On October 11, 1737, a powerful earthquake struck the city of Calcutta (now Kolkata) in the Bengal region of British India. The quake, with an estimated magnitude of 7.5 to 8.0, caused immense destruction, killing an estimated 300,000 people across the region. It triggered a tsunami that inundated the Hooghly River delta, compounding the devastation. This disaster was one of the deadliest in Indian history and severely impacted the growing British East India Company settlement, causing widespread panic and economic disruption.

The 1737 Calcutta earthquake was widely reported in British and European newspapers and journals, becoming a well-known symbol of the perceived hazards of life in the colonies. It reinforced exotic and dangerous portrayals of India in the literature of the time. The event is referenced in contemporary travel writings and letters, which later contributed to the colonial Gothic genre, where the unpredictable and destructive power of nature in the subcontinent served as a backdrop for stories of moral and physical peril.