Muradnagar () 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 ...

Comilla District Comilla District, officially known as Cumilla District, () is a district located in southeastern Bangladesh. It lies about southeast of Dhaka. Comilla is bordered by Brahmanbaria District, Brahmanbaria and Narayanganj District, Narayanganj dis ...

Chattogram Division Chittagong Division (), officially Chattogram Division, is geographically the largest of the eight administrative divisions of Bangladesh. It covers the southeasternmost areas of the country, with a total area of and a population according to th ...

, Bangladesh.

History

In ancient times, the area was a part of the geopolitical region of

Samatata Samataṭa (Brahmi script: ''sa-ma-ta-ṭa'') was an ancient geopolitical division of Bengal in the eastern Indian subcontinent. The Greco-Roman world, Greco-Roman account of Sounagoura is linked to the kingdom of Samatata. Its territory corres ...

ruled by the Rata dynasty. In the late 20th century, an irrigation canal was being dug in Urishwar, Paharpur Union. During the process, three copper plate inscriptions were discovered, surrounded by old potsherds, supposedly belonging to the Rata dynasty of Samatata. Muradnagar was previously known as Tholla. During the

Mughal period The Mughal Empire was an early modern empire in South Asia. At its peak, the empire stretched from the outer fringes of the Indus River Basin in the west, northern Afghanistan in the northwest, and Kashmir in the north, to the highlands of pre ...

, the area was under the Balda Khal

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 ...

. After the arrival of the

East India Company The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company that was founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to Indian Ocean trade, trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (South A ...

, a number of rebellions and peasant movements took place in Tholla. The 19th-century

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 ...

Mir Ashraf Ali Shirazi had a house in Tholla. In 1858, Tholla was established 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 ...

and in 1878, Tholla was renamed to Muradnagar. It was named after the revenue collector Mir Murad Ali.

Khwaja Salimullah Nawab Sir Khwaja Salimullah Bahadur (7 June 1871 – 16 January 1915) was the fourth Nawab of Dhaka and one of the leading Muslim politicians during the British rule in India. On 30 December 1906, the All-India Muslim League was officially ...

, the

Nawab of Dhaka The Nawab of Dhaka (Bengali: "ঢাকার নবাব"), originally spelt in English Nawab of Dacca, was the title of the head of one of the largest Muslim zamindar in British Bengal and Assam, based in present-day Dhaka, Bangladesh. The t ...

donated towards the Muradnagar High School in 1903. In 1941, Captain Narendranath Dutta founded the Sreekail College, an institution of nationwide importance. Many Muradnagari pro-independence fighters were killed during the

Bangladesh War of Independence The Bangladesh Liberation War (, ), also known as the Bangladesh War of Independence, was an War, armed conflict sparked by the rise of the Bengali nationalism, Bengali nationalist and self-determination movement in East Pakistan, which res ...

in 1971 during clashes with the

Pakistan Army The Pakistan Army (, ), commonly known as the Pak Army (), is the Land warfare, land service branch and the largest component of the Pakistan Armed Forces. The president of Pakistan is the Commander-in-chief, supreme commander of the army. The ...

. The thana was upgraded to an upazila in 1983.

Geography

Muradnagar is located at . It has 101,809 households covering a total area of 340.73 km².

Demographics

According to the

2011 Census of Bangladesh In 2011, the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics conducted a national census in Bangladesh, which provided a provisional estimate of the total population of the country as 142,319,000. The previous decennial census was the 2001 census. Data were r ...

, Muradnagar Upazila had 101,809 households and a population of 523,556. 144,345 (27.57%) were under 10 years of age. Muradnagar has a literacy rate (age 7 and over) of 48.81%, compared to the national average of 51.8%, and a sex ratio of 1115 females per 1000 males. 32,644 (6.24%) lived in urban areas.

Administration

Muradnagar Upazila is divided into 22

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: Akubpur, Andikot ( Haidarabad), Babuti Para, Chapitala, Chhaliakandi, Dakshin Ramchandrapur, Darora, Dhamghar, Jahapur, Jatrapur, Kamalla, Muradnagar, Paharpur, Paschim Bangara, Paschim Nabipur, Paschim Porbadhair, Purba Bangara, Purba Nabipur, Purba Purbadhair, Sreekail, Tanki, and Uttar Ramchandrapur. The union parishads are subdivided into 153 mauzas and 301 villages.

List of chairmen

Notable people

* Mofazzal Hossain Kaikobad, politician * Rafiqul Islam Miah, politician *

Yussuf Abdullah Harun Yussuf Abdullah Harun () is an Awami League politician and former member of parliament for Comilla-3. Early life Harun was born on 15 November 1947 to a Bengali Muslim family in the village of Bhubanghar in Muradnagar, Tippera District. His f ...

, politician * Abdul Mannan, politician *

Asif Mahmud Asif Mahmud Shojib Bhuiyan (; born 14 July 1998) is a Bangladeshi student activist, who is currently serving as an adviser to the interim government of Bangladesh. He is a key coordinator of the Students Against Discrimination, which led the Stu ...

, activist *

Abdullah Al Mamun Abdullah Al Mamun () is a Bengali given name. It may refer to: * Abdullah al-Ma'mun (786-833), the seventh Abbasid caliph * Abdullah Al-Mamun Suhrawardy (1877–1935), Bengali Islamic scholar, barrister, and academic * Abdullah al Mamun (playwr ...

, Quran reciter *

Narendra Nath Dutta Narendra Nath Dutta (21 September 1884 – 6 April 1949) was an Indian Bengali physician and industrialist. He was also known as Captain Naren Dutta and N. N. Dutta. Early life On 21 September 1884, Narendra Nath Dutta was born into a poor famil ...

, physician and industrialist *

Kamini Kumar Dutta Kamini Kumar Dutta (; 1878–1959) was a Bengali politician and former Law Minister of Pakistan. Early life Dutta was born on 25 June 1878 in Sreekail, Tippera District, Bengal Presidency, British India (present-day Muradnagar Upazila, Comill ...

, lawyer and politician

References

External links

* {{Comilla District Upazilas of Comilla District