Karimganj district, officially Sribhumi district, is one of the 35

districts 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 counties, several municipalities, subdivisions ...

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 ...

. The district's administrative headquarters and largest town is

Karimganj Karimganj, officially Sribhumi, is a town in the Karimganj district of the Indian States and territories of India, state of Assam. It is the administrative headquarters of the district. Karimganj town is located at . The area of Karimganj Tow ...

. Located in southern Assam, it shares borders with the Indian state of

Tripura Tripura () is a States and union territories of India, state in northeastern India. The List of states and union territories of India by area, third-smallest state in the country, it covers ; and the seventh-least populous state with a populat ...

and the

Sylhet Division Sylhet Division () is a northeastern Divisions of Bangladesh, division of Bangladesh, renowned for its lush tea gardens, rolling hills and vibrant cultural heritage. Covering an area of approximately 12,298 square kilometres, it is bordered by t ...

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 ...

. Alongside Hailakandi and

Cachar Cachar district 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 (formerly North Cachar Hills), Hailakandi, Karimganj, and the ...

, it forms the Barak Valley region. Historically, the area was part of

Sylhet District Sylhet District (), located in north-east Bangladesh, is one of the four districts in Sylhet Division, which contains Sylhet, the regional capital. History Sylhet District was established on 3 January 1782, and until 1878 it was part of Benga ...

before the

Partition of India The partition of India in 1947 was the division of British India into two independent dominion states, the Dominion of India, Union of India and Dominion of Pakistan. The Union of India is today the Republic of India, and the Dominion of Paki ...

in 1947. It was later designated as a separate district in 1983.

Etymology

Rabindranath Tagore Rabindranath Thakur (; anglicised as Rabindranath Tagore ; 7 May 1861 – 7 August 1941) was a Bengalis, Bengali polymath who worked as a poet, writer, playwright, composer, philosopher, social reformer, and painter of the Bengal Renai ...

referred to the region as ''Sribhumi'' (), and in November 2024, the district was officially renamed to reflect Tagore's vision. Previously known as Karimganj, the district derived its name from Muhammad Karim Chowdhury, a Bengali Muslim mirashdar who established a bazaar (market) near the confluence of the Natikhal and Kushiyara rivers.

History

1700s and 1800s

In 1778, Karimganj was established as a subdivision of the undivided

Sylhet district Sylhet District (), located in north-east Bangladesh, is one of the four districts in Sylhet Division, which contains Sylhet, the regional capital. History Sylhet District was established on 3 January 1782, and until 1878 it was part of Benga ...

, comprising 40

pargana Pargana or parganah, also spelt pergunnah, equivalent to Mohallah as a subunit of Subah (Suba), was a type of former administrative division in the Indian subcontinent during the time of the Delhi Sultanate, Mughal and British Colonial empire ...

s. The name "Karimganj" is derived from Muhammad Karim Chowdhury, a

Bengali Muslim Bengali Muslims (; ) 'Mussalman'' also used in this work./ref> are adherents of Islam who ethnically, linguistically and genealogically identify as Bengalis. Comprising over 70% of the global Bengali population, they are the second-largest ...

'' mirashdar'' who established a

bazaar A bazaar or souk is a marketplace consisting of multiple small Market stall, stalls or shops, especially in the Middle East, the Balkans, Central Asia, North Africa and South Asia. They are traditionally located in vaulted or covered streets th ...

(market) south of the confluence of the Natikhal and Kushiyara River. However, due to the Natikhal drying up during autumn, the market was relocated in the 1870s to what is now the town of

1900s

During the

partition of India The partition of India in 1947 was the division of British India into two independent dominion states, the Dominion of India, Union of India and Dominion of Pakistan. The Union of India is today the Republic of India, and the Dominion of Paki ...

in 1947, a

plebiscite A referendum, plebiscite, or ballot measure is a direct vote by the electorate (rather than their representatives) on a proposal, law, or political issue. A referendum may be either binding (resulting in the adoption of a new policy) or adv ...

was held to determine whether the Sylhet region, including Karimganj, would remain in India or join

East Pakistan East Pakistan was the eastern province of Pakistan between 1955 and 1971, restructured and renamed from the province of East Bengal and covering the territory of the modern country of Bangladesh. Its land borders were with India and Burma, wit ...

. Abdul Matlib Mazumdar led a delegation advocating for the region to remain with India. However, due to demands from the Muslim League and support from Assam's political leaders at the time, the plebiscite resulted in Sylhet's transfer to Pakistan by a narrow margin. Allegations of

electoral fraud Electoral fraud, sometimes referred to as election manipulation, voter fraud, or vote rigging, involves illegal interference with the process of an election, either by increasing the vote share of a favored candidate, depressing the vote share o ...

and irregularities were raised, but the results stood. Following the partition, Sylhet was incorporated into

, while Karimganj was divided, with part of it remaining in India to ensure connectivity with

. The Kushiyara River was established as the international border between India and Pakistan. Portions of Greater Karimganj, including Beani-Bazar, Barlekha, Shahpur, and Zakiganj, became part of Pakistan.

2000s

On 21 November 2024, Karimganj district was officially renamed Sribhumi to honour

, who had described the region as the land of goddess

Lakshmi Lakshmi (; , , sometimes spelled Laxmi, ), also known as Shri (, , ), is one of the principal goddesses in Hinduism, revered as the goddess of wealth, fortune, prosperity, beauty, fertility, sovereignty, and abundance. She along with Parvat ...

Geography

Karimganj district occupies an area of , comparatively equivalent to

Alaska Alaska ( ) is a non-contiguous U.S. state on the northwest extremity of North America. Part of the Western United States region, it is one of the two non-contiguous U.S. states, alongside Hawaii. Alaska is also considered to be the north ...

Afognak Island Afognak (Alutiiq: ''Agw’aneq''; ) is an island in the Kodiak Archipelago north of Kodiak Island in the U.S. state of Alaska. It is long from east to west and wide from north to south and has a land area of , making it the 18th largest i ...

. It is bordered on the northeast by

Cachar District Cachar district is an administrative districts of Assam, district in the state of Assam in India. After independence, the pre-existing undivided Cachar district was split into four districts: Dima Hasao district, Dima Hasao (formerly North Cachar ...

, east and south by Hailakandi District, south by

Mizoram Mizoram is a states and union territories of India, state in northeastern India, with Aizawl as its Capital city, capital and largest city. It shares 722-kilometres (449 miles) of international borders with Bangladesh to the west, and Myanmar t ...

, southwest by

state, and on the west and northwest by

, the administrative headquarters and main town of the district, also bears the same name. Karimganj town is located on the northern fringe of the district adjoining Bangladesh by the Kushiyara River. Its distance from

Guwahati Guwahati () the largest city of the Indian state of Assam, and also the largest metropolis in northeastern India. Dispur, the capital of Assam, is in the circuit city region located within Guwahati and is the seat of the Government of Assam. Th ...

– the largest city of

- is approximately 330 km by road and about 350 km by rail. Distances to other important cities are as follows:

Silchar Silchar is a city and the headquarters of the Cachar district of the state of Assam, India. It is second largest city of Assam after Guwahati in terms of population and GDP. It is also administrative capital of Barak Valley division. It is locate ...

– 55 km,

Shillong Shillong (, ) is a hill station and the capital of Meghalaya, a Indian state, state in northeastern India. It is the headquarters of the East Khasi Hills district. Shillong is the list of most populous cities in India, 330th most populous city ...

– 220 km,

Agartala Agartala (, , ) is the capital and the List of cities and towns in Tripura, largest city of the States and union territories of India, Indian state of Tripura, situated on the banks of Haora River, Haora/Saidra River, about east of the border ...

– 250 km. Flanked on two sides by the Kushiyara and Longai rivers, Karimganj town is located just on the Bangladesh border, with the Kushiyara river flowing in between. One prominent feature of the place is a long and winding canal called Noti Khal, meandering through the town. Earlier, it used to be a connecting riverway between Kushiyara and Longai, facilitating river communication and also balancing water levels between the two rivers. Now, however, this canal has been blocked at several places through embankments and landfills to pave the way for road transport and construction works. Karimganj and the Barak valley have been prone to serious

flooding A flood is an overflow of water ( or rarely other fluids) that submerges land that is usually dry. In the sense of "flowing water", the word may also be applied to the inflow of the tide. Floods are of significant concern in agriculture, civi ...

for decades. The recent floods that caused significant damage were in 1976, 1988, and 2007.

Wildlife

The forests of Karimganj were once rich in wildlife but are now vanishing due to hunting, deforestation, and urbanization.Talukdar, N.R., Choudhury, P. (2017). Conserving wildlife wealth of Patharia Hills reserve Forest, Assam, India: a critical analysis. ''Global Ecology and Conservation'' 10:126–138. Rare species found in the region include the Tiger,

Hoolock gibbon The hoolock gibbons are three primate species of genus ''Hoolock'' in the gibbon family, Hylobatidae, native to eastern Bangladesh, Northeast India, Myanmar, and Southwest China. Description Hoolocks are the second-largest of the gibbons, after ...

, Porcupine, Golden Langur, Monkey, Fox, Asian Elephant, Giant river otter, macaws, parrots, Parakeets,

Hornbill Hornbills are birds found in tropical and subtropical Africa, Asia and Melanesia of the family Bucerotidae. They are characterized by a long, down-curved bill which is frequently brightly coloured and sometimes has a horny casque on the upper ...

, different types of local and migratory birds, Snakes,

Capybara The capybara or greater capybara (''Hydrochoerus hydrochaeris'') is the largest living rodent, native to South America. It is a member of the genus '' Hydrochoerus''. The only other extant member is the lesser capybara (''Hydrochoerus isthmi ...

, etc. These animals are found mostly in the Patharia Hills reserve forest. Many have suggested it be named an official wildlife sanctuary due to its biodiversity, with another sanctuary being created in the southern part of the forest named Dhaleswari Wildlife Sanctuary.

Economy

The town of Karimganj is an important centre of trade and commerce in

northeastern India Northeast India, officially the North Eastern Region (NER), is the easternmost region of India representing both a geographic and political administrative division of the country. It comprises eight states—Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, M ...

. Its river port is capable of handling large volumes of cargo carried by ships coming through rivers via

. Karimganj is also a border trade centre and import-export business worth crores of rupees carried out through the custom trade point at Dakbangla Ghat in the town and the Sutarkandi Custom Station. Karimganj is an agricultural district. Historically,

tea Tea is an aromatic beverage prepared by pouring hot or boiling water over cured or fresh leaves of '' Camellia sinensis'', an evergreen shrub native to East Asia which probably originated in the borderlands of south-western China and nor ...

has been the major agricultural product of the

region including Karimganj.

Administration

Divisions

Karimganj District has one sub-division. The district has 5 circles (also known as tehsils),

, Badarpur, Nilambazar, Patharkandi and Ramkrishna Nagar, two cities

and Patharkandi, 7 police stations (Karimganj, Badarpur, Ramkrishna Nagar, Patharkandi, Ratabari, Nilambazar, and Bazarichara), 95 gram panchayats.

Politics

There are five

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: Ratabari, Patharkandi, Karimganj North, Karimganj South, and Badarpur, with Ratabari being designated for scheduled castes. All five are in the Karimganj Lok Sabha constituency.

Transport

The nearest airport is Kumbhirgram (85 km) near

, in

. Karimganj town is also an important river port and has seasonal cargo and freight transport links with

Kolkata Kolkata, also known as Calcutta ( its official name until 2001), is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of West Bengal. It lies on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River, west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary ...

through river ways via

Railway

Karimganj town is linked via both rail and road transport with the rest of India. Karimganj town has a railway junction, with

broad gauge A broad-gauge railway is a railway with a track gauge (the distance between the rails) broader than the used by standard-gauge railways. Broad gauge of , more known as Russian gauge, is the dominant track gauge in former Soviet Union countries ...

lines connecting Assam with

pass through this station. Badarpur railway station is the biggest junction of the district.

Road

The most popular mode of passenger transport is road. A good number of buses - mostly night services - ply between Karimganj and

daily. Direct long-distance bus services are also available to

, and

Aizawl Aizawl (, American English, US: , British English, UK: ; Mizo language, Mizo: ), formerly known as Aijal, is the capital city and the most populous city of Mizoram, India. It is also the third largest city in northeast India. It is situated ato ...

. Communication with Silchar, Badarpur, Patharkandi and other nearby places is also mainly dependent on road transport, with services by all sorts of light and heavy vehicles available at frequent intervals.

Sutarkandi international border crossing

The district is home to the Sutarkandi International border crossing, which is on

Bangladesh–India border The Bangladesh–India border, known locally as the Radcliffe line, is an international boundary, international border running between the republics of Bangladesh and India. Six Divisions of Bangladesh, Bangladeshi divisions and five States and ...

on Karimganj- Beanibazar route.

Demographics

According to the 2011 census, Karimganj district has a

population Population is a set of humans or other organisms in a given region or area. Governments conduct a census to quantify the resident population size within a given jurisdiction. The term is also applied to non-human animals, microorganisms, and pl ...

of 1,228,686, roughly equal to the nation of

Bahrain Bahrain, officially the Kingdom of Bahrain, is an island country in West Asia. Situated on the Persian Gulf, it comprises a small archipelago of 50 natural islands and an additional 33 artificial islands, centered on Bahrain Island, which mak ...

or the US state of

New Hampshire New Hampshire ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Gulf of Maine to the east, and the Canadian province of Quebec t ...

. This gives it a ranking of 392nd in India (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 ...

). The district has a population density of . Its

population growth rate Population growth is the increase in the number of people in a population or dispersed group. The global population has grown from 1 billion in 1800 to 8.2 billion in 2025. Actual global human population growth amounts to around 70 million annu ...

over the decade 2001-2011 was 20.74%. Karimganj has a

sex ratio A sex ratio is the ratio of males to females in a population. As explained by Fisher's principle, for evolutionary reasons this is typically about 1:1 in species which reproduce sexually. However, many species deviate from an even sex ratio, ei ...

of 961

females An organism's sex is female (symbol: ♀) if it produces the ovum (egg cell), the type of gamete (sex cell) that fuses with the male gamete (sperm cell) during sexual reproduction. A female has larger gametes than a male. Females and male ...

for every 1,000 males, and a

literacy rate Literacy is the ability to read and write, while illiteracy refers to an inability to read and write. Some researchers suggest that the study of "literacy" as a concept can be divided into two periods: the period before 1950, when literacy was ...

of 79.72%. 8.93% of the population lives in urban areas. Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes make up 12.85% and 0.16% of the population respectively.

Religion

Religious demographics are as follows: *

Muslims Muslims () are people who adhere to Islam, a Monotheism, monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God ...

(

) - 692,489 *

Hindus Hindus (; ; also known as Sanātanīs) are people who religiously adhere to Hinduism, also known by its endonym Sanātana Dharma. Jeffery D. Long (2007), A Vision for Hinduism, IB Tauris, , pp. 35–37 Historically, the term has also be ...

(

) - 521,962 *

Christians A Christian () is a person who follows or adheres to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. Christians form the largest religious community in the world. The words '' Christ'' and ''C ...

() - 11,990. According to 2011 Indian Census, the

form a slight majority in the district constituting 56.4% of the population, with

at 42.5% of the population, followed by 1.0%

. Small populations of Jain,

Buddhists Buddhism, also known as Buddhadharma and Dharmavinaya, is an Indian religion and philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha, a wandering teacher who lived in the 6th or 5th century BCE. It is the world's fourth ...

and

Sikhs Sikhs (singular Sikh: or ; , ) are an ethnoreligious group who adhere to Sikhism, a religion that originated in the late 15th century in the Punjab region of the Indian subcontinent, based on the revelation of Guru Nanak. The term ''Sikh'' ...

also reside in the district.

Language

Bengali and Meitei ( Manipuri) are the official languages of Karimganj district. According to the 2011 census, 86.84% of the district spoke Bengali, 5.70%

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 ...

, 2.00% Bishnupriya and 1.65%

Bhojpuri Bhojpuri may refer to: * Bhojpuri language, an Indo-Aryan language of India and Nepal * Bhojpuri grammar, grammatical rules of the language * Bhojpuri nouns, nouns of the language * Bhojpuri people, people who speak the language * Bhojpuri region ...

as their first language. Bengali is the official language in Karimganj along with the other two districts of Barak valley which includes, Hailakandi and Cachar. Although Bengali is the official language, the most common spoken language is Sylheti, often considered as a dialect of Bengali. It is also spoken in other districts of the Barak Valley. Notable minority languages include Bishnupriya and Meitei, Dimasa, and

Kokborok Kokborok (or Tripuri) is a Tibeto-Burman language of the Indian state of Tripura and neighbouring areas of Bangladesh. Its name comes from ''kók'' meaning "verbal" or "language" and ''borok'' meaning "people" or "human", It is one of the anci ...

. There are also small tribal communities like Hrangkhol, Kuki, Khasi, and Sakachep.

Notable people

* Jamal Uddin Ahmed - former MLA of Karimganj South (2001-2006, 2011-2021) * Siddique Ahmed - MLA of Badarpur * Syed Mujtaba Ali - author, journalist, travel enthusiast, academic, scholar and linguist *

Syed Murtaza Ali Syed Murtaza Ali (1 July 1902 – 9 August 1981) was a Bangladeshi writer. He was the elder brother of writer and linguist Syed Mujtaba Ali. He is noted for his works relating to the histories of Chittagong, Sylhet and Jaintia. Background and ...

- author, and historian * Radheshyam Biswas - former MP for

* Abdul Munim Choudhury - former MLA of Karimganj South * Achyut Charan Choudhury - historian * Khaled Choudhury - theatre personality * Najib Ali Choudhury - Islamic scholar and founder of Assam's first madrasa ( Madinatul Uloom Bagbari) * Dwarka Nath Das - former MP for

* Mission Ranjan Das - former MLA of Karimganj North (1991–1996, 1999–2006),

Rajya Sabha Rajya Sabha (Council of States) is the upper house of the Parliament of India and functions as the institutional representation of India’s federal units — the states and union territories.https://rajyasabha.nic.in/ It is a key component o ...

MP (2024- ) * Nepal Chandra Das - former MP for

* Gurusaday Dutt - civil servant, folklorist, and writer * Ketaki Prasad Dutta - former president of the District Sports Association, Karimganj * Shukhendu Shekhar Dutta - former MLA of Patharkandi * Zohurul Hoque - translator of the Qur'an into Bengali, Assamese and English * Adam Khaki - 14th-century Sufi missionary * Aziz Ahmed Khan - former MLA of Karimganj South * Bijoy Malakar - MLA of Ratabari * Kripanath Mallah - MP of

, former Deputy Speaker in the

* Sambhu Sing Mallah - former MLA of Ratabari * Abu Saleh Najmuddin - former MLA of Badarpur (1991–1996, 1996–2001), and former Minister of

. * Krishnendu Paul - present MLA of Patharkandi * Kamalakhya Dey Purkayastha - MLA of Karimganj North * Ramapayare Rabidas - former MLA of Ratabari * Kartik Sena Sinha - former MLA of Patharkandi * Lalit Mohan Suklabaidya - former MP for

Sananta Tanty Sananta Tanty (4 November 1952 – 25 November 2021) was an Indian poet of Assamese literature. Tanty was born to an Odia family in Kalinagar Tea Estate. Tanty completed his secondary education at a Bengali-medium school but continued his lite ...

- poet * Madhusudhan Tiwari - former MLA of Patharkandi (1991–1996)

Notes

References

External links

Karimganj District official website

KarimganjTown

Karimganj District KARIMGANJ ONLINE

{{DEFAULTSORT:Karimganj District Districts of Assam 1983 establishments in Assam Minority concentrated districts in India