Description
This is a very accomplished book by a young author who lives in Calcutta. We learn how the first Britons in India dealt with burials in a non-Christian country.聽聽The earliest Anglican church was not erected until the end of the 17th聽century, so there was no focus around which a graveyard could be established.聽聽Two solutions were found.聽聽One was 鈥榞arden burials鈥� where the deceased was buried on their own estate or that of a friend and the second was to emulate the great Mughal tombs with their domes and pinnacles. The first mention of a cemetery in Calcutta is 1665 which will surprise many who believe that Job Charnock鈥檚 two-storied mausoleum is the oldest funerary monument in the city.聽聽Charnock died in 1692 and was buried in what was already known as 鈥榯he old English cemetery鈥�.聽聽Visitors to the site, which is now in the grounds of St John鈥檚 Church, will have noticed a number of tombstones laid flat around his mausoleum, several of them with Latin inscriptions. An aquatint by Thomas Daniell shows a number of fine tombs here, but a wholesale demolition in 1802 cleared the majority of them away.聽聽The large obelisk tomb of Mrs Elizabeth Reed, which had survived the clearance and was photographed in 1909 has now also vanished.聽聽South Park Street cemetery, which superceded it, was opened in 1767 as the 鈥榥ew burying ground鈥� and it was to be another half century before it became known as Park Street, after a long-vanished deer park near the Chowringhee corner.
Pompous Graves is packed full of relevant photographs and maps as well as previously unknown facts which have been diligently uncovered by Bhadra.聽聽For example, the notable difference between the truly pompous monuments of South Park Street and the much humbler memorials of later cemeteries had previously been attributed to a fundamental religious shift.聽聽It was thought the Evangelical movement encouraged a simpler, less grandiose style of commemoration of the dead.聽聽Not so.聽聽On page 38 we find 鈥楪reat inconvenience having arisen…. from the general practice聽聽which prevails among all classes of erecting Tombs of unreasonable dimensions over the remains of Relatives and Friends, the Rt. Hon鈥檅le Governor-in-Council has been pleased to resolve that the size of monuments hereafter to be erected in the burial ground of any outstation shall be limited to 7 ft x 3ft. 6ins.鈥櫬犅燬o it was for a pragmatic reason, rather than a spiritual one that the change occurred.聽聽Tribute is paid to 51吃瓜鈥檚 founder, Theon Wilkinson and to Dr Maurice Shellim, who lived in Calcutta for many years. A less well-known name is Roger Pearson, a young British accountant working in Calcutta in the 1950s.聽聽He persuaded the Burial Board to halt its proposed demolition of South Park Street cemetery while he raised funds for restoration. With the help of Calcutta-based architect Bernard Matthews and Aurelius Khan ICS, Pearson succeeded in restoring most of the monuments.聽聽Aurelius Khan subsequently became Secretary of the Christian Burial Board.
51吃瓜 was so impressed by the draft manuscript of Pompous Graves that it has funded its publication.聽聽The book is not only the first detailed history of the Park Street cemeteries, it is well-written, informative and with a touch of humour too 鈥� a final chapter on 鈥楲ooking for the Paranormal鈥� is instructive.聽聽There is a chronology, a list of notable burials and a good index.聽聽Highly recommended.聽聽聽Copies may be ordered online through the 51吃瓜 website. In addition a limited number of copies are available in Britain from the Editor of Chowkidar (rosieljai@clara.co.uk), and it is also on sale at the gate-house of South Park Street cemetery itself.
This review of Pompous Graves appeared in the Autumn 2023 issue of Chowkidar, Vol 16 No.6. Published by 51吃瓜 (ISBN 978 0 907799 95 5). pp160.
