270 years ago today, a disputed number of people including many British prisoners of war died in an overcrowded room which became known as "The Black Hole of Calcutta"

The Holwell Monument agitation was a political campaign led by Subhas Chandra Bose in 1940 to remove a monument to the Black Hole of Calcutta (now Kolkata). The agitation marked a significant moment of unity between Hindu nationalists and the All-India Muslim League. […] In 1897, historian Akshay Kumar Maitreya denied Holwell’s account of 123 of the 146 prisoners of war dying, noting that the event was not mentioned by British and Indian historians of the time. Holwell was only able to recall 66 of the prisoners’ names and many of those listed were later proven to have not been present at Fort William during the siege.

see also: https://en.banglapedia.org/index.php?title=Black_Hole_Incident