After Sir William Hay MacNaghten's mutilated body was brought from Kabul to Calcutta, it was buried in the Lower Circular Road Cemetery. It is said that after his death he haunts the place, and a nearby tree trembles every time someone tells this story.
In the Lower Circular Road Cemetery, which is constantly filled with Christians in Kolkata, there is one grave that is said to house the ghost of Sir William Hay MacNaghten, who is said to haunt the cemetery.
The Lower Circular Road Cemetery in Kolkata is a still guardian of bygone eras as it was established in 1840 during Kolkata's colonial times and is located a miniature walk from the South Park Street Cemetery.
The cemetery is still in apply today and this historic burial ground, also known as the General Bishop's Cemetery, is a poignant monument to the city's luxurious and turbulent past with over 12,000 graves. Although many have been moved to make way for novel burials, there is one grave in Lower Circular Road Cemetery that is said to be haunted.
And if these stories are to be believed, there is a tree in the Lower Circular Road cemetery that trembles every time someone tells this story, at least when they are close to it.
The barbaric and bloody First Anglo-Afghan War
Legend has it that the Lower Circular Road Cemetery holds the ghostly presence of none other than Sir William Hay MacNaghten, a prominent British colonial government official. His untimely death at the age of 48, a gruesome case that sent shock through the community, has become part of local lore.
MacNaghten was also a baronet born in 1793, came to India at the age of 16 and played a immense role in the First Anglo-Afghan War of 1838–1842. The British successfully invaded the country after exploiting the internal conflict between the rulers in Afghanistan to their advantage.
Although he was an critical figure in history, people were surprised by his involvement in the war. “What?” Lord William Bentinck is said to have exclaimed when he heard that Macnaghten had sent an army into Afghanistan. “Lord Auckland and Macnaghten went to war? The last man on earth I would expect such madness.”
Macnaghten bought a mansion in Kabul and brought in a wife, decorating their home with crystal chandeliers, a selection of fine French wines, and hundreds of servants from India. The fact that they simply made themselves at home enraged the Afghans even more. If sources are to be believed, he was not necessarily a well-liked man and was known for his arrogant manners, and both the Afghans and the British simply called him “The Messenger”.
By 1841, British forces were exhausted and their commanders were ancient and unsuited to the task. The plan was for the British to march back to India with a guarantee of protected passage from Afghan tribal elders. However, at the last minute they tried to pit the chiefs against each other, and MacNaghten met with Mohammed Akbar Khan, the chief's son, but who had no reason to like the British.
On December 23, Macnaghten presented Wazir Akbar Khan with a pair of handsome pistols as a gesture of friendship and good faith. However, Wazir Akbar Khan murdered Macnaghten on the spot. To this day, it is unclear whether he intended to kill him or whether he died because he resisted capture.
The consequences of all this were gruesome for the British, as about 120 people were taken prisoner, including his wife and a certain Lady Sale, who wrote about the murder in her diary: “All reports agree that the bodies of the Envoy and Trevor are hanging in a public corridor: the decapitated Envoy and a mere trunk; “limbs carried triumphantly around the city”
In fact, his death was recorded in the autopsy as “one of the most vile and horrible murders ever recorded in the pages of history.” It is said that his wife came across his dead body, horribly mutilated and strewn across the street. It is said that his remains were recovered from the pit into which he had been thrown and brought by his widow.
As terrible as it must have been, it is worth noting that most of the prisoners thought the Afghan captors were polite enough, but Lady Macnaghten remembered them in a bad lithe as she was unwilling to share any clothes or sherry.
Visitation at the Lower Circular Road Cemetery
Although his mortal remains were laid to rest in the Lower Circular Road Cemetery, Sir William's spirit is said to remain among the gravestones and mausoleums.
One of the terrifying aspects of these ghostly sightings at Lower Circular Road Cemetery is the peculiar behavior of the lone tree that stands alone above Sir William's resting place. According to local lore, whenever the gruesome details of his murder are recounted, the tree above his tomb begins to tremble as if moved by an unseen force, adding an eerie atmosphere to the already haunted grounds.
The ghostly presence of Sir William MacNaghte is not the only source of anxiety at Lower Circular Road Cemetery. Night guards, whose job it is to watch over the peaceful sleep of the dead, report blood-curdling encounters with unexplainable phenomena. Eerie sounds echoing in the silence of the night, eerie whispers carried on the wind, and fleeting glimpses of shadowy figures moving between the gravestones left many of the guards shaken to their core.
Reference:
First Anglo-Afghan War – Wikipedia
William Hay Macnaghten (1793-1841) – Find a funerary monument
William Hay Macnaghten – Wikipedia
Lower Circular Road Cemetery – Wikipedia https://www.telegraphindia.com/my-kolkata/places/drowning-hands-to-headless-bodies-these-haunted-places-in-kolkata-are-filled-with-ghost-stories-pbfhhotogallery/cid/ 1869126?slide=5
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