Sylhet referendum, 1947
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The 1947 Sylhet referendum was held in the
Sylhet District Sylhet ( bn, সিলেট), located in north-east Bangladesh, is the divisional capital and one of the four districts in the Sylhet Division. History Sylhet district was established on 3 January 1782, and until 1878 it was part of Bengal Pro ...
of the Assam Province of British India to decide whether the district would remain in
Undivided Assam Undivided Assam refers to the then undivided greater state of Assam in India soon after the Independence of India, Indian Independence in 1947 until 1963. In addition to the present-day Assam, it included the current states of Arunachal Prades ...
and therefore within the post-independence Dominion of India, or leave Assam for East Bengal and consequently join the newly-created Dominion of Pakistan. The referendum's turnout was in favour of joining the Pakistani union; however, the district's Karimganj subdivision remained within the Indian state of Assam.


History

Prior to the British arrival in the region in 1765, the ''Sylhet Sarkar'' was a part of the Bengal Subah of the Mughal Empire. Initially, the
Company Raj Company rule in India (sometimes, Company ''Raj'', from hi, rāj, lit=rule) refers to the rule of the British East India Company on the Indian subcontinent. This is variously taken to have commenced in 1757, after the Battle of Plassey, when ...
incorporated Sylhet into its Bengal Presidency; however, 109 years later on 16 February 1874, Sylhet was made a part of the non-regulation Chief Commissioner's Province of Assam (North-East Frontier) in order to facilitate Assam's commercial development. This transfer was implemented despite a memorandum of protests being submitted to the Viceroy,
Lord Northbrook Baron Northbrook, of Stratton in the County of Southampton, is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created in 1866 for the Liberal politician and former Chancellor of the Exchequer, Sir Francis Baring, 3rd Baronet. The holde ...
, on 10 August from the district's
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 ...
-majority population which consisted of both Hindus and Muslims. These protests subsided when Northbrook visited Sylhet to reassure the people that education and justice would be administered from the city of Calcutta in Bengal, as well as when the Hindu ''zamindars'' of Sylhet realized the opportunity of employment in Assam's tea estates and a market for their produce. After the first partition of Bengal in 1905, Sylhet was briefly reincorporated with Eastern Bengal and Assam, as a part of the new province's ''Surma Valley and Hill Districts'' division. However, this reorganization was short-lived as Sylhet once again became separated from Bengal in 1912, when Assam Province was reconstituted into a Chief Commissioner's Province. By the 1920s, organisations such as the ''Sylhet Peoples' Association'' and ''Sylhet–Bengal Reunion League'' mobilized public opinion, demanding Sylhet's reincorporation into Bengal. However, the leaders of the Reunion League, including Muhammad Bakht Mauzumdar and Syed Abdul Majid, who were also involved in Assam's tea trade, later opposed the transfer of Sylhet and
Cachar Cachar district is an administrative district in the state of Assam in India. After independence the undivided Cachar district was split into four districts in Assam: Dima Hasao district (formerly North Cachar Hills), Cachar district alongside ...
to Bengal in September 1928 during the ''Surma Valley Muslim Conference''; supported by Abdul Majid's ''Anjuman-e-Islamia'' and ''Muslim Students Association''.


Background

The
partition of India The Partition of British India in 1947 was the Partition (politics), change of political borders and the division of other assets that accompanied the dissolution of the British Raj in South Asia and the creation of two independent dominions: ...
was to happen along religious lines in August 1947.
Muslim Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abrah ...
-majority areas would be combined to form the new Pakistan while non-Muslim and
Hindu Hindus (; ) are people who religiously adhere to Hinduism.Jeffery D. Long (2007), A Vision for Hinduism, IB Tauris, , pages 35–37 Historically, the term has also been used as a geographical, cultural, and later religious identifier for ...
-majority areas would remain in India.
Sylhet Sylhet ( bn, সিলেট) is a metropolitan city in northeastern Bangladesh. It is the administrative seat of the Sylhet Division. Located on the north bank of the Surma River at the eastern tip of Bengal, Sylhet has a subtropical climate an ...
was a Muslim-majority
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 ...
-speaking district in Assam, which was a Hindu-majority
Assamese Assamese may refer to: * Assamese people, a socio-ethnolinguistic identity of north-eastern India * People of Assam, multi-ethnic, multi-linguistic and multi-religious people of Assam * Assamese language, one of the easternmost Indo-Aryan language ...
-speaking province. The Government of Assam believed that removing Sylhet would make the state more homogeneous and strongly unified as a result. Assam's Chief Minister, Gopinath Bordoloi, stated in 1946 that his wish was to "hand over Sylhet to East Bengal". The British Raj declared on 3 July 1947 that a referendum would be held on 6 July 1947 to decide the future of Sylhet.
H. C. Stock H is the eighth letter of the Latin alphabet. H may also refer to: Musical symbols * H number, Harry Halbreich reference mechanism for music by Honegger and Martinů * H, B (musical note) * H, B major People * H. (noble) (died after 12 ...
was appointed as the commissioner of the referendum.


Result

The majority of the population voted in favour of joining Pakistan. This was implemented via Article 3 of the Indian Independence Act of 18 July 1947. The Radcliffe Line published on 17 August 1947 gave some areas of Sylhet — mainly Karimganj — to India, while the rest of Sylhet joined East Bengal, even though Karimganj had a Muslim-majority population which had opted for Pakistan, unlike some other areas in Sylhet like Moulvibazar. The putative cause of this was the plea of a group led by Abdul Matlib Mazumdar. India received three and a half
thanas Thanas is an Albanian and Ukrainian (''Танас'') given name and onomastic toponym element. The definite form is ''Thanasi''. It is derived from the Greek ''Athanasios'', with the Latin derived equivalent ''Tanush''. Thanas is also considered to ...
of Sylhet. Along with Karimganj,
Zakiganj Zakiganj ( bn, জকিগঞ্জ) is an upazila of Sylhet District in Sylhet Division, Bangladesh. History There are a few theories behind the name of Zakiganj. The first is that is derived from Shah Zaki, a pir who established a khanqah ...
was also to be a part of independent India, but this was prevented by a delegation led by Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. Thus, most of the Sylhet District joined East Pakistan, which later emerged as the new country of Bangladesh in 1971 following the
Bangladesh Liberation War The Bangladesh Liberation War ( bn, মুক্তিযুদ্ধ, , also known as the Bangladesh War of Independence, or simply the Liberation War in Bangladesh) was a revolution and War, armed conflict sparked by the rise of the Benga ...
. The result of the referendum was largely welcomed by Assamese Hindus.


See also

*
1947 North-West Frontier Province referendum The North-West Frontier Province referendum ( ps, د شمال لویدیځ سرحدي ایالت ټولپوښتنه) was held in July 1947 to decide whether the North-West Frontier Province (NWFP) of British India would join the Dominion of Indi ...
, a similar referendum held in present-day Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sylhet Referendum 1947 in British India 1947 referendums July 1947 events in Asia 1940s in Assam Bangladesh and the Commonwealth of Nations Partition of India Sylhet District Referendums in India History of East Pakistan History of Sylhet