This Scotsman Leaves No Stone Unturned, to Restore Graves of His Forefathers in Kolkata
July 18 : Lord Charles Bruce is a man with a mission He wants India’s only cemetery that was built for the Scots, located in Kolkata, to be restored from its currently dilapidated condition, to a living space that will revive the glorious Scottish heritage of the city. Lord Bruce is a descendant of Robert Bruce, the legendary Scottish King. Wait, there is more. During the British Raj two of his forefathers- both Lords Elgin – were viceroys and resided in Kolkata the erstwhile capital of British India.
For Bruce Kolkata meant romance, nostalgia and legacy, all rolled into one. However was horrified by what greeted him on his arrival in Kolkata. At the Scottish Cemetery on Karaya Road, off Mullickbazar, Bruce saw that weeds and wild grass had overrun the entire area; most tombstones were broken and the graveyard had turned into a venue for nefarious activities. This was when the idea of forming a Kolkata Scottish Heritage Trust (KSHT ) struck him.
In tandem with three Scottish friends, Bruce began a fund- raising campaign to renovate the graveyard. He also contacted Scottish families, (both in Kolkata and in the UK) whose kin lie buried here, to stake their claims to the respective tombs and sponsor their restoration. A quick rewind.
The Scots were an integral part of the East India Company. However, by 1820, they reportedly began to demand their own graveyard, since the price for acquiring burial spaces in the existing South Park Street Cemetery were astronomical. Thus, the Scottish Cemetery came up, in the vicinity of the South Park Street Cemetery. Its maintenance was taken over by the St Andrews Church, located in Dalhousie Square, which in turn reported to the Church of Scotland. Back to the present.
St Andrews’ Church still maintains records of all the Scottish residents of Kolkata, who were buried in the cemetery. Sadly enough, though the cemetery became functional in 1820, the earliest available records pertain to the year 1843. Lord Bruce also managed to rope in Souvik Mukherjee, English professor at Presidency University, who charted a digital history of the cemetery- part of a digital humanities project- in association with the UK India Research Initiative (UKIERI). “It is unfortunate that we do not have records of …. Scots who were buried here for the first 23 years. But we are trying to link up the gap by searching the India Office Records in the British Library, London,” Mukherjee says. The digital archive, www.scotscemeteryarchivekolkata.com, is already accessible. Its objective is to dispense authentic information about the rich socio-cultural and economic legacy of Scotland in Bengal.
The project envisages to record narratives of people interred at the cemetery in or before 1858. The cut-off marks the finale of the East India Company’s regime! Conservation architect Neeta Das, who is associated with the project consulted a map of the tombs available at the church.
Finally she zeroed in on two really old tombs which are slated to be restored first. Meticulous attention is being paid to the material being used for restoration. Workers have been instructed to stick to original materials e.g brick dust, lime and sand as far as possible in order to maintain the original contour.
The cost of the restoration project is phenomenal –working out to nearly Rs one lac for an average sized tomb. Cheering news is that the premises have been cleaned up while the pathways that crisscross the tombs are being reconstructed. Two centuries ago, Scottish sahibs and memsahibs walked the streets and lanes of Kolkata; today they lie silently in their tombs. However they may find solace in the fact one of their fellow countrymen is trying hard to recreate their glorious era.