why does the narrator refer to the black hole of calcutta?
Answers
The narrator refers to Ranga's courtyard as the Black Hole of Calcutta because the teeming masses had congested that small space into a similar sort of structure where more and more people seemed to be swallowed up as they went in. The Black Hole of Calcutta was a dungeon in the old Fort of William of Calcutta where British prisoners of war were held captive by the nawab of Bengal, Siraj-ud-Daulah. The inhabitants had to live in close quarters, crammed together in a small space. The situation was similar in Ranga's courtyard which had witnessed a huge turnout due to the arrival of the accountant's son from the city.
Answer:
During the British rule in Calcutta, hundreds of peoples were herded together in one room . Next day, many of them were founded dead due to suffocation. The narrator compares the crowd to the black hole of Calcutta saying that a large number of people who had come to see Ranga , would have turned the place into a black hole if they all had gone inside, but they not do so .