A closer look
Sometimes the most enduring historical narratives are just inflated statistics drafted by a guy trying to cover his own incompetence. John Zephaniah Holwell was a British East India Company officer who surrendered Fort William in 1756. After being crammed into a tiny dungeon overnight by the victorious Nawab, Holwell claimed 123 out of 146 British prisoners suffocated in the 'Black Hole of Calcutta.' Modern historians agree the real number was closer to 40, but Holwell’s massively fabricated death toll was the perfect propaganda tool for the British to justify crushing India.
