Sandwip Upazila

At the start of the 17th century, the island was under the rule of Antonio de Sousa Godinho, a Portuguese pirate, though it had previously been ruled by Kedar Rai, a Bengali Hindu chieftain who ruled over large parts of eastern Bengal. According to Pierre Du Jarric, Kedar Rai managed to retrieve Sandwip from Godinho with the help of another group of Portuguese pirates.[7] The Mughals and the Arakanese failed to annex Sandwip from Kedar Rai.[8][9][10] By 1602, a Portuguese settler from Montargil called Domingos Carvalho, who was in Kedar Rai's service, managed to earn the governorship of Sandwip after assisting him in battles against Arakan and the Mughals.[11] Emmanuel de Mattos came from Chittagong to aid Carvalho in the Portuguese annexation, and they divided the island between them and Gonçalves. Philippe de Brito also established a fort in the island. It is said that each year about 300 salt-loaded ships sailed from Sandwip for Liverpool. In addition to its salt industries, Sandwip became very famed for its ship-building as well at that time.[12] Thereafter, the Portuguese held the island in conjunction with the Arakanese and Muslim rulers. Even today some of the architecture on the island reflects this part of the island's history in which it was a 17th century pirate-stronghold. Philip III, the King of Portugal, ennobled Carvalho for his efforts.[7]

The loyalty of the Portuguese however, was suspected by the Arakanese. The Arakanese King of Mrauk U, Min Razagyi would execute many Portuguese settlers in his kingdom. In November 1602, the Jesuits fled to Sandwip following the imprisonment and death of their head chief Fernandez in Chittagong (which was under Arakanese rule). Carvalho fled to Jessore for safety, but its ruler Pratapaditya, was an ally of the Arakanese, and had him executed and sent his severed head back to Arakan.[13] Other sources say that Carvalho was not killed by Pratapaditya but was wounded in battle against the Mughals, and that as a result he fled to Hugli. Manuel de Matoo was his successor but the Portuguese were defeated in Sandwip during his office, and Fateh Khan took over the island.[7]

In March 1609, Sebastian Gonzales Tibao/Tibeau, who was an escapee of Arakanese punishment and a salt-dealer and soldier who had come to Bengal in 1605, led an army of 400 Portuguese mercenaries to colonise Sandwip, kill Fateh Khan and wipe out 3000 Muslim (non-Mughal) pirates and all of the island's male Muslim inhabitants.[7] He did this by negotiating a deal with the King of Bakla, receiving support such as ships and horses for the takeover, in exchange for half of the revenue of the island to be given to Bakla's king. However, Tibao withheld the agreed payment and warred with the King of Bakla too.[14] Razagyi was furious with the Portuguese movements, but he faced an even more urgent threat after hearing that the Mughal governor of Bengal was planning an attack on nearby Bhulua, and so he agreed to an alliance with Tibao.[15] Be that as it may, Tibao later broke the alliance, and seized the entire naval fleet by "the simple expedient of murdering its captains at a council".[6]^:36 Tibao was described to have become the "absolute sovereign" of Sandwip, as he was even obeyed by the natives as an independent ruler. In the course of a short time, his territory extended to the up until the Lemro River and his forces consisted of 1000 Portuguese, 2000 Indian soldiers, 200 cavalry, and 80 sail of vessels of various sizes. Many merchants resorted to the island, and by their commerce contributed much to increase his revenue.[16] Tibao later took the islands of Shahbazpur and Patelbanga from the Raja of Batecala (Bacola). He was finally defeated in 1617, by Razagyi's son, Min Khamaung, who defeated Tibao in Sandwip, seized the island, reduced him to his former miserable condition and killed many inhabitants of the island.[14][17][18]

In the 1620s, Samuel Purchas also described the inhabitants as majority Mohammedans and mentioned the presence of a 300-year old mosque in the island. Abdul Hakim was a prominent medieval Bengali poet from Sandwip who was active in this period. As piracy was prevalent in the island for many decades, many people ruled over it such as Delwar Khan, also known as Raja Dilal, who was the final pirate ruler of Sandwip. A former Mughal officer, he and his private army ruled the island independently for about 50 years. In November 1665, Shaista Khan, the Mughal governor of Bengal, led a conquest to Sandwip with the support of the Dutch military, to defeat Dilwar who was 80-years old at the time.[19][20] The Arakanese had also fell out with the Portuguese, which led to the Portguese also assisting the Mughals. By 26 January 1666, the conquest was successful and the Chief Captain of the European pirates were rewarded.[7] Dilwar was successively locked up in an iron cage in Murshidabad.[21] The volume of shipbuilding swelled extensively during the Mughal period. During the 17th century, the shipyards of Sandwip used to build warships for the Ottoman caliphs.[22][23]

In the late 18th century to early 19th century, Armenian merchants began to do business here. Khojah Kaworke, Khojah Michael and Agha Barshick owned several salt farms in Sandwip and the existent of such factories were also noted by Italian traveller Niccolao Manucci.[24][25]

By the time the island came under British rule, it had a mixed population of Bengalis, both Muslim and Hindu, many of whom had arrived from Dhaka, as well as the Buddhist Arakanese. The working population consisted of farmers, fishermen, pirates and robbers. The British initially struggled in administrating the island as its inhabitants used to frequently make complaints. They eventually appointed a Commissioner but he too would complain of the difficulties in managing the island with constant petitions of the Taluqdars. Abu Torab, a descendant of Chand Khan who was the son-in-law of Raja Dilal, led Bengal's first anti-British peasant rebellion against Captain Nollekins in 1767. As a result of troublesome administration, the island was subsequently given direct attention to the District Collector in 1785. In 1822, the island joined the District of Noakhali.[21] In 1912, many Muslim men from Sandwip travelled to the Balkan Peninsula to fight alongside the Ottoman Empire during the Balkan Wars. Keshab Ghosh, a President of the Indian National Congress, led the Violation of Law movement in Sandwip in 1930.[26]

It is said that Sheikh Mujibur Rahman's 1966 Six point movement began in Sandwip. During the 1970 Pakistani general election campaign, Mohammad Shah Bangali of Sandwip was the folk singer mascot for the Awami League.[26] The area was heavily affected during the 1970 Bhola cyclone and as a response, the Government of Pakistan sent three gunboats and a hospital ship carrying medical personnel and supplies.[27] The Government of Singapore sent a military medical mission to the country, which was then deployed to Sandwip where they treated nearly 27,000 people and carried out a smallpox vaccination effort.[28] During the Bangladesh Liberation War of 1971, Sandwip was included in Sector 1. On 10 May, many civilians were murdered including Jahedur Rahman, a lawyer in Sandwip town killed in Kargil Bridge. On the same day, Jasim Uddin, a student at the Chittagong College, was arrested in Sandwip and taken to Chittagong to be imprisoned. He was later released but continued as a Bengali freedom fighter, leading to his execution on 10 December.[26]

Around 1970/1971, an island emerged just northwest of Sandwip near the Meghna Estuary. A few days after its emergence, Sandwip's residents began to explore the new island and found that there was a type of grass colloquially known as Uri in abundance across the island. Due to this, the island became known as Urir Char which means the river island of Uri. Through the initiative of Asadul Haq Chowdhury (Prakash Saheb Miah), the erstwhile chairman of Kalapania Union, some landless people of Sandwip Island (whose homes had been lost due to diluvium) were relocated to Urirchar between 1980 and 1981.[29]

In 1984, Sandwip Thana's status was upgraded to upazila (sub-district level). The construction works of a Bangladesh Navy fleet headquarters at the Sandwip Channel with ship berthing facilities is also going on as part of the Forces Goal 2030.[30] In 2010, the Government of Bangladesh announced a plan to build a dam in Urir Char to reclaim land as it had suffered greatly from Tropical Storm One and the 1991 Bangladesh cyclone among other natural disasters.[31]