The Unknown City: Contesting Architecture and Social Space

Part I: Filters
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Helen Thomas
essarily geographically defined, as we have seen: the Orient and the Occident
could exist on the same piece of territorialized land. Such density of
place is clearly evident within the various interpretations of the legend of
the Black Hole of Calcutta, the story of the inception of the Maidan born
out of this repulsion from and fascination with the Other.
OWNING (RESISTING)
Story 3
The Story of the Black Hole of Calcutta and Two Fort Williams—the Origins
of the Maidan in Colonial Calcutta at the Middle of the Eighteenth
Century and Beyond
An irresistibly horrible story within the English imagination, the myth of
the Black Hole of Calcutta marks the beginning of a history of ownership
and resistance embodied in the space of the Maidan. It is often understood
to symbolize a moment of fundamental change in the British attitude
toward India and its territory. In both its origin and its ownership, the
Maidan is particularly evocative of this shift from colony to empire, from
pure commerce rooted in Leadenhall Street to political domination; and its
creation was a direct consequence of the legendary night of 20 June 1756 in
the “Black Hole” of old Fort William. As is true of all legends, the story of
the Black Hole of Calcutta has more than one version. To the British it was
a barbaric incident. The inscription on a commemorative monument expresses
their intense emotions in sympathy for the victims: “The monument
we here behold with pain, is there a heart can from a sigh refrain?” 19 Rajat
Kanta Ray, in his essay “Calcutta of Alinagar,” tells the story from the other
side. 20 In his more contemporary interpretation the nawab had good political
reasons for the attack, since Fort William was a threateningly subversive
presence within the Moghul Empire. Not only was its physical strength
increasing, but it was also acting as a refuge for Moghul fugitives and giving
security (in the sense of both investment and protection) to local merchants
of various cultural backgrounds. The nawab expected the British to
act as subjects of the Moghul Empire, not to create an alternative autonomous
state within it.
In 1756 Bengal was still ruled by Moghul viceroys or nawabs, who
headed a vulnerable urban Muslim aristocracy in a Hindu countryside. Alivardi
Khan, the nawab of Bengal since 1740, died and was succeeded by his
grandson Siraj-ud-Daula, aged only twenty. The land of India at that time
was the sole property of the Moghul emperor, but it was controlled by the
zamindar, who would act as a middleman between the tenant peasant and