Darrang () 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 counties, several municipalities, subdivision ...

in the state of

Assam Assam (; ) is a state in northeastern India, south of the eastern Himalayas along the Brahmaputra and Barak River valleys. Assam covers an area of . The state is bordered by Bhutan and Arunachal Pradesh to the north; Nagaland and Manipur ...

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area, the List of countries and dependencies by population, second-most populous ...

. The district headquarters are located at

Mangaldoi Mangaldai (); also spelt Mangaldoi is a small town in the Indian state of Assam. It was named after Mangaldahi, who was the daughter of the Rajah of Darrang and was married to Susenghphaa (), (also Pratap Singha), a ruler of the Ahom kingdom ...

. The district occupies an

area Area is the quantity that expresses the extent of a region on the plane or on a curved surface. The area of a plane region or ''plane area'' refers to the area of a shape or planar lamina, while '' surface area'' refers to the area of an op ...

of 1585 km².

History

No definitive records about Darrang are available for the pre-medieval period. According to

Maheswar Neog Professor Maheswar Neog (7 September 1915 – 13 September 1995) was an Indian academic who specialised in the cultural history of the North East India especially Assam, besides being an Assamese-language scholar and poet. He was a top Indologi ...

, the Darrang became mentioned only after the uprising of the king

Nara Narayan Naranarayan (reign 1554–1587) was the last ruler of the undivided Koch dynasty of Kamata Kingdom. He succeeded his father, Biswa Singha. Under him the Koch kingdom reached its cultural and political zenith. Under his rule, and under the m ...

. It perhaps formed a part of the ancient kingdom of

Kamarupa Kamarupa (; also called Pragjyotisha or Pragjyotisha-Kamarupa), an early state during the Classical period on the Indian subcontinent, was (along with Davaka) the first historical kingdom of Assam. Though Kamarupa prevailed from 350 to 11 ...

and with its decline, Darrang at different times might have been under the rule of the

Chutia Kingdom The Chutia Kingdom (also Sadiya) was a late medieval state that developed around Sadiya in present Assam and adjoining areas in Arunachal Pradesh."(T)he Chutiyas seem to have assumed political power in Sadiya and contiguous areas falling ...

, Bodo people and

Baro-Bhuyan The Baro-Bhuyans (or ''Baro-Bhuyan Raj''; also ''Baro-Bhuians'' and Baro-Bhuiyans) refers to the confederacies of soldier-landowners in Assam and Bengal in the late Middle Ages and the early modern period. The confederacies consisted of loose ...

s. In the 16th century, Darrang was subject to the Kamata king

, and on the division of his dominion among his heirs, Darrang became a part of

Koch Hajo Koch Hajo (1581-1616) was the kingdom under Raghudev and his son Parikshit Narayan of the Koch dynasty that stretched from Sankosh river in the west to the Bhareli river in the east on the north bank of the Brahmaputra river. It was created by ...

. Early in the 17th century the raja

Bali Narayan Bali () is a province of Indonesia and the westernmost of the Lesser Sunda Islands. East of Java and west of Lombok, the province includes the island of Bali and a few smaller neighbouring islands, notably Nusa Penida, Nusa Lembongan, and Nus ...

invoked the aid of the

Ahoms The Ahom (Pron: ), or Tai-Ahom is an ethnic group from the Indian states of Assam and Arunachal Pradesh. The members of this group are admixed descendants of the Tai people who reached the Brahmaputra valley of Assam in 1228 and the local ind ...

Upper Assam Upper Assam is an administrative division of the state of Assam comprising the undivided Lakhimpur and Sivasagar (previously, Sibsagar) districts, of the upper reaches of the Brahmaputra valley. The other divisions are: Lower Assam, North Assam ...

against the Mughal invaders; after his defeat and death in 1637 the Ahoms dominated the whole district. About 1785 the Darrang rajas took advantage of the decay of the Ahom kingdom to try and re-establish their independence, but they were defeated by a British expedition in 1792, and in 1826 Darrang, with the rest of Assam, passed under British control. During the reign of Dharmanarayan's time 3000

Chutia people The Chutia people (Pron: or ''Sutia'') are an ethnic group that are native to Assam and historically associated with the Chutia kingdom. However, after the kingdom was absorbed into the Ahom kingdom in 1523–24, the Chutia population was ...

were established in Darrang. In 1785 it was Darrang was surveyed by one Ahom officer named Dhani Ram Gohain. On 28 January 1894, there was a peasant's uprising against the increased land revenue by the

British Raj The British Raj (; from Hindi ''rāj'': kingdom, realm, state, or empire) was the rule of the British Crown on the Indian subcontinent; * * it is also called Crown rule in India, * * * * or Direct rule in India, * Quote: "Mill, who was him ...

Patharighat Patharighat, previously known as Patharughat, is a place in Assam, India. It is one of the revenue circles in Darrang district. The place is famous for the event of 1894, popularly known as ''Patharughatar Ran'' (Battle of Patharughat). After the ...

, a village in Darrang district. In the British response that followed, 140 peasants belonging to both Hindu and Muslim communities died from bullet wounds and another 150 were injured. In 1984

Sonitpur district Sonitpur district ron: ˌsə(ʊ)nɪtˈpʊə or ˌʃə(ʊ)nɪtˈpʊəis an administrative district in the state of Assam in India. The district headquarters is located at Tezpur. Etymology The name of the is derived from a mythological story f ...

was formed from part of Darrang. This was repeated on 14 June 2004 with the creation of

Udalguri district Udalguri district (Pron:ˌʊdʌlˈgʊəri), also known as Odalguri, is a district in the Bodoland Territorial Region of the state of Assam in Northeastern India. Udalguri town is the headquarters of the district. Etymology The name Udalguri, den ...

Geography

Darrang district occupies an area of .

National protected area

Darrang is home to Orang National Park, which it shares with

. Orang was established in 1999 and has an area of .

Divisions

There are four

Assam Legislative Assembly The Assam Legislative Assembly is the unicameral legislature of the Indian state of Assam. It is housed in Guwahati, the capital city of Assam, geographically situated in present Western Assam region. The Legislative Assembly comprises 126 Me ...

constituencies in this district: Kalaigaon, Sipajhar, Mangaldoi, and Dalgaon. Mangaldoi is designated for

scheduled caste The Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs) are officially designated groups of people and among the most disadvantaged socio-economic groups in India. The terms are recognized in the Constitution of India and the groups are designa ...

s. All four are in the Mangaldoi Lok Sabha constituency.

Demographics

According to the 2011 census Darrang district has a

population Population typically refers to the number of people in a single area, whether it be a city or town, region, country, continent, or the world. Governments typically quantify the size of the resident population within their jurisdiction usi ...

of 928,500, roughly equal to the nation of

Fiji Fiji ( , ,; fj, Viti, ; Fiji Hindi: फ़िजी, ''Fijī''), officially the Republic of Fiji, is an island country in Melanesia, part of Oceania in the South Pacific Ocean. It lies about north-northeast of New Zealand. Fiji consis ...

. This gives it a ranking of 463rd in India (out of a total of 640). The district has a population density of . Its population growth rate over the decade 2001-2011 was 22.19%. Darrang has a

sex ratio The sex ratio (or gender ratio) is usually defined as 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. Many species dev ...

of 954

females Female (symbol: ♀) is the sex of an organism that produces the large non-motile ova (egg cells), the type of gamete (sex cell) that fuses with the male gamete during sexual reproduction. A female has larger gametes than a male. Females ...

for every 1000 males, and a

literacy rate Literacy in its broadest sense describes "particular ways of thinking about and doing reading and writing" with the purpose of understanding or expressing thoughts or ideas in written form in some specific context of use. In other words, huma ...

of 63.08%. 93.9% of the population live in rural areas while 6.1% live in urban areas. Poverty rate of the district stands at 45.5%. Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes make up 4.34% and 0.91% of the population respectively.

Religions

In Darrang district, as per the 2011 census record, Islam is the most followed religion with 597,392 adherents i.e. (64.34%), while Hinduism is followed by 327,322 i.e. 35.25% of the district population.

Languages

At the time of the 2011 census, the Assamese-speaking population was 457,696 and the Bengali-speaking population was 449,205.2011 Census of India, Population By Mother Tongue
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References

External links

Darrang District's Official Government website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Darrang District Districts of Assam Minority Concentrated Districts in India