Pixelated Memories: East India Company

Showing posts with label East India Company. Show all posts

December 21, 2012

Metcalfe's Chattri, Delhi

As recounted some posts back, there lived a British officer who went by the name of Sir Thomas Theophilus Metcalfe who was absolutely in love with Delhi and its numerous magnificent ruins. The entire Metcalfe family was employed by the British East India Company – Sir Thomas was posted as the British Agent (Negotiator) at the courts of Mughal Emperors Akbar Shah II (reign AD 1806-37) and Bahadur Shah “Zafar” II (reign AD 1837-57); his father started as a soldier in the Company Army and eventually became the Company Director before retiring with considerable personal fortune to a life of politics and entitlement; his elder brother Sir Charles was the assistant to then Resident (Ambassador) Sir David Ochterlony and later also served as the Governor-General of India, Governor of Jamaica and Governor-General of Canada; lastly his son Sir Theophilus John officiated as the Chief Judge of Delhi. As a consequence of the Mughal Emperor’s waning political and military control over the immense subcontinent and the occupation by Company forces of the political and territorial space vacated by the Emperor’s nominal sovereignty, considerable power came to be placed in the hands of prominent Company officials like the Metcalfes. Sir Thomas used his power and influence to purchase the tomb of Mirza Muhammad Quli Khan, a foster brother of Emperor Akbar (ruled AD 1556-1605) and a valiant military General, and converted it into a suburban country house (refer Pixelated Memories - Quli Khan's Tomb) by adding annexes and servant quarters around it. As already mentioned, Sir Thomas loved ruins – he talked and wrote about them and had their sketches painted and sent to his daughter Emily – the only thing left to do was create more ruins. Now that’s not a very easy thing to do. But his heart was set on doing so – he filled the area around his country house with all sorts of unique structures – Ziggurats (stepped pyramids), guardhouses, small bridges spanning artificial canals, chattris (umbrella domes surmounted on rectangular pillars), stables and circular dovecots. I had seen the ziggurats while visiting the renowned Qutb complex adjacent, the same have been documented here – Pixelated Memories - Metcalfe's Ziggurats and Guardhouses and Pixelated Memories - Qutb Complex. I came across the smaller of his chattris a few weeks back – it is one of the relatively popular monuments within the Mehrauli Archaeological Park, an area designated as possessing considerable heritage interest (the other, larger but less well-known chattri is located opposite Metcalfe’s country house/Quli Khan's Tomb, see photographs in the link mentioned). The sprawling archaeological complex, situated in the immediate vicinity of Qutb Complex, contains monuments and ruins from virtually every dynasty that ever ruled over Delhi in the last millennium and yet is one of the least visited and heard about places in the city. So when I say Metcalfe’s chattri is relatively popular, I simply imply that most history seekers and Delhi-lovers have heard about it, a few have seen it and it is part of the itinerary whenever some photography/history club does a photowalk in this area.

Comfy on a gentle slope

The Chattri is now referred to as Metcalfe’s Folly – according to Encyclopedia Britannica, a folly is “a costly, non-functional building erected to enhance a natural landscape”. Now one might ask who builds a chattri in the middle of nowhere?! But actually, chattris were fairly famous architectural additions in those days – Hindu architects had invented them and the royalty, especially Rajputs, had them constructed to commemorate their dead kings and queens; Muslim rulers and aristocracy who came afterwards adopted these as ornamental additions to grace their magnificent gateways and majestic tombs. Thus we see chattris affixed over Humayun’s tomb and the gateways of Old Fort in Delhi, in Taj Mahal in Agra and as freestanding monumental sepulchers in Rajasthan and Haryana (I’m yet to visit any monument located in any part of the country except Delhi and Calcutta, my two hometowns – sometimes I feel disturbingly sad for missing out so much heritage and travel!). But without diverting from the topic – Sir Thomas took an instant liking to the concept of a freestanding chattri, but he did not know where to fix it – his country house was a renovated old tomb and a chattri would have actually spoiled it, his town house (near Red Fort, in present day Old Delhi) was built in a colonial fashion with colonnades and porticos – perplexed, he eventually decided to build chattris close to his country house. So he selected a corner of his impossibly large estate from where he could get an unhindered view of the gigantic Qutb Minar looming in the background and atop a lofty hill he placed his chattri. It’s a fairly simple structure – six pillars emerging from the corners of a hexagonal rubble base and supporting amongst themselves a small, now blackened, umbrella dome. The geometrical patterns etched on the rough, simplistic pillars resemble those that adorn some of the most unornamented pillars that Qutbuddin Aibak pillaged from the Jain and Hindu temples that he had razed to construct his magnum Quwwat-ul-Islam Mosque (“Might of Islam”/Qutb Mosque) over their ruins. It seems that city Romeos have attempted to seek vengeance from Mr. Metcalfe for the ruin East India Co. brought to the subcontinent by carving their initials and love letters on the unornamented dome of the chattri – in fact even when I was photographing the structure and the sloping hill it sits on, one couple lay embracing each other on the gentle, concealed slope behind the folly while another sat nearby deeply engrossed in conversation. Oblivious to it all, a middle-aged lady strolled around with her son. Dishearteningly, except for these six people and a few craftsmen-masons restoring the more famous edifices located opposite (see links at the end of this article), there wasn’t a single soul to be seen in the vast complex. Am sure you would have understood how very popular the park and the chattri are!

Come closer

Many people consider the chattri an ugly or unremarkable addition to Delhi’s landscape and contend that it shouldn’t have been there in the first place. I might be an exception, but to my eyes it almost blends in with its environment and in fact makes the area more picturesque. Sir Metcalfe ought to be given some credit – he had the guts to live in a tomb and attempted, in his own resolved way, to beautify an area that is dotted with splendid, centuries-old tombs, mosques and ruined structures whose identity has been long lost in the leaves of history! And what’s more, he almost did succeed!

Sadly, after his death in 1853 and the battle for control of India in 1857, the area around the chattri and his country house fell into disuse and was soon reclaimed by vegetation. The Archaeological Survey of India (A.S.I.) is presently excavating the entire complex and restoring the structures within. Since tourists seldom visit this part of Delhi, there are no shops or facilities in the immediate vicinity – no food and drinking water, no toilets. A good pair of shoes might come in handy, given that the thorny bushes and stones that carpet many of the unpaved paths are yet to be removed.

Location: Mehrauli Archaeological Park
Open: All days, Sunrise to Sunset
Nearest Metro Station: Qutb Minar

Nearest Bus stop: Lado Serai Crossing
Entrance Fees: Nil
Photography/Video charges: Nil
How to Reach: If coming by metro, start walking from Qutb Minar station towards Lado Serai crossing. The archaeological complex's entrance is located on Mehrauli-Gurgaon road and there are sandstone markers along the periphery wall to indicate its existence. Car entry is also from the same entrance and the parking area is immediately opposite the small hill on which the chattri stands. Alternately one can deboard at Saket metro station and take a bus from there to Lado Serai crossing. The informal, unmarked entrance (a gap in the boundary wall) to the complex is located opposite the crossing behind the makeshift shops of flower sellers along Mehrauli-Gurgaon road. This entrance too leads straight to the chattri.

Time required for sightseeing: About 15 min
Note – There are no facilities (toilets, food, drinking water) available within the Archaeological Park. While snacks, fritters and bottled water/cold drinks can be purchased at shops located at Lado Serai or opposite Qutb complex, toilet facilities are only available within the latter or at one of the many shopping malls at Saket, over 2.5 kilometers away. It is better to be prepared. Also female travelers are advised to avoid the complex post-evening because of the unsafe, secluded nature of the place and absence of visitors.

Other monuments within the Archaeological Park premises -

Other monuments located in the neighborhood -

Other monuments in Delhi that feature chattris -

December 13, 2012

Metcalfe's Ziggurats and Guardhouses, New Delhi

Sir Thomas Theophilus Metcalfe (lived AD 1795-1853) was an eccentric man. Officiating in Delhi as the Agent (Negotiator) of the British East India Company in the court of Mughal Emperor before the First War of Independence (or Sepoy Mutiny, depending on which side of the divide you belong to, AD 1857), when British traders, mercenaries and administrators mixed with mercantile and warrior people originating from Afghanistan, Persia, Central Asia, China and the Indian subcontinent itself to trade in valuables such as silk, spices, tea and opium, he possessed a life of lavish opulence and extravagance. But more than anything else, he was in love with the city – its ruins, its greens, its riches, its celebrations and its customs – in fact, everything about the city, except perhaps the people to whom he never took fancy to, appealed to this warm gentleman. He so desperately wanted to blend in with the city that despite building a colonial-style mansion for himself near the Emperor’s fortress-palace, he went ahead to purchase from the Emperor the tomb of Quli Khan (a foster brother of Mughal Emperor Akbar (ruled AD 1556-1605), refer Pixelated Memories - Quli Khan's Tomb) in suburban Mehrauli (South-West Delhi) and convert it into an English country house by retrofitting it with annexes, stables and servant quarters and landscaping the surrounding area (the other mansion, near Red Fort, at present houses divisions of Defence Research and Development Organization (DRDO) and is out of bounds for ordinary visitors). He christened this country house “Dilkhush” (“Delighter of the heart”) and even commissioned unique, otherworldly rubble masonry structures around it in order to complete the rustic and fairy-tale like appearance. One wonders why he felt the urge to do the latter – after all, Quli Khan’s tomb is situated in the corner of Mehrauli Archaeological Park immediately abutting the renowned Qutb Complex and in those days neither modern buildings nor ghastly iron railings would have crisscrossed either the Archaeological complex or the periphery of Qutb complex thereby facilitating a 360° visual experience of being surrounded by hundreds of ruins culminating from over a millennium of habitation and construction as far as one could see. Nor would there have been any invasive Vilayati Kikar (Prosopis juliflora) trees, which were later introduced by British landscapers and today hideously envelope many prominent monuments in the Archaeological Park, impeding the view. In fact, come to think of it, around his residence, ruins of over one hundred monuments would have been visible to Sir Thomas in their pristine condition since most of the destruction and degradation of these medieval edifices took place following the 1857 battering of Delhi.

Unlike his Indianized contemporaries and despite his love for Delhi where he spent 40 years of his life, Sir Thomas preferred to maintain a dignified distance from the locals, employing them only as servants and caretakers. Others were different – for instance, his Scottish boss Sir David Ochterlony, British Resident (Ambassador) to India, would every day parade the retinue of his 13 wives, each seated atop a beautifully-ornamented elephant, through the Red Fort complex. Even his elder brother Sir Charles Metcalfe, also a very high-ranking official in the Company and later the Governor-General of Agra and Bengal provinces, dressed up in native attires, spoke the vernacular and even sired children with a Sikh woman!

The first of Sir Metcalfe's "Gharganjs"

But irrespective of his contempt for the locals, such was Thomas’s attachment to his adopted home and majestic country-house (which he filled with an enormous number of books) that he spent most of his time in Mehrauli and even assigned a room for his daughter Emily, whom he wished would come stay with him in India. His ornamental “ruins” too proliferated – he had a fairly massive ornamental “chattri” (dome surmounted on pillars) built opposite Quli Khan’s ornate tomb in what would have been his landscaped lawns and had another smaller one built on a gentle slope overlooking the vast confines of the archaeological complex, besides adding decorative crumbling lamp posts along designated walkways and even perhaps incorporating the 11th-century Chaumukha Darwaza gateway in the same. The straight line connecting these two chattris was lined with ornamental bridges and diminutive English hut-like guardhouses (each possessing a small arched entrance along one face and rows of decorative alcoves and windows along the rest). But he wasn’t satisfied with just these additions – he also commissioned near his estate’s periphery two huge Ziggurats, which he adoringly referred to as “Gharganjs” but which are now wretchedly categorized, with the rest of his architectural additions, as follies (meaning not “mistake”, but “architectural specimens, built to look old”). Ziggurats were stepped pyramids that the ancient Mesopotamians built by placing stone slabs of successively receding size atop each other. Sir Thomas perhaps felt obliged to venture the city these structures since there weren’t any that it could boast of – one of his Ziggurats is built in a circular manner while the other appears as if fashioned out of square stone blocks with stairs cut into the faces. The square Ziggurat is distinctive in that it is fitted with colossal semicircular protrusions at the center of each face (sadly, the one facing the Qutb complex has fallen apart in its entirety) which are accessible by gently sloping inclines. It is disheartening to note that the side accessible from the colossal Qutb complex, which happens to be one of the three World Heritage Sites that Delhi possesses, is subjected to the retinue of being utilized as a dumpsite to chuck organic wastes, food wrappers, plastic bottles and rubble discard! Enclosed in small confined pens hedged in by high grilles, the Ziggurats exist in a straight line in close vicinity to the entrance of Qutb complex – the square one is in fact accessible from within Qutb Complex by passing through an ajar gate immediately on the left of the entrance archway. There is no way to reach the circular one since it is totally hemmed in by the grilles and there are no openings leading within.

An ornamental guardhouse and a small bridge, now incorporated in Mehrauli Archaeological Complex - Unbelievably, Sir Thomas had artificial slithering waterways and canals developed around his estate and would indulge in boating in what is one of the driest corners of the city!

Sir Thomas lived and died in his country house. It is alleged that Empress Zeenat Mahal, one of the queens of Bahadur Shah Zafar II (ruled AD 1837-57), the then Mughal emperor, had him poisoned through his servants in 1853. He died while staying at Quli Khan’s tomb; had he perhaps shown a little respect for the people of his beloved city, it wouldn't have come to such a pass – he was after all planning an overthrow of the Mughal regime in favor of an administration managed by Company Governors and military officers. He might be gone but his house and the follies that surrounded it still survive, many of them in different stages of ruin and/or overtaken by all-consuming vegetation. In his own words, he could not be indifferent to his cherished city since “the ruins of grandeur that extend for miles on every side fill it with serious reflection”. He commissioned the renowned Mughal artist Mazhar Ali Khan to sketch 120 beautiful scenes from Delhi’s enviable cultural and architectural heritage, monuments and palaces, Qutb complex and Quli Khan’s tomb, in an album he titled “Reminiscences of Imperial Delhi” (later referred to as “Dehlie/Delhi Book”), one of the finest exemplars of the fusion of delicate Mughal artwork with sensible English descriptions and notes that he himself added. He had the book sent to Emily to persuade her to visit India – though all records pertaining to his life and times were gutted in a fire, the book still remains the centerpiece of a collection of British Library for future generations and Delhi-lovers to remember the man who turned Delhi on its head and chose tombs to doze in.

Fast forward to AD 1857 – Only 4 years after his death, Delhi was gripped by horrific murder and arson as East India Co.’s enraged Indian soldiers (“Sepoys”) revolted on the prospect of being supplied rifle cartridges lined with fat of pigs and cows, that Muslims and Hindus hold untouchable due to religious reasons. Hundreds of British men, women and children were butchered in cold blood and their houses looted, vandalized and incinerated. Metcalfe’s house too was plundered and several of his follies destroyed or damaged. The British retaliation resulted in one of the longest and most cold-hearted sieges that Delhi had ever seen, at the end of which they bombarded the city, executed thousands of citizens, destroyed medieval heritage structures and pretty buildings, plundered the treasury and the houses of rich native merchants and court officers, took control of all the civil facilities of the city, converted magnificent mosques into stables and toilets, imprisoned Emperor Zafar and shot dead all his sons and grandsons. Had Sir Thomas been alive then, more than the ravaging of his beloved city, he would have been hurt to know that his own son, the then magistrate of Delhi, Sir Theophilus John Metcalfe, vengefully led the battle in several stages and relentlessly went about killing Indians. Though a general atmosphere of death and wretchedness pervaded all around and most Englishmen involved in the battles were eager to avenge their fallen compatriots by barbarically massacring as many Indians as they could, Sir Theophilus Metcalfe was considered one of the most pitiless men around and his pining for blood far exceeded the inexcusable cruelties he administered to the citizens of Delhi – inevitably, his own fellow Englishmen were so disgusted by his unbelievably horrid craving for vengeance and murder that they soon had him removed from the war front. The “Delhi Book” survives as one of the few specimens that record Delhi’s magnificence before the war shook it and the British vandalized its imposing palaces and burnt down the majestic mansions and gardens.

A slice of ancient Mesopotamia in a corner of Delhi

Location: Next to Qutb Complex entrance, Mehrauli
Open: Sunrise to Sunset

Nearest Metro Stations: Qutb Minar/Saket

How to reach: Taxis, buses and autos can be availed from different parts of the city. One can walk/take a bus/auto from the metro stations (approx 2 kilometers each). The Ziggurats are incorporated within the Archaeological Park but can be accessed from Qutb complex and the narrow street leading to Qutb restaurant besides it.
Entrance fees: Nil
Photography/Video charges: Nil
Time required for sightseeing: 20 min
Relevant Links –

Other monuments within the Archaeological Park premises -

Suggested reading -

September 13, 2012

Charnock's Tomb, Calcutta

This post is part of series about St. John’s Church located in BBD Bagh area, Calcutta. The integrated post about the church and the structures within can be accessed from here – Pixelated Memories - St. John's Church

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"Calcutta, founded amidst the vilest climate, the remotest marshes, and the most intemperate people in India, embellished and aggrandized by successive Viceroys with monstrous buildings and preposterous statues, and breathing a preponderantly commercial opinion upon the fate of 300,000,000 people.."

– Robert Byron, "New Delhi", The Architectural Review Magazine (1931)

Inside a walled compound in a forgotten, desolate corner of St. John’s Church stands a diminutive octagonal structure – painted a serene white throughout and possessing a small dome and arched doorways, this unique structure is both a tomb and a memorial dedicated to the memory of Job Charnock. Surrounded by several more uniquely constructed memorials, Charnock’s tomb looks different – peaceful, otherworldly and charming in its own way. Pigeons coo around the obscure structures, scores of them perching on the numerous electrical wires hanging about the high rises that dwarf the church complex. One gets the strange sensation that only Charnock’s tomb is maintained and cared for in the walled enclosure while the rest have been forgotten, ignored. An administrator for the East India Company, Job Charnock was one of the first English traders to set foot in Calcutta – In fact, it is contended that Calcutta did not even exist that time and Charnock was the one who stubbornly merged three adjacent villages (Sutanuti, Kalikata and Goindpur) in the militarily strategic Sutanuti region on the banks of river Hooghly into one administrative unit christened Calcutta (from “Kalikata” – the land of Kali, the Hindu Goddess of death & destruction, but not in any way associated with the ancient temple of Kalighat, refer Pixelated Memories - Kalighat Temple) and established it as a British military and commerce stronghold in the face of administrative opposition and persistent run-ins with fellow English bureaucrats. The theory has been contested by many scholars, as well as the Armenian community of Calcutta who claim to have settled in the city over half a century before Charnock and his team; most notably, the Calcutta High Court noted in its rulings (2003) that Calcutta was already a full-fledged city on the trade route by the time the British arrived. Yet the lore goes on.

The compound housing Charnock's and Admiral Watson's memorials

Resisting arrest and evading pursuance by the armies of the Nawab of Bengal with whom he had differences arising out of alleged injustice in taxation and imposition of cruel custom rates, a physically strained and mentally fatigued Charnock arrived in Sutanuti in August 1690, after much harassment and trouble with the Mughal and Bengal forces, and assumed command as the Company’s Chief Agent in Bengal. His persistence in establishing the Co.’s stronghold and associated port in Bengal paid handsomely and within a few years the Co. gained the enviable position of a regional territorial power possessing a proper seafaring route. However, aggrieved and heartbroken at the demise of his Indian wife (supposedly named Maria, however no records exist regarding her identification – she is said to have originally been a Hindu Rajput princess Charnock rescued from the horrific tradition of Sati where a wife is forced to burn herself upon the funeral pyre of her (usually decades older) husband while he was posted in Bihar; she later converted to Christianity) and the consequent death of his son, Charnock passed away two years later and did not live to see the Co. he so loyally served yield fruit from his extensive labours. Upon his death, his eldest son-in-law Charles Eyre constructed this structure in his memory with black stone for the tombstone specially brought all the way from Chennai (then Madras) – the rock from which the stone was chiseled has since been identified and isolated as an individual geological formation not found elsewhere and named in his honor as “Charnockite” (Pallavaram black gneiss). Charnock had served the Company for 34 long years – a period in which he was maliciously and often falsely accused of corruption, mismanagement, weak control over the British establishment and policy paralysis besides possessing questionable morals and supplicating to pagan (Hindu) religion to appease his wife. To please the subcontinent’s puritanical English society whom Eyre was required to interact with and manage as the Co.’s Indian Agent and President of Bengal territory (positions once occupied by Charnock), the memorial stone makes no mention of Maria who too is buried with her beloved husband. Overtime, several other relatives and other prominent personalities who demised in colonial territory were also buried close to Charnock in the small compound. The small octagonal tomb sits on a low plinth and is built in two distinct levels, the upper being considerably smaller in its cross-section than the lower; externally the tomb is marked with slender pillars along each corner, simplistic battlements at the interface of the levels and horizontal embossments running all over its otherwise plain surface. Within the tomb were erected the three jet black stone tablets, each etched with fairly artistic Latin, English and Arabic calligraphic obituaries in white paint. The English translation of the central tablet commemorating Charnock reads –

“In the hands of God Almighty, Job Charnock, English knight and recently the most worthy agent of the English in this Kingdom of Bengal, left his mortal remains under this marble so that he might sleep in the hope of a blessed resurrection at the coming of Christ the Judge. After he had journeyed onto foreign soil he returned after a little while to his eternal home on the 10th day of January 1692. By his side lies Mary, first-born daughter of Job, and dearest wife of Charles Eyre, the English prefect in these parts. She died on 19 February AD 1696–7”.

The obituaries within, carved on a unique rock since christened "Charnockite"

Another tablet commemorates William Hamilton, a surgeon who gained prominence in the Mughal court by treating the then emperor Farrukhsiyar (reign AD 1712-19) when the British Co. officers visited the royal court in order to discuss trade rights and factory privileges, in the following words –

“Under this Stone lyes interred the Body of William Hamilton, Surgeon, who departed this life the 4th December, 1717. His memory ought to be dear to his Nation for the credit he gain'd the English in curing Ferrukseer, the present King of Indostan, of a Malignant Distemper, by which he made his own Name famous at the Court of that Great Monarch; and without doubt will perpetuate his memory, as well in Great Britain as all other Nations of Europe."

On the ground around the tomb, blanketed by a meager layer of fallen dead and dry leaves and trampled regularly by unaware visitors, are several thick iron plates that on first observation appear to be rectangular manhole covers, but on close inspection can be identified as tablets engraved as memorials to the deceased. These too are part of the tomb, these too have been forgotten in the midst of the numerous tombs and memorials, many of which belong to more historically-renowned personages, that litter the hallowed grounds of St. John’s Church.

Memorials around Charnock's mausoleum

Flanking Charnock’s modest mausoleum are two even smaller memorials – the first is made up of three connected but successively bigger memorial tablets enshrined in enclosing masonry rectangles while the second and the most ornate of all memorials commemorates Admiral Charles Watson, Commander of His Majesty’s Navies in East Indies. Relegated to a mere footnote in India’s colonial history, Admiral Watson played a noteworthy role in commanding the naval segment of the forces led by Colonel Robert Clive during the retaking of Calcutta after the British fortress had been seized by Siraj-ud-Daulah, the Nawab of Bengal, and its occupants confined to a small dungeon prison where supposedly 146 Europeans, including officers, women and children, died due to asphyxiation. This strange and horrific event was termed “Black Hole Tragedy of Calcutta” and prompted indignation and outrage among the British, leading to a treacherous war against the Nawab and subsequently his grisly murder – the entire event later was proved to be a hoax where a small incident had been blown out of proportion in order to generate an atmosphere conducive for military and territorial expansion in India. Incidentally, a memorial commemorating the said event was also erected nearby and can be read about here – Pixelated Memories - Black Hole Memorial. Outside the small enclosure and keeping these forgotten memorials company are beautiful but even lesser known commemorative structures dedicated to Lady Charlotte Canning, the Second Rohilla War and Lady Johnson (see links below). The Church came up close to the memorials much later in 1787 AD and was consecrated to St. John.

(Left to right) An indecipherable memorial commemorating three individuals, Admiral Watson's memorial and the spire of St. John's church looming behind the tree line

Location: St. John's Church, BBD Bagh

Nearest Bus stop: Esplanade
Nearest Metro Station: Esplanade
How to reach: Walk/avail a taxi from Esplanade. Buses are available from different parts of the city for Esplanade and BBD Bagh.
Open: All days, 10 am – 5 pm
Entrance Fee: Rs 10 for visitors on foot (parking charges extra)
Photography/Video Charges: Nil
Time required for sight seeing: 20 min

Relevant Links -

Suggested reading -

Black Hole Memorial, Calcutta

"Of one hundred and forty-six prisoners, one hundred and twenty-three were smothered in the Black Hole prison, in the night of the 20th of June, 1756. Few survived capable of giving any detail of the manner in which it happened; and of these I believe none have attempted it: for my own part, I have often sat down with this resolution, and as often relinquished the melancholy task, not only from the disturbance and affliction it raised afresh in my remembrance, but from the consideration of the impossibility of finding language capable of raising an adequate idea of the horrors of the scene I essayed to draw. But as I believe the annals of the world cannot produce an incident like it in any degree or proportion to all the dismal circumstances attending to it, and as my own health of body and peace of mind are once again, in a great measure, recovered from the injuries they suffered from that fatal night, I cannot allow it to be buried in oblivion."

– John Zephaniah Holwell, "A genuine narrative of the deplorable deaths of the English Gentlemen, and others, who were suffocated in the Black Hole in Fort William, at Calcutta, in the kingdom of Bengal; in the night succeeding the 20th day of June, 1756" (1758)

A solitary edifice remembering the victims of Calcutta's Black Hole (Photo courtesy - Johnandlucyareback.blogspot.in)

The British East India "trading" Company, an early example of capitalist privatization and massive-scale political maneuvering and powerbrokership, was given the charter to trade silk, spices and jewels in foreign lands, most notably India and south-east Asia, by the British crown – the Company soon began to maintain its own army in the areas where it established factories, hired British army officers as administrators, maintained regiments of mercenaries and Indian soldiers and turned kingmaker in several regions where it practiced its writ by interfering with local politics and sovereignty of the kings and landlords and also through political intrigues and offering military assistance to the warring factions. The Company adopted a policy of high-handedness and abuse of its duty-free privileges when Mirza Muhammad Siraj-ud-Daulah ascended the throne of the Nawab (Provincial Governor) of Bengal and Bihar in AD 1756. Only 23-years old at the time of his ascension, the wise Nawab, from the very beginning of his reign, was worried stiff by the ever-increasing territorial power and influence of affluent foreign imperialist countries and their militarily-strong trading companies. And he had valid reason to be worried as well – the assiduously cunning British East India Company never wanted him to become the ruler of Bengal-Bihar, but instead supported, financially and militarily, his renegade uncles and cousins. Immediately upon ascension and as one of the first working orders he issued, an enraged Siraj demanded the fortifications and armouries of both the French and British strongholds in Calcutta be torn down. The French promptly obeyed, but the obdurate British did not comply, further refused to pay the respects due to him, and soon thereafter even indulged in rioting and war-mongering. Incensed, Siraj marched to Fort William, the Company’s military and trade stronghold, and laid siege to it. The fortress' Commander and other officers had escaped beforehand to safety, leaving behind only a small retinue of trained soldiers and civilians to defend it and they proved no match for Siraj's martial prowess and surrendered four days later. The fortress captured and its defenders imprisoned, Siraj handed them over for further dealings and interrogation to his commander Manikchand. It is said that 146 of the survivors of that melancholic siege and battle were confined overnight in a horribly small, poorly ventilated dungeon – consequentially, 123 of them died as a result of asphyxiation and the ensuing stampede when water was passed around the prison cell!

Commemoration (Photo courtesy - Heritagestructurewb.blogspot.in)

The entire miserably terrifying, heartrending brutal incident from British-Indian history is based on the account of John Zephaniah Holwell, who claimed to be a survivor of the “Black Hole” tragedy (nomenclature he himself invented – in a way, the credit for the christening of the spatial phenomena of gravitationally collapsed colossal objects discovered much later goes to him) and penned an exceedingly detailed account, filled with pictures of blackened windows, suffocation and terrible physical and mental atrocities, about the abominable incident. British politicians and public, outraged and vehement in their demands for retribution and vengeance, never asked questions about Holwell's stories nor accounted for the numbers of soldiers, dead or missing, following the incident. No other contemporary historian or even Company papers mention this particularly important incident, nor was a report of it made to the Company Director. Nevertheless, it gave Lieutenant-Colonel Robert Clive the opportunity to march from Madras with a regiment of especially trained soldiers and challenge Siraj-ud-Daulah's authority in the Battle of Plassey (AD 1757). The Company became the de-facto ruler of the entire province of Bengal after Siraj's capture and execution on the battle front, the ascension of his Commander and Paymaster-General Mir Jafar Ali Khan (with the Company's inauspicious blessings) as the (nominal) sovereign and the appointment of J.Z. Holwell as the Governor of Bengal. British Governors, administrators and politicians of the day magnified the incident by adding gruesome details, used it to justify their conquests over the “uncivilized and brutal” Indians and, considering the meteoric rise of Robert Clive and J.Z. Holwell, also milked its aftermath to their own personal advantage. Later British historians justified the conquest of Bengal through intrigues and treachery by considering it a just retribution for the tragedy and an essential requisite for the Company's trade and territorial supremacy – but what if the maligned event itself was a case of crookedness and falsehood?!

Today, many eminent historians, including the renowned British scholar J.H. Little, question the veracity of Holwell's eyewitness account and contend that the ghastly incident did not take place at all but was a fabrication by Holwell to blemish the monarch’s name and present himself as the hero of the day. Most historians, however, do accept that some prisoners were indeed put in the dungeon and many amongst them did die due to suffocation, summer heat and the ensuing stampede, but hotly dispute that Siraj was not personally responsible for their deaths and Holwell’s version is highly exaggerated in itself as 146 people could not have been physically confined in the said punishment room (14 ft X 18 ft) and only around 65 people were actually confined. They even deny Holwell's statements that the women prisoners of European or mixed descent were forcefully relegated to Siraj's harem. There are many other inconsistencies unaccounted for that render the entire episode a shameful sham – for instance, how did Holwell move about in the cramped chamber to comfort his co-prisoners like he claims to have done in his recounting? How did he observe their agonized faces and keep note of the time in his watch if the entire chamber was drenched in darkness and even the windows had been barred and blocked till not a stream of light escaped through? Also, it has been countered that Holwell and several other officials and military officers escaped from Fort William through a series of tunnels to the Hooghly riverfront from where they were transported to Chennai (Madras) by a ship and only 43 people, including many Indian soldiers, were left unaccounted for.

The monument at its original location, after it was recommissioned by Lord Curzon in 1901 (Photo courtesy - Wikipedia.org)

Besides penning the said book about the tragic incident, Holwell even commissioned a commemorative memorial edifice that was originally located near the present-day Calcutta General Post Office (refer Pixelated Memories - General Post Office) in 1760. Interestingly, the entire monument vanished without a trace in 1822! Some historians claim that it was demolished upon the orders of then Governor-General Francis Rawdon-Hastings who was disturbed by the congregation of barbers at all times of the day around the obelisk memorial. The "Black Hole" itself, afterwards transformed into an ordinary warehouse, was dismantled when the fortress was rebuilt several years later. It is surprising that an edifice remembering such a gruesome catastrophic event in British history was destroyed in its entirety and there was no monument whatsoever following its obliteration to mark the same. Another monument, exactly identical to the original in all aspects except a few further fabrications (discussed below), was rebuilt in the vicinity of Writers' Building (present day office of the Chief Minister of Bengal, said to be the actual site of the “Black Hole”, refer Pixelated Memories - Writers' Building) by Lord Curzon, then Viceroy of India, in 1901. But in addition to the twenty seven names that Holwell had furnished of the British officers massacred in the tragedy, Lord Curzon also added several more who were known to have actually died in the siege of the fortress and the skirmishes and fighting that followed! Epigraphs were inscribed on each side of the memorial. The one etched upon the orders of Lord Curzon reads –

"This Monument

Has been erected by

Lord Curzon, Viceroy and Governor-General of India,

In the year 1902,

Upon the site

And in reproduction of the design

Of the original monument

To the memory of the 123 persons

Who perished in the Black Hole prison

Of Old Fort William

On the night of the 20th of June, 1756.

The former memorial was raised by

Their surviving fellow-sufferer

J. Z. Holwell, Governor of Fort William,

On the spot where the bodies of the dead

Had been thrown into the ditch of the ravelin.

It was removed in 1821."

At the height of Indian independence movement, with the growing clamor, especially provoked by Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose, for removal of signs of British supremacy and colonial history, the memorial was removed in its entirety from the Writers' Building compound and shoved in a corner of St. John’s Church (refer Pixelated Memories - St. John's Church for more details and photographs) where it still exists.

The 50 feet (15 meters) tall, obelisk-like memorial surmounted upon an extremely high octagonal base, one of the earliest examples of British masonry in the country, is inscribed with the names of the 123 people (supposedly) killed while incarcerated in the Black Hole. One of the legends states –

"The names of those who perished

in the Black Hole prison,

inscribed upon the reverse side

of this monument

are in excess of the list

recorded by Governor Holwell

upon the original monument.

The additional names, and

the Christian names of the remainder,

have been recovered from oblivion

by reference to contemporary documents."

Citing the memorial's meager forgotten existence in the corner of the church complex, another engraving, belonging to a later date after the sober but shambolic edifice had been shifted here, notes –

"This Monument was erected in 1901

Lord Curzon on the original site of the Black Hole

(North-West corner of Dalhousie Square)

and removed thence to the Cemetery of

St. John’s Church, Calcutta in 1940."

The reason (Photo courtesy - Wikipedia.org)

Whatever the true story was, the event has become an important constituent of the annals of Indo-British history and has been one of those instances where stories, conceived out of half-truths and falsehoods and constructed on the premise of an irresistible and unquenchable lust for political and territorial power, repeated again and again become transformed to "truths", difficult to chaff from reality, in popular perception. Oddly enough, J.Z. Holwell, as a surgeon and commentator interested in Indian civilization and Hindu scriptures and culture, drafted massive essays titled "An account of the manner of inoculating for the Small Pox in the East Indies with observations on the mode of treating that disease in those parts" (1767) and "Interesting historical events, relative to the Provinces of Bengal, and the Empire of Indostan with a seasonable hint and persuasive to the honorable the court of directors of the East India Company. As also the mythology and cosmogony, fasts and festivals of the Gentoo's, followers of the Shastah. And a dissertation on the metempsychosis, commonly, though erroneously, called the Pythagorean doctrine" (3 vol., 1765-1771). The latter exhorted fellow British clergy, scholars and administrators to consider Hinduism as equivalent to Christianity and, in distant future much to the chagrin of his corrupted, hell-bound soul, was particularly used by Indian nationalists during the Independence Movement. Revenge is best served cold!

Location: Inside St. John's Church complex, BBD Bagh area (refer Pixelated Memories - St. John's Church), approximately a kilometer from Esplanade square.
Nearest Metro station/bus stop: Esplanade
How to reach: Walk/take a taxi from Esplanade.
Open: All days, 10 am – 5 pm
Entrance Fees: Rs 10 for visitors on foot; parking charges applicable.
Photography/Video Charges: Nil
Time required for sightseeing: 10 min
Other monuments within the church complex -

Relevant Links -

Suggested reading -

December 21, 2012

Metcalfe's Chattri, Delhi

December 13, 2012

Metcalfe's Ziggurats and Guardhouses, New Delhi

September 13, 2012

Charnock's Tomb, Calcutta

Black Hole Memorial, Calcutta

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