Eidgaon () is an

upazila An ''upazila'' ( pronounced: ), formerly called ''thana'', is an administrative division in Bangladesh, functioning as a sub-unit of a district. It can be seen as an analogous to a county or a borough of Western countries. Rural upazilas ...

Cox's Bazar District Cox's Bazar District () is a district in the Chittagong Division of Bangladesh. It is named after Cox's Bazar town. It is located south of Chittagong. Cox's Bazar is also known by the names ''Panowa'' ("yellow flower") and ''Palongkee''. T ...

in the Division of

Chittagong Chittagong ( ), officially Chattogram, (, ) (, or ) is the second-largest city in Bangladesh. Home to the Port of Chittagong, it is the busiest port in Bangladesh and the Bay of Bengal. The city is also the business capital of Bangladesh. It ...

Bangladesh Bangladesh, officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, eighth-most populous country in the world and among the List of countries and dependencies by ...

. Combined with the adjoining unions of Chowfaldandi and Varuakhali, it forms the traditional region of Greater Eidgaon.

Geography

Eidgaon Upazila is bounded by Ramu Upazila to the east, Cox's Bazar Sadar Upazila to its south, Maheshkhali Upazila to its west, and Chakaria Upazila to its north. It has a total area of .

History

The present-day Eidgaon area of the upazila was formerly known as Nayabad. Greater Nayabad/Eidgaon encompassed the current Eidgaon Upazilas as well as the unions of Chowfaldandi and Varuakhali. The Mughal prince Shah Shuja set off with his forces to

Arakan Arakan ( or ; , ), formerly anglicised as Aracan, is the historical geographical name for the northeastern coastal region of the Bay of Bengal, covering present-day Bangladesh and Myanmar. The region was called "Arakan" for centuries. It is ...

after being defeated in the war of imperial succession. They passed through Nayabad on the day of

Eid al-Fitr Eid al-Fitr () is the first of the two main Islamic holidays, festivals in Islam, the other being Eid al-Adha. It falls on the first day of Shawwal, the tenth month of the Islamic calendar. Eid al-Fitr is celebrated by Muslims worldwide becaus ...

, where they performed

Eid prayers Eid prayers, also referred to as Salat al-Eid (), are holy holiday prayers in the Islamic tradition. The literal translation of the word "Eid" in Arabic is "festival" or "feast" and is a time when Muslims congregate with family and the larger ...

. From this event, the Nayabad area came to be known as Eidgaon (the village of Eid). Some elders have located the place of this incident to be an

eidgah Eidgah or Idgah, also Eid Gah or Id Gah ( "site of Eid bservances; ; ; ; ) is a term used in South Asian Islamic culture for the open-air enclosure usually outside the city (or at the outskirts) reserved for Eid prayers offered in the morning ...

in the village of Yusufer Khil in Islamabad Union. In the 1900s, Khan Saheb Muzaffar Ahmad Chowdhury was the principal

zamindar A zamindar in the Indian subcontinent was an autonomous or semi-autonomous feudal lord of a ''zamindari'' (feudal estate). The term itself came into use during the Mughal Empire, when Persian was the official language; ''zamindar'' is the ...

of Eidgaon. His capital was at Chowfaldandi (presently in Cox's Bazar Sadar Upazila), where his palace can still be seen in Khamarpara and the stairs of his kachari in the hills. Chowdhury disappeared after setting off for

Hajj Hajj (; ; also spelled Hadj, Haj or Haji) is an annual Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca, Saudi Arabia, the holiest city for Muslims. Hajj is a mandatory religious duty for capable Muslims that must be carried out at least once in their lifetim ...

in 1937. He was succeeded by his grandson Mostaq Ahmad Chowdhury and Kaniz Fatimah Ahmad. Other zamindars of the area included Muhammad Shiqdar, the Amir of Masuakhali, who is credited for the development of the Eidgaon Bazar Central Mosque in 1946. It was first established by his father, Magan Ali Shiqdar, in 1905 at his own wooden cottage house near a pond. Tayyabullah Faraizi of Farazipara became the dominant zamindar of greater Eidgaon in the 1960s during the rule of Ayub Khan. In the 1970s, administration fell in the hands of Nurul Islam Chowdhury (Bedar Miah) of Shiqdarpara, better known as Bedar Mian. Other members were Jalal Ahmad Faraizi, Muzaffar Ahmad Member, Abu Khalifah, Moulvi Sayyid Nur, Moulvi Siddiq Khalwi, who distrusted Bedar Mian. After, Greater Eidgaon was divided into three unions; Eidgaon, Chowfaldandi and Pokkhali. Chowfaldandi was later divided into Chowfaldandi and Varuakhali, and Pokkhali was divided into Pokkhali and Islampur. By 1990, the Eidgaon Union was also divided into three unions; Islamabad, Jalalabad and (reduced) Eidgaon. A memorandum was sent to the Cox's Bazar District Commissioner for the declaration of Eidgaon as a separate upazila on 22 July 2019. The National Implementation Committee for Administrative Reorganization-Reform (NICAR) established Eidgaon as a

thana Thana means " station" or "place" in South Asian countries. The word ''thana'' originates from the Sanskrit word ''sthana'' or "sthanak", meaning "place" or "stand", which was anglicized as ''thana'' by the British. * Thanas of Bangladesh, forme ...

on 21 October 2019. On 26 July 2021, Khandker Anwarul Islam upgraded the status of Eidgaon to an upazila, consisting of the northern five unions of the Cox's Bazar Sadar Upazila.

Administration

The upazila is made up of five

union parishad Union council (), also known as union parishad, rural council, rural union and simply union, is the smallest rural administrative and local government unit in Bangladesh, with zila parishads (district councils) being the largest rural authori ...

s: # Islampur Union # Pokkhali Union # Islamabad Union # Eidgaon Union # Jalalabad Union

Demographics

As of the

2022 Bangladeshi census The 2022 Bangladeshi census () was a detailed enumeration of the Bangladeshi population constituting the sixth national census in the country. It was scheduled to be held in June 2022, was conducted by the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics, and th ...

, Eidgaon upazila had a population of 1,49,566. 34,086 (28.33%) were under 10 years of age. Eidgaon had an average literacy rate of 45.98%, compared to the national average of 51.8%, and a sex ratio of 982 females per 1000 males. 56,045 (46.58%) of the population lived in urban areas. The people of the Greater Eidgaon region (Eidgaon Upazila, Chowfaldandi and Varuakhali) maintain a distinct identity in addition to their regional, ethnic and religious identities, due to their geographical and historical heritage. Before 2021, greater Eidgaon was divided into many unions but the people continued to refer to themselves to be "from Eidgaon" even to the people of Cox's Bazar, even if they weren't from the reduced "Eidgaon Union".

Education

Khan Saheb Muzaffar Ahmad Chowdhury, the zamindar of Eidgaon in the 1900s, established the ME School in Eidgaon. This school has now evolved into the Eidgaon Model High School and Eidgaon Government Primary School. Chowdhury also established the Eidgaon Almasia Madrasa, named after his wife, Almas Khatun. The

madrasa Madrasa (, also , ; Arabic: مدرسة , ), sometimes Romanization of Arabic, romanized as madrasah or madrassa, is the Arabic word for any Educational institution, type of educational institution, secular or religious (of any religion), whet ...

is now at Kamil degree status.

Notable people

* Mohammad Nurul Huda, Poet & Director General of

Bangla Academy The Bangla Academy (, ) is the official regulatory body of the Bengali language in Bangladesh. It is an autonomous institution funded by the Government of Bangladesh that fosters the Bengali language, literature and culture, works to develop an ...

* Mostaq Ahmad Chowdhury, Former Member of Parliament * Helal Uddin Ahmed, Former Senior Secretary

References

{{Upazilas of Chittagong Division Eidgaon Upazila