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More than 5000 entries on the history, culture and life of Britain (published in 1993 by Macmillan, now out of print)
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Black Hole of Calcutta
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An incident in June 1756 which has had wide currency in imperial history as an atrocity committed against the British. The young nawab of Bengal, Siraj-ud-Daulah, overwhelmed the British settlement at *Calcutta and locked those he had captured in the jail of their own fort. The first published account of the event appeared eight years later and stated that 145 men and one woman were locked into a tiny room with only two small windows in the heat of the Indian summer; by the morning only 22 men and the woman were alive. The story has been repeated with these details ever since. Lack of any contemporary evidence of British outrage suggests that this later version of the atrocity was exaggerated. But it seems likely that a less sensational accident did occur, with some British prisoners certainly dying in the jail.
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