The proposed Faridpur division was once under
Gangaridai and
Vanga Kingdom of ancient
Bengal with its capital at
Kotalipara in present day
Gopalganj district of
Bangladesh. Later, it was ruled by local
Hindu rajas and
Muslim sultans until the
Mughal conquest of Bengal in the 16th century, after which many nobles and merchants from North India settled in the area. In 1582 in the reign of
Emperor Akbar, the province of Bengal was formed into 33
sarkars or financial sub-divisions, and Faridpur area appears to have been included within the sarkar of Muhammad Abud and was known as Fatehabad. In 1765, the British took over the financial administration of Faridpur, together with the rest of Bengal. The greater portion of Faridpur was then comprised within
Dhaka District. In 1811, Faridpur was separated from Dacca collectorate. The district was initially known as
Fatehabad. Under British rule in 1860, the district was named as Faridpur after 12th-century Sufi saint,
Shah Sheikh Fariduddin. In 1984, with the decentralization program of the Bangladesh government, Faridpur district was reorganized into five separate districts:
Rajbari,
Gopalgonj,
Madaripur,
Shariatpur and
Faridpur. On 6 May 2017,
Minister of Local Government, Rural Development and Co-operatives Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain announced that the new division would be renamed as Padma Division after the
Padma River, which flows northeast of the proposed division. The name "Padma" was controversial and many were opposed to the name, who demanded it be changed to "Faridpur". The proposal was postponed on 27 November 2022. On 17 December 2024, the Public Administration Reform Commission recommended the creation of the Cumilla and Faridpur divisions. ==Administrative districts==