most
[17:57] Speaker 1: detailed version of what happened, and his narrative would suit
[18:00] Speaker 1: circulate widely throughout Britain. At the time, few people openly
[18:04] Speaker 1: questioned his version of the events. Several of the other
[18:07] Speaker 1: survivors appeared to support his account, and none publicly contradicted
[18:10] Speaker 1: the base scoutline of what he described. As a result,
[18:13] Speaker 1: the story of the Black Hole of Calcutta was widely
[18:15] Speaker 1: accepted as fact as historians began examining the instant more closely.
[18:20] Speaker 1: In later generations. However, some began to wonder whether John's
[18:23] Speaker 1: account might not have been entirely accurate. Specifically, questions were
[18:27] Speaker 1: raised around the number of prisoners who might have actually
[18:29] Speaker 1: been confined in the cell, and about how many truly
[18:31] Speaker 1: died there during that night. One analysis conducted in the
[18:35] Speaker 1: nineteen fifties attempted to reconstruct the likely number of prisoners
[18:39] Speaker 1: involved based on available evidence. The study estimated that the
[18:43] Speaker 1: total number of people confined in the dungeon may have
[18:45] Speaker 1: been closer to sixty four rather than the one hundred
[18:47] Speaker 1: and forty six that John claimed. In this reconstruction, roughly
[18:51] Speaker 1: twenty one prisoners survived the night. Other historians had pointed
[18:55] Speaker 1: out that the records of the Fort William Garrison indicate
[18:58] Speaker 1: that only forty three soldiers were listed missing after the
[19:01] Speaker 1: fall of the fort. If those figures are accurate, the
[19:04] Speaker 1: number of victims could not have been as high as
[19:05] Speaker 1: John wrote. These discrepancies have led many scholars to conclude
[19:09] Speaker 1: that while the tragedy itself almost certainly occurred, the scale
[19:12] Speaker 1: of the disaster may have been significantly smaller than the
[19:14] Speaker 1: original narrative suggested. Regardless of how the details of viewed today,
[19:18] Speaker 1: though The story of the Black Hole of Calcutta remained
[19:21] Speaker 1: a powerful part of Britain's historical memory for generations. Monuments
[19:25] Speaker 1: who were eventually erected in Calcutta to commemorate those who
[19:28] Speaker 1: died in the instant. The original Fort William, though, was
[19:31] Speaker 1: eventually demolished and replaced by a new fort constructed farther
[19:34] Speaker 1: to the south, and with the destruction of the old fort,
[19:37] Speaker 1: the physical location of the Black Hole of Calcutta seemingly
[19:40] Speaker 1: disappeared along with it.

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