Black Hole of Calcutta

Q: What happened at the Black Hole of Calcutta?

The Black Hole of Calcutta was a small prison cell used to keep a number of East India Company soldiers and employees. A great number died overnight in June 1756 from the heat and lack of air.

Q: What does the saying Black Hole of Calcutta mean?

The saying "Black Hole of Calcutta" means any dark and forbidding place and is named after the infamous prison cell used to keep captured East India Company soldiers in 1756. Most of the prisoners died overnight from the heat and lack of air and water.

Q: What was the consequence of the Black Hole of Calcutta?

The Black Hole of Calcutta story was used by the East India Company to justify taking over Calcutta and imposing colonial rule on Bengal. It was also used in the Victorian era as a justification for the British presence in India.

Mark Cartwright

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Definition

The Black Hole of Calcutta refers to a prison cell which was used to hold 146 mostly British prisoners captured after the Nawab of Bengal had taken over the city from the East India Company. Interred on 20 June 1756 in a tiny cell in Fort William, 123 of the prisoners died of dehydration and suffocation.

More about: Black Hole of Calcutta

Timeline

20 Jun 1756
The infamous Black Hole of Calcutta event occurs in Calcutta (present-day Kolkata) India as either 146 or 64 British prisoners of war are thrown into a small cell at Fort William during the conflict between the British East India Company and the native Nawab of Bengal. Depending on which numbers are accepted, either 123 out of 146 or 43 out of 64 prisoners died, mostly of suffocation.
20 Jun 1756
A number of East India Company soldiers and employees do not survive internment in the Black Hole of Calcutta prison cell.