The Black Hole of India

I wanted to write a little bit about this topic because I think it’s important.  We visited a monument by this name in Kolkata.

In the early stages of the English invasion of India, Fort William, an English base, was attacked by the local Indians and taken over.  According to history 123 English men were piled on top of each other in a small room the size of a cell.  All were dead by the next day.  Once news of this reached England the public was outraged, changing their view on India and its people:  they were savages.  The English government now had permission to use any force necessary to take over India.  And they did with force indeed.  Looking back now historians believe this event may not have occurred at all, or it may have been severely exaggerated in order to gather public and world support for the use of force.  The location of Fort William (now a post office) has come to be known as The Black Hole of India.

It struck me that the Black Hole was a sort of early 9/11.  The idea that evil warrants and excuses evil in return.  It worked for England then, and it continues to work in current times: 9/11 gave the US government permission and an excuse to invade (and pillage) Iraq with any necessary force.