The Barak river today splits into the northern Surma and the southern Kushiara between the towns of
Badarpur in the east and
Karimganj in the west. Inscriptions suggest that in the 10th century the region around Surma and Kushiara formed frontier settlements called
Srihatta and
Khanda Kamarupa established by
Kamarupa kings in the 7th century. Till 1787, when Brahmaputra changed its course to meet the Meghna a hundred miles farther south, the land between Netrokona in the west and Sylhet in the east was inundated for half of each year forming
haors which made the higher plains of the upper Surma-Kushiara basin not as easily accessible from the west as it was from the Cachar plains in the east. The three districts of the Barak Valley have their own historical origins; nevertheless the region came to be defined not from a natural growth from political, historical or cultural lives of the vernacular groups present in these regions, but as a by-product of colonial empire building under the
East India Company (EIC) and the
British Raj. The pre-colonial kingdoms were not cartographically defined; they were rather defined according to heartlands and the defense of the margins were not important. Territories were not necessarily contiguous and communities living in different places owing loyalties to different royal lineages implied territories. The EIC interests led to drastically differently defined cartographic territories—for example, it was in the interest of the two contending parties, the Tripura and the Kachari kingdoms, to define a boundary running east to west across the Dalasuri to determine trade and transaction of goods along the river flowing south to north north and to determine whether Hailakandi was in the control of the Tripuri or the Kachari polity; whereas the EIC was more interested in defining a north–south border along the Dalasuri so it could be defended.
Pre-colonial formations Cachar In the 16th century, the
Tripura kingdom was in control of the Cachar plains, when in 1562 the Koch general
Chilarai annexed the Cachar region to the
Koch kingdom and it came to be administered from Khaspur (or Kochpur) by his half-brother Kamalnarayan. After the death of the Koch ruler
Nara Narayan, the region became independent and was ruled by the descendants of Kamalnarayan and his group, and they became known as the Dehans (after
Dewan). Between 1745 and 1755, the last Koch ruler's daughter married the king of the
Kachari kingdom, and the rule of Khaspur passed into the hands of the Kachari rulers who adopted the title
Lord of Hedamba. The Kachari kings at Khaspur appointed Brahmins as
rajpandits and
rajgurus and provided land grants to Muslims from Sylhet for cultivation. Some people from Manipur and the Ahom kingdom too moved to the Cachar plains following disturbances in those lands. In 1835, Pemberton reported that the population of the Cachar plains was around 50,000 dominated by the
Dimasa people, followed by Muslim immigrants from Sylhet and their descendants; a third group was Bengali and Assamese immigrants and their descendants and Naga, Kuki and Manipuris forming the smallest groups.
Hailakandi Hailakandi, claimed by both the Tripura and Kachari kingdoms, was a market town on the banks of the Dalasuri river which connected the resource-rich southern hills with the markets in the north along the Barak river. In 1821-22 when Thomas Fischer surveyed the area, he found that Hailakandi was controlled by the Kacharis, though it was surrounded by villages of the Kuki Tanghum community that owed allegiance to the Tripura kingdom. In this region a past Tripura king received a princess from Manipur. It was uncertain which of the three kingdoms the communities paid their tributes to and it effectively formed a
boundary zone, a concept that differed significantly from the idea of clearly defined
borders between kingdoms.
Karimganj East India Company had pushed into the region east of
Sylhet town slowly after it won the right to collect land revenue under the
Treaty of Allahabad in 1765. Among these, Karimganj became a sub-division of the eventual colonial Sylhet district which became a part of Assam in 1874. Following a referendum in 1947 Sylhet was attached to
East Pakistan during
partition of India in the same year, except for four
thanas of the erstwhile Karimganj subdivision that was attached to the Cachar district of Assam, India.
Sylhet is farther to the west of Karimganj, also on the Surma. No state control existed in the Sylhet region till the establishment of
Sarkar Sylhet when the Mughals established a
Faujdar at Sylhet in 1612. In 1303,
Shah Jalal had established rule around Sylhet; and during
Ibn Battuta's visit in 1346, the region was inhabited by Khasi, Garo, Hindus, Muslims, and others. The Mughals began the practice of settling cultivators in the region around Sylhet, which picked up significantly only after 1719 and lasted till the beginning of East India Company rule in 1765. The expansion of Mughal domains in Sylhet was part of an ancient process of
Gangetic territorialism that displaced or assimilated extant populations consisting of
Munda,
Khasi and other peoples. The Mughal administration granted land in Sarkar Sylhet to
talukdars, called
Chaudhuri, in smaller land parcels called
taluks, as opposed to larger
zamindars in the rest of Bengal. Sylhet was itself a borderland when the EIC acquired the Mughal Sarkar Sylhet in 1765.
Colonial boundaries EIC acquired Sarkar Sylhet, primarily the frontier town, bounded by regions that were not in their control—Mughal holdouts moved freely in the lowlands controlled by the highland rulers out of Company reach; Khasi chiefs held most of the land north of the Surma; the land north and east of Sylhet town belonged to the
Jaintia kingdom; and
Tripura kingdom held most of the southern highlands and the adjoining lowlands. The EIC, an erstwhile mercantile company, got into the revenue-farming and judiciary business with the
diwani grant of 1765 and developed a keen interest in monopolising traditional trade routes and expanding settled farming for revenue. This was achieved by marking boundaries—company officers served the EIC interests in generating more revenue and confronting
Ava militarily, but they also served their own private commercial interests. According to
David R. Syiemlieh, up to 1837 A.D. the plains of
Cachar Valley were sparsely populated and were dominated by the
Dimasa Cachari, a
Tibeto Burmese tribe, under the rule of the Kachari Raja, who have established his kingdom's capital at Khaspur, Cachar plains. He had a good number of Bengali advisers (mostly
Brahmins) around him and gave grants of land to some of them, but the population resembled that of the North Cachar Hills of today as evident from various historical chronicles and sources. Bengali settlers from neighbouring
East Bengal poured into the Cachar plains after the British annexation of the region in 1832 A.D., turning it into a Bengali-majority region. Once, Barak Valley from (1832–1874) A.D. was a part of the
Bengal Presidency under the
British Empire. The British Annexation of Cachar transformed the demographic patterns of the valley overnight. There was a sudden phenomenal growth in population, while the plains of
Cachar had about 50 thousands inhabitants in all in 1837 A.D. that is five years after its annexation, which eventually indicates that there was a large-scale immigration. The population rose to more than five lakhs a few years later. The population of Muslims in the colonial era Barak Valley decreased in the late 19th century largely because the fertile lands were occupied by earlier settlers of the region and later they immigrated to the present
Hojai of Assam which was also a part of Kachari Kingdom up to 1832 AD. A population 85,522 of diverse backgrounds including hill tribes, in the 1851 Census, Muslims and Hindus, 30,708 and 30,573, respectively, mostly Bengalis, constituted 70% of the total population of Cachar Valley, followed by 10,723 Manipuris, 6,320 Kukis, 5,645 Naga and 2,213 Cacharis. The region of Karimganj was under the rule of
Pratapgarh Kingdom from 1489-1700s.
Inclusion of Karimganj In 1947, when a
plebiscite was held in
Sylhet of then
Assam Province with majority voting for incorporation with
Pakistan. The Sylhet district was divided into two; the easternmost subdivision of Sylhet which is known as
Karimganj joined with
India, and now is a district of
Assam, whereas the rest of Sylhet joined
East Bengal. Geographically the region is surrounded by hills from all three sides except its western plain boundary with
Bangladesh. Nihar Ranjan Roy, author of Bangalir Itihash, claims that "South Assam / Northeastern Bengal or Barak Valley is the extension of the Greater Surma/Meghna Valley of
Bengal in every aspect from culture to geography". Assam's Surma Valley (now partly in
Bangladesh) had Muslim-majority population. On the eve of partition, hectic activities intensified by the
Muslim League as well Congress with the former having an edge. A
referendum had been proposed for
Sylhet District.
Abdul Matlib Mazumdar along with Basanta Kumar Das (then Home Minister of Assam) travelled throughout the valley organising the Congress and addressing meetings educating the masses about the outcome of partition on the basis of religion. On 20 February 1947 Moulvi Mazumdar inaugurated a convention – Assam Nationalist Muslim's Convention at
Silchar. Thereafter another big meeting was held at
Silchar on 8 June 1947. Both the meetings, which were attended by a large section of Muslims paid dividend. He was also among the few who were instrumental in retaining the Barak Valley region of Assam, especially Karimganj with India. Mazumdar was the leader of the delegation that pleaded before the Radcliffe Commission that ensured that a part of
Sylhet (now in Bangladesh) join with India despite being Muslim-majority (present
Karimganj district). In return of that,
Moulvibazar the only Hindu-majority district of
Sylhet Division was given to
East Pakistan during partition. ==Demographics==