Sylhet Division

Sirote was a name used by Europeans in the 1700s

The name Sylhet is an anglicisation of Shilhot (শিলহট). Its origins seem to come from the Sanskrit words of শিলা śilā (meaning stone) and হট্ট haṭṭa (meaning marketplace). These words match the landscape and topography of the hilly region. The shila stones were abundant across Sylhet and King Gour Govinda is known to have used stones to guard his capital. The word changed to Shilhot due to the elision of letter-final অ ô in the Bengali language.[5] Another theory is that it was named after Princess Sheela, the eldest daughter of Raja Guhak of the Jaintia Kingdom. It is said that Sheela was once bathing in a pond and was kidnapped. After being rescued by her father Raja Guhak, Sheela started to become more religious and live a secluded life. Sheela's died at a young age, the port-area which developed around the lake, which was the largest centre in northeastern Bengal for trade, was named Sheela haat (or Sheela's marketplace) in her honour. Xuanzang of China mentions that he visited a place called Sheelachatal in the 630s in his book, the Great Tang Records on the Western Regions. The Hattanath Tales mention Sheelachatal was named after both daughters of Guhak; Sheela and Chatala. Chatala indulged herself in an unlawful relationship with one of the palace servants, leading to her being disowned and dumped in a distant island in the middle of 2000 square mile lake to the south of the kingdom.[6]

Mughal documents such as the Ain-i-Akbari referred to the region in Persian as Silhet/Silhat (سلهت). Archaic European spellings included Sirote and Silhat. After the British arrived in the region in the 18th century, the spelling was changed from Silhat (সিলহট/ছিলট sil[h]ot) to Sylhet (সিলহেট/সিলেট sil[h]et) so that it is distinct from the name of the nearby town of Silchar. The Anglicised spelling eventually also became the standard and official name in Modern Bengali.[7]

An alternative name which may or may not have originated from Shilahatta was Srihotto (শ্রীহট্ট). The word sri is a Sanskrit word for beauty. This name was used in Kamarupa and the other petty kingdoms. In the Bengal Sultanate's inscriptions, Srihat/Sirhat (سریحت/سرحت) can be found as an administrative "Arsah". The earliest Sultanate inscription using this name was found in Shah Jalal's Dargah. Dating 1303, the inscription mentions Sikandar Khan Ghazi's Conquest of Arsah Srihat with the help of Shah Jalal, during the reign of Sultan Shamsuddin Firoz Shah.[8]

After the Islamic Conquest of Sylhet in 1303, the city colloquially became nicknamed as Jalalabad (জালালাবাদ). It is made up two words Jalal (جلال), a name of Arabic origin meaning majesty but in this case referring to Shah Jalal, and Abad (آباد), meaning settlement.[9][10][11] This colloquial name continued to be used in the Mughal period. Currently, in the Sylhet City Corporation, there exists a metropolitan thana known as the Jalalabad Thana as well an area in its 7th ward.[12]

The Assam Province's Sylhet District contained Karimganj.

In 1874, the current Sylhet Division, along with Karimganj, was entirely known as the 'Sylhet district'. In September of the same year, Sylhet was separated from mainland Bengal to be made a part of the non-regulation Chief Commissioner's Province of Assam (Northeast Frontier Province) in order to facilitate Assam's commercial development.[13][14] The people of Sylhet submitted a memorandum to the Viceroy protesting the inclusion in Assam.[15] The protests subsided when the Viceroy, Lord Northbrook, visited Sylhet to reassure the people that education and justice would be administered from Bengal,[16] and when the people in Sylhet saw the opportunity of employment in tea estates in Assam and a market for their produce.[17] In 1905, Sylhet district rejoined Bengal as a part of the new Surma Valley Division of Eastern Bengal and Assam. In 1912, the then Sylhet district was moved to the newly created Assam Province alongside the other districts of the Surma Valley Division.

Historically, the entire Sylhet region was a single district within the Surma Valley and Hill Districts Division as part of the Assam Province. In 1947, a referendum was held in the Sylhet district, voting in favour of succession to Pakistan. However, the district's Karimganj subdivision was given to India after being pleaded by a delegation led by Abdul Matlib Mazumdar. The four other subdivisions (North Sylhet, South Sylhet, Habiganj and Sunamganj) joined the Dominion of Pakistan; subsequently forming East Bengal's 'Sylhet district' in the Chittagong division.

Following the Independence of Bangladesh in 1971, Sylhet became part of the newly formed country. In 1984, the four subdivisions of Sylhet district were upgraded to districts as part of H M Ershad's decentralisation programme. The four districts remained in the Chittagong Division until 1995 when they formed the new Sylhet Division.

The Sylhet Division has a "friendship link" with the city of St Albans, in the United Kingdom. The link was established in 1988 when the St Albans District Council supported a housing project in Sylhet as part of the International Year of Shelter for the Homeless. Sylhet was chosen because it is the area of origin for the largest ethnic minority group in St Albans.[18] Sylhet also has many "friendship links" with other cities in the United Kingdom, as majority of the half-million British Bangladeshis have origins in Sylhet. This includes places such as Rochdale, Oldham, London, and many more places.

The Mulnicherra Estate is the oldest tea garden in South Asia

The area around Sylhet is a traditional tea growing area. The Surma Valley is covered with terraces of tea gardens and tropical forests. Srimangal is known as the tea capital of Bangladesh; for miles around, tea gardens are visible on the hill slopes.

The area has over 150 tea gardens, including three of the largest tea plantations in the world, both in terms of area and production. Nearly 300,000 workers, of which more than 75% are women, are employed on the tea estates. Employers prefer to engage women for plucking tea leaves since they do a better job than, but are paid less than, men. A recent drought has killed nearly a tenth of the tea shrubs.

The plantations, or gardens, were mostly developed during the British Raj. The plantations were started by the British, and the managers still live in the white timber houses built during the Raj. The bungalows stand on huge lawns. The service and the lifestyle of managers are still unchanged.

Numerous projects and businesses in the city and in large towns have been funded by Sylhetis living and working abroad. As of 1986, an estimated 95 percent of ethnic British Bangladeshis originated from or had ancestors from the Sylhet region.[19] The Bangladesh government has set up a special Export Processing Zone (EPZ) in Sylhet, in order to attract foreign investors, mainly from the UK.

Sylhet has also benefited from tourism. There are many natural landmarks people tend to visit, such as the Keane Bridge, Ali Amjad's Clock, Lalakhal, Jaflong, Madhabkunda waterfall, Ratargul Swamp Forest, Hakaluki Haor, Lawachara National Park, Tanguar Haor and Bichnakandi.[20] Sylhet is also considered to be the spiritual capital of Bangladesh, due to the resting place of Shah Jalal, a Sufi saint who spread Islam in Bangladesh, along with hundreds of his disciples. The Sylhet Shahi Eidgah is a famous place where Eid prayers take place and it is one of the largest Eidgahs in Bangladesh, built by Farhad Khan during the reign of Mughal emperor Aurangzeb. There are a number of hotels and resorts, particularly in Sreemangal Upazila and Bahubal Upazila.

Osmani International Airport

Sylhet Railway station

In 1995, Sylhet split from the Chittagong Division and was declared the 6th division of the country. The Sylhet Division is overseen by the Divisional Commissioner, the current Divisional Commissioner is Md. Mashiur Rahman. The Sylhet Division is divided into four districts (Habiganj, Moulvibazar, Sunamganj and Sylhet) and further divided into 35 upazilas (sub-districts). These upazilas are further divided into 323 Union parishads. Each union is roughly divided into 9 wards before going to village-level. There are roughly 10,185 villages in the Division. The Division hosts 19 Municipal corporations known as pourashavas, and one city corporation in Sylhet city. It also has 19 Parliamentary constituencies. The headquarters of the Sylhet Division is the city of Sylhet in Sylhet Sadar Upazila, Sylhet District. Pre-partition Sylhet's Karimganj has been governed by India since 1947.

The highest peak in the region is Kala pahar located in the Longla Ridge (Hararganj-Singla range).

Hakaluki Haor is the largest haor in Bangladesh.

Geographically the region is surrounded by hillocks (known as tillas) from all three sides except its western plain boundary with the rest of Bengal. In the south of the region (Habiganj, Moulvibazar), eight hill ranges enter the plains of Sylhet running uniformly from the west to the east. They are: Raghunandan, Dinarpur-Shatgaon, Balishira, Bhanugach-Rajkandi, Hararganj-Singla, Patharia, Pratapgarh-Duhalia and Sorrispur-Siddheswar hill ranges. At the centre of the region is also an isolated range known as the Ita Hills.[22]

The region is considered one of the most picturesque and archaeologically rich regions in South Asia. It is home to three national parks; the Lawachara National Park, Khadim Nagar National Park and Satchari National Park, as well as numerous smaller parks and forests such as the Ratargul Swamp Forest, Rema-Kalenga Wildlife Sanctuary. Its burgeoning economy has contributed to the regional attractions of landscapes filled with fragrant orange and pineapple gardens as well as tea plantations. The region has a tropical monsoon climate (Köppen Am) bordering on a humid subtropical climate (Cwa) at higher elevations. The rainy season from April to October is hot and humid with very heavy showers and thunderstorms almost every day, whilst the short dry season from November to February is very warm and fairly clear. Nearly 80% of the annual average rainfall of 4,200 millimetres (170 in) occurs between May and September.[23]

The physiography of the division consists mainly of hill soils, encompassing a few large depressions known locally as "beels" which can be mainly classified as oxbow lakes, caused by tectonic subsidence primarily during the earthquake of 1762.[22]

Geologically, the division is complex having diverse sacrificial geomorphology; high topography of Plio-Miocene age such as the Khasi and Jaintia Hills and small hillocks along the border. At the centre there is a vast low laying flood plain of recent origin with saucer shaped depressions, locally called haors. There are many haors in the region and the largest ones include Hakaluki, Kawadighi, Tanguar and Hail. Available limestone deposits in different parts of the region suggest that the whole area was under the ocean in the Oligo-Miocene. In the last 150 years, three major earthquakes hit the city, at a magnitude of at least 7.5 on the Richter Scale, the last one took place in 1918, although many people are unaware that Sylhet lies on an earthquake prone zone.[24]

Bengali Muslim primary school students in Srimangal.

A young Khasi boy in a remote village.

The division's population is over 12 million and Bengali Muslims make up a large majority of the region's population. The tribal and Adivasi population tend to live in secluded rural areas of the region primarily near the hills and tea gardens. They are made up of several ethnic groups such as the Bishnupriya Manipuris, Khasi, Lalengs, Tripuris, Meiteis, Garos, and Kukis. In the nineteenth century, the British brought over indigenous peoples from other parts of British India to work as tea garden labourers such as the Kurmis, Musahars, Bauris, Beens, Bonaz and Bhumij amongst others.[33]

• In season 4, episode 6, of Call the Midwife, the midwives tend to a woman from the Sylhet Division.[37]

• Divisions of Bangladesh
• List of people from Sylhet
• Sylhet roofed turtle
• Sylhet Hara