Cachardistrict is an administrative district in the state of Assam in India. After independence, the pre-existing undivided Cachar district was split into four districts: Dima Hasao, Hailakandi, Karimganj, and the current Cachar district. Silchar is Cachar district's center of government.
Silchar is a city and the headquarters of the Cachar district of the state of Assam, India. It is second largest city of North Eastern Region after Guwahati in terms of area, population and GDP. It is also administrative capital of Barak Valley division. It is located 343 kilometres south east of Guwahati. It was founded by Captain Thomas Fisher in 1832 when he shifted the headquarters of Cachar to Janiganj in Silchar. It earned the moniker "Island of Peace" from Indira Gandhi, the then Prime Minister of India. Silchar is the site of the world's first polo club and the first competitive polo match. In 1985, an Air India flight from Kolkata to Silchar became the world's first all-women crew flight. Silchar was a tea town and Cachar club was the meeting point for tea planters.
Events in the year 1961 in the Republic of India.
The Barak Valley is the southernmost region and administrative division of the Indian state of Assam. It is named after the Barak river. The Barak valley consists of three administrative districts of Assam namely - Cachar, Karimganj, and Hailakandi. The main and largest city is Silchar, which seats the headquarter of Cachar district and also serves as administrative divisional office of Barak valley division. The valley is bordered by Mizoram and Tripura to the south, Bangladesh and Meghalaya to the west and Manipur to the east respectively. Once North Cachar Hills was a part of Cachar district which became a subdivision in 1951 and eventually a separate district. On 1 July 1983, Karimganj district was curved out from the eponymous subdivision of Cachar district. In 1989 the subdivision of Hailakandi was upgraded into Hailakandi district.
Assam University is a collegiate central public university located at Silchar, Assam, India. It was founded in the year 1994 by the provisions of an act enacted by the Parliament of India. Air Chief Marshal Arup Raha is the Chancellor, the Governor of Assam is the Chief Rector and the President of India is acting as the Visitor of the university. The university has sixteen schools which offer Humanities, Languages, Environmental Sciences, Information Sciences, Life Sciences, Physical Sciences, Social Sciences, Law, Technology and Management Studies. There are 42 departments under these sixteen schools. The five districts under the jurisdiction of Assam University have 73 undergraduate colleges as of 31 March 2020. Assam University is an institutional signatory to the Global Universities Network for Innovation (GUNI), Barcelona and United Nations Global Compact (UNGC) for its commitment to educational social responsibilities.
Martyrs' Day are days declared in India to honour recognised martyrs of the nation.
The Bengali Language Movement of Barak Valley was a protest against the decision of the Government of Assam to make Assamese the only sole official language of the state, even though most Barak Valley residents speak Bengali. About 80% of the Valley's residents are ethnic Bengalis. In the Barak Valley region, the ethnic Bengali population consists of both Hindus and Muslims, who are almost equal in population and constitute the overwhelming majority of the population. There is also a substantial minority of native tribals and immigrants from other parts of India. The main incident took place on 19 May 1961 at Silchar railway station in which 11 ethnic Bengalis were killed by the Assam police.
The Cachar Express was a daily Indian Railways metre-gauge overnight express train from Lumding Junction to Silchar and vice versa, both stations are situated in the Indian state of Assam. The train was numbered as 15691 and 15692 respectively. The train service is suspended now as the route in which it used to run is now converted from metre gauge to broad gauge.
Moinul Hoque Choudhury was an Indian politician from Assam. A five-time MLA; he was the Minister of Commerce and Industrial Development during Indira Gandhi regime in 1971. He is also known as the Industrial Reformer of the Barak Valley.
Kamala Bhattacharya was an Indian student who was martyred in the Bengali Language Movement in Silchar in 1961.
Nibaran Chandra Laskar was an Indian politician belonging to the Indian National Congress. He was elected to the Lok Sabha lower house of the Parliament of India from the Cachar, Assam in 1952 and 1957. Laskar was also a member of the Constituent Assembly of India.
Sachindra Chandra Pal was an Indian student who took part in the Bengali Language Movement in Silchar. He was killed on 19 May 1961. Sachindra Paul Road in Silchar is named in his memory.
The Sylheti or Sylhetis are an Indo-Aryan ethnocultural group that are associated with the Sylhet region. There are strong diasporic communities in Barak Valley of Assam, India, North Tripura, as well as in rest of Bangladesh and northeast India. They speak Sylheti, an Eastern Indo-Aryan language that is considered "a distinct language by many and a dialect of Bengali by some others".
Tarani Debnath was a Bengali who took part in the Bengali Language Movement in the Barak Valley in 1961 and became a martyr. On 19 May 1961, while participating in a satyagraha demanding the official status for Bengali language in Barak Valley, he was shot dead by the paramilitary forces.
Badarpur Railway Station serves the Indian city of Badarpur in Assam. It belongs to Lumding railway division of Northeast Frontier Railway of India. It is located at Cachar district in the state of Assam. It is one of the oldest station of India built in 1898. The Station connects Badarpur to other regions of Barak Valley as well as many parts of India.
Silchar railway station is a railway station situated at Tarapur, Silchar in Assam. The railway station falls under the jurisdiction of the Northeast Frontier Railway zone of the Indian Railways. The railway gauge functioned here is broad gauge. The station consists of single diesel line". It is one of the oldest railway station in India built under Assam Bengal Railway. The station has three platforms with a total of 14 originating trains. It serves Silchar, as well as the whole Barak Valley. Trains operate to different cities of India from Silchar including Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai, Visakhapatnam, Kanpur, Patna, Prayagraj, Hyderabad, Coimbatore, Vijayawada, Guwahati, Bhubaneswar, Thiruvananthapuram & Agartala. As of now, 170 stations across India are directly connected to Silchar railway station.
Udharbond is a Tehsil or Block in Cachar district in the state of Assam, India. It is located 17 km from District headquarters Silchar.
ʿAbdul Jalil Choudhury Badarpuri was a Bengali Deobandi Islamic scholar, teacher and politician. Born in what is now Bangladesh, Choudhury became one of the senior disciples of Hussain Ahmed Madani from Sylhet District. He relocated to Badarpur, Karimganj following the Partition of Bengal in 1947 and served as a member of the Assam Legislative Assembly for several terms. Choudhury has many contributions in Northeast India, covering Islamic and social development, and had participated in the Bengali Language Movement of the Barak Valley.
Bengali Hindus are the second-largest Hindu community just after Assamese Hindus in Assam. As per as estimation research, around 6–7.5 million Bengali Hindus live in Assam as of 2011, majority of whom live in Barak Valley and a significant population also resides in Assam's mainland Brahmaputra/Assam valley. Most Bengalis in Assamese-dominated Brahmaputra valley are immigrants from neighbouring East Bengal and Tripura, while Bengalis in Barak Valley region of Assam are mostly native. Assam host the second-largest Bengali Hindu population in India after West Bengal.
Discrimination against Bengalis in India comprises negative attitudes and views on Bengalis in India. Though Bengalis have lived in different parts of India for centuries, they are subject to widespread discrimination. This can be either by any other community or in any particular place, due to reasons like inhabitation, discriminating sentiments, political reasons, Government actions, anti-Bangladeshi sentiment etc. The discriminative condition of Bengalis can be traced from Khoirabari massacre, Nellie massacre, Silapathar massacre, North Kamrup massacre, Goreswar massacre, Bongal Kheda etc. This has led to emergence of Bengali sub-nationalism in India as a form of protest and formation of many pro-Bengali organisations in India.
