Goalpara district is an administrative

district A district is a type of administrative division that in some countries is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or county, counties, several municipality, municip ...

of the Indian state of

Assam Assam (, , ) is a state in Northeast India, northeastern India, south of the eastern Himalayas along the Brahmaputra Valley, Brahmaputra and Barak River valleys. Assam covers an area of . It is the second largest state in Northeast India, nor ...

History

It was a princely state ruled by the Koch kings and the then ruler of the undivided kingdom. Today the erstwhile Goalpara district is divided into

Kokrajhar Kokrajhar () is a town in the Bodoland Territorial Region, an Autonomous administrative divisions of India, autonomous territory in Assam, one of the Northeast India, North Eastern states of India. History Under the Kingdom of Bhutan From the ...

Bongaigaon Bongaigaon () is an industrial town in the Indian state of Assam. Its urban area spans across Bongaigaon and Chirang district. It also acts as the district headquarters of Bongaigaon district and commercial and industrial hub of the west par ...

, Dhubri, and Goalpara district. The name of the district

Goalpara Goalpara ) is a city and the district headquarters of Goalpara district, Assam, India. It is situated to the west of Guwahati. Etymology The name Goalpara is said to have originated from the word "Gwaltippika" meaning Guwali village, or "the ...

is said to have originally derived from 'Gwaltippika' meaning 'Guwali village' or the village of the milk men means (

Yadav Yadavs are a grouping of non-elite, peasant-pastoral Quote: "The Yadavs were traditionally a low-to-middle-ranking cluster of pastoral-peasant castes that have become a significant political force in Uttar Pradesh (and other northern states l ...

). The history of Goalpara goes back to several centuries. The district came under British rule in 1765. Before this, the area was under the control of the

Koch dynasty The Koch dynasty (; 1515–1949) ruled parts of eastern Indian subcontinent in present-day Assam and Bengal. Biswa Singha established power in the erstwhile Kamata Kingdom which had emerged from the decaying Kamarupa Kingdom. The dynasty c ...

. In 1826 the

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. * British national identity, the characteristics of British people and culture ...

accessed

and

was annexed to the

North-East Frontier Assam Province was a province of British India, created in 1912 by the partition of the Eastern Bengal and Assam Province. Its capital was in Shillong. The Assam territory was first separated from Bengal in 1874 as the 'North-East Frontier' ...

in 1874, along with the creation of district headquarters at Dhubri. On 1 July 1983 two districts were split from Goalpara: Dhubri and

. On 29 September 1989

Bongaigaon district Bongaigaon district (Prpn:ˈbɒŋgaɪˌgãʊ) is an administrative district in the state of Assam in northeastern India. The district headquarters are located at Bongaigaon. The district occupies an area of 1,093 km2. Etymology According ...

was created from parts of Goalpara and

Geography

The district headquarters are located at Goalpara. Goalpara district occupies an area of , comparatively equivalent to

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the southern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and borders North Korea along the Korean Demilitarized Zone, with the Yellow Sea to the west and t ...

's Jeju-do.

Economy

In 2006 the Indian government named Goalpara one of the country's 250 most backward districts (out of a total of

640 Year 640 ( DCXL) was a leap year starting on Saturday of the Julian calendar. The denomination 640 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming y ...

). It is one of the eleven districts in Assam currently receiving funds from the Backward Regions Grant Fund Programme (BRGF).

Political divisions

There are four

Assam Legislative Assembly The Assam Legislative Assembly is the unicameral Assam Legislature, legislature of the List of states and union territories of India, Indian state of Assam. It is housed in Dispur, the capital city of Assam, geographically situated in present L ...

constituencies in this district: Dudhnoi, Goalpara East, Goalpara West, and Jaleswar. Dudhnoi and Goalpara West are designated for scheduled tribes. Dudhnoi and Goalpara West are in the Gauhati Lok Sabha constituency, whilst the other two are in the Dhubri Lok Sabha constituency. Following are the present MLA's of Goalpara- *Goalpara East: AK Rasheed Alam ( INC) *Goalpara West: Abdur Rashid Mondal ( INC) *

Jaleswar Jaleswar is a town located in the Balasore district of Odisha, in India. It consists of 144 villages, with four major areas: Barabazar, Bada Bazar, Nua Bazar, Station Bazar, and Purana Bazar. Jaleswar is considered one of the new municipalit ...

: Aftabuddin ( INC) *Dudhnoi : Jadav Swargiary ( INC)( ST)

Demographics

According to the 2011 census Goalpara district has a population of 1,008,183, roughly equal to the nation of

Cyprus Cyprus (), officially the Republic of Cyprus, is an island country in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Situated in West Asia, its cultural identity and geopolitical orientation are overwhelmingly Southeast European. Cyprus is the List of isl ...

or the US state of

Montana Montana ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is bordered by Idaho to the west, North Dakota to the east, South Dakota to the southeast, Wyoming to the south, an ...

. of which 171,657 are children between 0–6 years of age. Goalpara has a sex ratio of 964 females for every 1000 males. The crude literacy rate of the district is 55.91%, while the effective literacy rate of 7+ population is 67.4%. 13.69% of the population lives in urban areas. Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes make up 4.47% and 22.97% of the population respectively.

Religions

Muslim population in Goalpara district is 57.52%, while Hindu population is 34.51% and Christian Population stands at 7.72% and others include 0.25% respectively as per as census 2011 report. All the Garos are Christian. Way back in 1971, Hindus were slight majority in Goalpara district with forming 50.1% of the population, while Muslims were 41.5% at that time.

Languages

At the time of the 2011 census, 51.78% of the population spoke Assamese, 28.83%

Bengali Bengali or Bengalee, or Bengalese may refer to: *something of, from, or related to Bengal, a large region in South Asia * Bengalis, an ethnic and linguistic group of the region * Bengali language, the language they speak ** Bengali alphabet, the w ...

, 7.56%

Garo Garo may refer to: People and languages * Garo people, a tribal people in India ** Garo language, the language spoken by the Garo tribe Places * Kingdom of Garo, a former kingdom in southern Ethiopia * Garo, Colorado * Garo Hills, part of the ...

, 5.16% Rabha, 3.53%

Boro BORO (Business Objects Reference Ontology) is an approach to developing ontological or semantic models for large complex operational applications that consists of a top ontology as well as a process for constructing the ontology. It was originally ...

and 0.94%

Hindi Modern Standard Hindi (, ), commonly referred to as Hindi, is the Standard language, standardised variety of the Hindustani language written in the Devanagari script. It is an official language of India, official language of the Government ...

as their first language.

speakers are 28.8% as per as 2011 census language census report, but Goalpara district is home to a large Miya Muslim population of

origin, most of whom now identify themselves as Assamese speakers in the census.

Tourism

Tourist spots in the district include: *

Sri Surya Pahar Sri Surya Pahar is located about 12 km southeast of Goalpara, about 132 km northwest of Guwahati, is a significant but relatively unknown archaeological site in Assam, India. Goalpara is the nearest city from the site. The site is a ...

, a significant but relatively unknown archaeological site in Assam, a hill which showcases the remains of cultural heritage of three important religions of India,

Buddhism Buddhism, also known as Buddhadharma and Dharmavinaya, is an Indian religion and List of philosophies, philosophical tradition based on Pre-sectarian Buddhism, teachings attributed to the Buddha, a wandering teacher who lived in the 6th or ...

Jainism Jainism ( ), also known as Jain Dharma, is an Indian religions, Indian religion whose three main pillars are nonviolence (), asceticism (), and a rejection of all simplistic and one-sided views of truth and reality (). Jainism traces its s ...

and

Hinduism Hinduism () is an Hypernymy and hyponymy, umbrella term for a range of Indian religions, Indian List of religions and spiritual traditions#Indian religions, religious and spiritual traditions (Sampradaya, ''sampradaya''s) that are unified ...

. *Dadan Hill has a Shiva Temple on its top. The temple was established by a general of the army of King Bana of Sonitpur named Dadan. *Pir Majhar is situated in Goalpara town, a tomb of a saint named Hazarat Sayed Abul Kasem Kharasani. He is a saint who was respected by Hindus and Muslims alike. *Pir Majhar is situated in Katarihara, Golapara, a tomb of a Muslim saint named Al Bakdadi. *Hulukanda hill is located at the center of Goalpara. *Sri Tukreswari hill *Paglartek Baba at Barbhita *Urpod beel of Agia *Dhamar Risen beel of Lakhipur, Goalpara are some other attractions of the district. *Hulukanda Hill, near Bramhaputra river in the town used to be the center of salt trading during British rule. Daniel Raush used to stay there.

References

External links

Goalpara District Official Website
{{Authority control Districts of Assam 1876 establishments in India Minority concentrated districts in India