The Black Hole

Title: The Black Hole – Money, Myth and Empire

Author: Jan Dalley

Publisher: Penguin, 2006 (First)

ISBN: 9780141014999

Pages: 222

If a single event in history can be pointed out as the harbinger of an era, the British victory at the Battle of Plassey in 1757 can be thought of as the foundation stone for the establishment of colonialism in India that reigned the country for the next two centuries. When the imperial masters finally vacated power in 1947, the country was changed beyond all recognition. Its administrative, legislative, judicial and military structures then resembled the West, which was little regretted. At the same time, the impoverishment of the land was obvious in the form of capital drain to Britain and the repeated famines that devastated the countryside. In short, whichever way you look at it, imperial rule was a profound phase in Indian history. This book assumes immense relevance as it narrates the events that led to the showdown at Plassey. The Nawab of Murshidabad had attacked the British fort at Calcutta and occupied it. Chronicles say that, on June 20, 1756, he forced 146 people of all races and nationalities who defended the fort, to be locked up in a small room, which was known as the Black Hole on account of the placement of only two small, high barred windows for air. The crushing, suffocation and thirst, coupled with the exhaustion of fighting the previous day extracted a heavy toll on the prisoners. When the cell was opened the next day, only 23 people were found to be alive. This horrible incident, popularly known as the Black Hole of Calcutta, ignited British passion to no end, and was instrumental in swiftly organizing military reprisals by the English East India Company, which hastened the advent of colonial rule. Jan Dalley is the literary editor of the Financial Times. She has authored many books and has translated several from the French. She lives in London.

The book provides a snapshot of the growth of East – West trade where the spices were exchanged by the East in favour of gold in return. The growth of English maritime ambition under Elizabeth I initially took the form of piracy. Dalley names the noted mariners of the sixteenth century; all of whom did indulge in piracy on at least a very few occasions. The growth of British trading posts on the Indian mainland was tentative at first. Of the three presidencies of Madras, Bombay and Calcutta, the first two were on firmer ground, as the native princes were not strong enough to cross the British. But Calcutta was different. Not only had the British to contend with a mostly indefensible place, but the Murshidabad nawabs were powerful enough to command respect from the traders. The trouble erupted after Siraj ud-Daula ascended the throne of Murshidabad at the young age of 27 after a series of fratricides that was usual in medieval Indian dynasties. He replaced his grandfather, Alivardi Khan who detested the British, but kept on good trading relations with them on account of lucrative profits accrued to him from the enterprise. But the new ruler was impetuous and anxious to affirm his authority very early on his reign. He is said to be so cruel that people on meeting him by chance used to say ‘God save us from him’! He wanted to replace his grandfather’s policy of treating the foreigners with as meticulous care accorded to a beehive while extracting copious amounts of honey and mindful not to provoke them into fits of anger. Fort William at Calcutta was feebly guarded in 1756, with many Englishmen cowardly deserting it at the first hint of trouble. The 500 fighters in the fort belonged to all races – white, brown and black. But they were not a match for the Nawab’s army that was tens of thousands strong. The fort capitulated soon and the Nawab ditched the survivors into the Black Hole, in which 146 people were thrown together in a room only 18 feet long and 14 feet wide. The guards mocked at the frenzy of the people inside for air and water. Only 23 were alive the next morning when the cell was opened.

The author has assumed a stridently nationalistic pose towards the Indian side in the description of the whole episode that is amusing as well as confusing. An Indian would feel amused at the sight of an English author belittling and making tirades against the favourite battle cry of England with which she had aggrandized herself on Indian soil, subjecting it to 190 years of colonial rule. Meanwhile, confusion is spawned by doubts on the quality of judgment made throughout the narrative. But one thing the author should have asked herself is that whether moral support to Siraj ud-Daula was furthering the cause of India as the victim of imperial aggression. Siraj was also a scion of the foreign aggressors that kept India under their yoke far longer than the British did. The native Hindus of Bengal were treated with as contempt by the Muslim kingdoms (with the possible exception of Akbar’s regime) just like or perhaps more than what the British company did. Filling up the aristocracy with expatriates from Afghanistan and Iran, and subjecting the penniless majority to harsh and discriminating religious taxation were hardly the measures which would make a regime dear to the populace. Forced conversions vitiated the atmosphere which was already poignant with mutual hatred between the two communities. The book includes a quote from Col. Scott which helps to make the position clearer. He wrote in 1754 that “Hindu rajahs and population are much disaffected to the Moor (Muslim) government and secretly wish for a change and an opportunity of throwing off their tyrannical yoke”. Hindu merchants naturally sided with foreign traders in the whole issue of Calcutta in 1756. The desperation of the masses is clearly discernible in S C Hill’s study of Bengal, a part of which is reproduced in the book as “there gradually grew up in the minds of the Bengali Hindus that if the worst came to the worst, they might find in the presence of these foreigners a means of escape from the ills by which they were oppressed”.

Dalley makes a spirited but ultimately futile attempt to downplay the significance of the Black Hole incident. Readers are at a loss to determine the motive behind this vain exercise to deny the occurrence of an event that is not only feasible, but corroborated in harrowing detail by the survivors! The pathetic arguments of Dalley are laughable at the least. John Zephaniah Holwell was the City Judge and a survivor of the Black Hole. His vivid account is mercilessly tarnished as an attempt at magnifying his own contribution. An allegation of corruption during his tenure of service is cited as it is sufficient for denigrating his credibility as a witness. Mary Carey was another survivor of the incident at the tender age of 15 and she lived on till 60 in Calcutta. Carey’s interviews are not sufficient proof for the author. Lord Curzon had erected a memorial in 1905 for the victims of the attack, and Dalley quibbles over Curzon’s eulogy terming the prisoners as British, with the silly argument that most of them were not! She accuses Curzon of not naming the victims after a gap of 145 years. Are the Jallianwala Bagh victims named anywhere? Do any failure to name the people who lost their lives negate the truth that the event had occurred? Then the author laments that there were no pictures to establish a record (p.14). This is the most shocking contention of all. What does she mean by pictures? Dalley must realize that she was talking about a point of time when selfies and mobile phones were not available to the victims! After all these dumb claims, she presents a wimpish excuse to downplay the gravity of the incident by saying that, “it was not a massacre, but only a sad blunder. It was not an exceptional death toll” (p.18). This reminds me of a bigoted political observer who denied the Jewish Holocaust as the figure of six million Jews killed was surely a blatant exaggeration. “Probably two or three million”, he said, as if that’d set things right.

Books of such genre usually include a section on the aftermath in which the underdog extracts revenge on the aggressor and satisfy the readers. But Dalley is extraordinarily subdued in this regard, with a  note in passing that Siraj ud-Daula was defeated at the Battle of Plassey with the active connivance of a faction of his courtiers led by his own uncle, Mir Jaffir. The book is a page turner, where the events are so nicely elaborated with unrestrained ease. It is only when the issue of the number of people killed in the Black Hole is raised, or its blood-curdling cruelty, does she go for wild conspiracy theories resembling ‘no man has set foot in the moon’, the 9/11 attacks were CIA-managed’ and the ‘2004 tsunami was the result of a secret American nuclear test’. This small book includes a brief index and a bibliography.

The book is recommended.

Rating: 3 Star