A brief History of annexation of Sylhet  to East Pakistan

Sylhet was brought under the umbrella of Assam by the British in 1874 to make that State economically viable and self-sustaining. Neither, the Assamese speaking state of Assam, nor the Bengali speaking district of Sylhet, which had traditionally been a part of East Bengal having occupied its eastern fringes, welcomed this coming together; the People of these two areas had divergent linguistic and cultural identities. 

The vibrant tea-growing district of Sylhet was bordered by Tripura in the east and the southern Assam districts in the north. It was separated from the neighbouring Assamese-speaking heartland of the Brahmaputra Valley by the mountainous regions of  North Cachar and Jaintia Hills. With the inclusion of Sylhet in Assam, Sylhet became a neighbouring district to Cachar of Assam. These two districts, Sylhet and Cachar, mostly speaking the same Bengali dialect, popularly known as Sylheti, now formed Surma Valley (with a combination of the existing Barak Valley and the new Surma Valley coming with the inclusion of Sylhet) behind the towering mountainous region of Assam. Sylhet had an area of 5440 Sq miles. Since 1874 it had five subdivisions, Sylhet, Maulavi Bazar, Sunamganj, Habiganj, and Karimganj, each of the sub-divisions having one or more thanas within its jurisdiction. A look at the pre-colonial history of Surma Valley will be enough to show that Sylhet was an integral part of Bengal in the pre-colonial and medieval periods. Sylhet was thus tied with Bengal in ethnicity, language, geography, and history for ages.

Sylheti Hindus had demanded their return to culturally akin and more advanced Bengal for several years after 1874. Sylheti Muslims, on the other hand, had preferred to stay back in Assam with their leaders believing that they would, by their sheer numbers,  be able to help their minority Assamese brothers to exercise more influence, and political powers. To this, they had succeeded to some extent and had not fallen victim to any anti-Bengali movement in Assam until the Nellie massacre in 1983. Sylheti Muslims to consolidate their position, when anti-Sylheti feelings gain ground in Assam, accepted Assamese as their mother tongue and reported so in Census 1951. This had resulted in an absurd growth of 151% of the Assamese speaking population for a period of 20 years between 1931 and 1951, as revealed by the first post-independence Census of 1951.

Since its inclusion in Assam in 1874, the Indigenous Assamese, too, had always wanted Sylhet to be separated. They considered the English-educated Sylheti Hindus not only as competitors for jobs but also as cultural threats particularly, to their economically weak middle class. Indigenous Assamese had also been trying to make the State their own with a homogeneous build under the support of the British since the early twentieth century. It was being represented to National Congress leadership and others of importance that Sylhet’s dissociation from Assam was a necessity for the existence of Assam’s ethnicity and culture. Various articles and writings appeared on that line from Assamese intelligentsia to make the public alive of this. Memoranda, including the demand for separation of Sylhet amongst others, were presented to Jawaharlal Nehru when he came to Assam in the course of an election campaign in 1937. In  1946, Assam’s the then Premier Sri Gopinath Bordoloi gave the Cabinet Mission to understand that Assam would be quite prepared to hand over Sylhet to Eastern Bengal, as recorded[1] in the Journal of the then Viceroy. Later, when it was decided to hold referendum for Sylhet Gopinath Bordoloi announced that Assam Cabinet was not interested in retaining Sylhet. That obviously and purposefully dissuaded Assam leaders from campaigning for Sylhet. Besides, Sylhet leaders in the Congress were discouraged in their attempts to salvage a portion of the district by effective representation to the Boundary Commission, as has been pointed out by Sujit Chaudhuri in his article God-sent Opportunity.

However, in the face of the continuous movements from various stakeholders for the separation of Sylhet from Assam, Sylhet was made a part of East Bengal to which Assam was tagged when Bengal was divided in 1905. But not long after, in 1912, it was again brought within Assam, in the midst of loud protests..

Ironically, when the opportunity for the return of Sylhet to East Bengal (later East Pakistan) came in 1947, both the Hindus and the Muslims of Sylhet reversed their earlier positions. Sylheti Hindus now demanded to stay back in Assam while the Muslims wanted to separate. The Mountbatten plan hatched on June 3, 1947, which had inter alia provided for a referendum for Sylhet came into effect. H. C. Stock was appointed as the Commissioner of Referendum. The Referendum was held on the 6th and the 7th of July 1947 by simply asking, “Should Sylhet join East Bengal?” (Info source: Internet materials}

There were sufficient reasons to give rise to the controversy on this referendum,

(1) The event was held in great haste without practically allowing any time for making the majority of the illiterate population aware of the process, the legal requirements, and the implication of their choice. 

(2) The voting being the first of its kind in this region, one could reasonably presume that those responsible to conduct the referendum had no experience or knowledge about the procedure or the law governing it. It was essential to give the election officials and the security personnel proper and adequate training for the successful conduct of the referendum.  The announcement came all of a sudden, and the time at hand was far too short for adequate preparation.  It was an easy guess how things could be done in such a short time. The result was a huge number of rejected votes (22.5%). Even without questioning the impartiality of polling and security personnel, it can be said that there was the possibility of false voting, intimidation, and obstruction to voters by interested parties taking advantage of the ignorance of polling or security personnel. The complaints lodged in these matters cannot just be shrugged off.

(3) Garden workers, large in numbers, mostly Hindus, were debarred from participating in the Referendum on the ground of not being a part of the local populace. 

(4)  The Muslim League had brought volunteers from North India. These volunteers prevented the Hindu voters from casting their votes at places. 

I remember to have heard my father saying that outsiders had been preventing the voters from voting. He did not, however, name Muslim League or any other organisation. He had said this when we were preparing to leave our homeland forever. 

(5) Due to the vote being conducted in floods, many voters could not vote. 

Considering all these factors together, it is hard to believe that the referendum was held with an open mind and was free and fair.    

 In the Referendum, a total of 239619 votes were cast for joining East Pakistan, and 184041 for remaining in Assam, India.  According to Wikipedia[2] total number of 546815 votes were cast in 239 polling stations. Therefore 123155 votes were rejected as being blank or invalid and this constitutes 22.5% of the total votes cast. This was not surprising as it was the first time the people, in general, had voted and the referendum being held in haste there was no time for them to learn or being educated in the process. The votes in favour of East Bengal were thus 43.8% of total votes cast and that in favour of Assam was 33.65%. 

Following the outcome of Referendum, most of the Sylhet district was ceded to East Pakistan. Only three and half thanas Ratabari, Badarpur, Patharkandi, and Karimganj remained with Assam, India in line with the recommendation of Sir Cyril Redcliffe, Chairman, Boundary Commission. Hindu-majority Maulavibazar went to East Pakistan though the people there had voted in majority for staying in Assam. There was no convincing reason for this. It may not be out of place to mention that 57% of tea gardens in erstwhile East Pakistan were located in Maulavibazar subdivision alone. 

1.     The Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019 (CAA) was notified on December 12, 2019, and came into force from   January 10, 2020.     

2.    The objective of the CAA is to grant Indian citizenship to persecuted minorities — Hindu, Sikh, Jain, Buddhist,  Parsi, and Christian — from Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Afghanistan.

3.   Those from these communities who had come to India till December 31, 2014, facing religious persecution in their respective countries, will not be treated as illegal immigrants but given Indian citizenship on the basis of application and scrutiny. Concerned people coming under this act will have to make a self-declaration of undergoing religious persecution and will be asked to produce a legally acceptable document to prove that they have arrived in India within the cut-off date.

4.  The Act does not apply to tribal areas of Tripura, Mizoram, Assam, and Meghalaya because of being included in the 6th Schedule of the Constitution. Also, areas that fall under the Inner Limit notified under the Bengal Eastern Frontier Regulation, 1873, will also be outside the Act’s purview.