Surma Valley and Hill Districts Division, 1908

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This article has been extracted from THE IMPERIAL GAZETTEER OF INDIA , 1908. OXFORD, AT THE CLARENDON PRESS.

Note: National, provincial and district boundaries have changed considerably since 1908. Typically, old states, ‘divisions’ and districts have been broken into smaller units, units, and many tahsils upgraded to districts.Many units have since been renamed. Therefore, this article is being posted mainly for its historical value.

Surma Valley and Hill Districts Division, 1908

Division in the Province of Eastern Bengal and Assam, consisting of the upper valley of the Surma or Barak, together with the section of the Assam Range which bounds it on the north, and the Lushai Hills, a tract of moun- tainous country lying south of Cachar. It lies between 22° 19' and 26° 48' N. and 90° 45' and 94° 50' E., and covers an area of 25,481 square miles. The head-quarters of the Commission are at Silchar Town. The population of the Division at the last four enumerations was : (1872) 2,165,943, (1881) 2,546,241, ( 1891) 2,879,251, and (1901) 3,084,527. The density is only 121 persons per square mile, but the lowness of this figure is due to the inclusion of the hill tracts ; and the plains alone support 357 persons per square mile. In 1901 Hindus formed 44 per cent, of the population, Muhammadans 43 per cent., and Animistic tribes 12 per cent. Other religions included Buddhists (554) and Christians (19,751), of whom 18,807 were natives. The division contains five Districts, as shown below : —

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Sylhet and the Cachar plains are a fertile and highly cultivated valley. The Hill Districts consist for the most part of sharply serrated ridges covered with forest or bamboo jungle, though in the Khasi Hills there is a fine grassy plateau between 5,000 and 6,000 feet above the level of the sea. The Division contains eight towns, the largest being Sylhet (population, 13,893), Silchar (9,256), and Shillong (8,384). Trade in Sylhet is to a great extent carried by water ; and some of the river-side marts, such as Balaganj, Chhatak, Habiganj, Ajmiriganj, Sunamganj, and Karimganj, are places of considerable importance. Banivachung was the most populous village in the old Province of Assam ; and Cherrapunji, on the southern face of the Khasi Hills, has the reputation of possessing the heaviest recorded rainfall in the world.