Habiganj District (; ), formerly known as Habibganj District (), is a district in Bangladesh, located in the Sylhet Division. Habiganj is an administrative district in the Sylhet Division of northeastern Bangladesh. Based on the number of upazilas, it is classified as a "Category A" district. Situated on the banks of the Khowai River, Habiganj was upgraded to a district on March 1, 1984; prior to that, it had been a subdivision of the Sylhet district since 1878. Baniyachong, the world's largest village, is located in this district. This village is also home to Kamlaranir Sagardighi, the second-largest water body in Bangladesh.
History
Ancient Prehistoric settlements were said to have been discovered in the Chaklapunji tea garden, near Chandirmazar of Chunarughat. Habiganj has also revealed a significant number of prehistoric tools from the bed of Balu Stream, a small ephemeral stream (water remains here only for a few hours after rainfall). Angularity and freshness of the fossil wood artifacts suggest that they did not come from a great distance and probably came from nearby hillocks. Typologically, technologically, and morphometrically, the artifacts are more or less the same as those found in the Lalmai, Comilla. The fossil wood assemblages of both of these areas are often classified into two groups: pre-neolithic assemblages without polished tools (hand axes, cleavers, scrapers, chopping tools, points etc.) and neolithic assemblages (hand axes, polished Celts, awls etc.).
The Hindu epic known as the Mahabharata mentions the marriage of Duryodhana of the Kauravas into a family that are thought to be inhabitants of present-day Habiganj.
Early medieval
Historically, Habiganj was part of the Srihatta and Shilhatta region — which encompassed the current Greater Sylhet region. Though the borders of the kingdoms changed frequently, the region was ruled by the Buddhist and Hindu kingdoms of Harikela and Kamarupa before passing to the control of the Chandra, Sena and Deva dynasties in the early medieval period. Parts of the current district of Habiganj were part of the Tungachal Kingdom — a vassal state of the Gour Kingdom — with its capital being in present-day Chunarughat Upazila.
The Kamarupa state, the first historical kingdom of Assam, ruled from 350 to 1140 CE and occasionally took control of what is now modern day Habiganj district. Srichandra, the second king of the Chandra dynasty, led invasions into Kamarupa. The Paschimbhag copperplate inscription issued in 935 CE describes the land grant of 20,000 acres (8,100 ha) to build the Chandrapur University; though the location of the university is still unknown, Padmanath Bhattacharya, historian of the Kamarupa Kingdom and translator of the Nidhanpur copperplate inscription, claimed that Chandrapur was situated somewhere in the Habiganj District.
In medieval times, there were numerous petty kingdoms that were situated in what is now Habiganj District such as Azmardan, Baniachang, and Tungachal. In 1254, the Governor of Bengal Malik Ikhtiyaruddin Iuzbak invaded the Azmardan Raj. He defeated the local Raja, and plundered his wealth.
The feudal kingdom of Tungachal was given to Epivishnu by Raja Upananda of Brahmachal in the 11th century. It was based in Rajapur in southern Habiganj. Following the murder of Upananda by the Gour Kingdom loyalists, Epivishnu refused to acknowledge Tungachal as a part of Gour. This led to a battle in 1258 on the banks of Ghungi Jurir Haor in Tungachal in which Epivishnu was murdered and Shandul was subsequently appointed as Tungachal's governor by Raja Govardhan of Gour. In response to Epivishnu's murder, the King of Tripura managed to annex Tungachal away from Gour and appointed Bhadra Janardan, Epivishnu's minister, to govern Tungachal. Janardan was deposed during the reign of Govinda of Gour and replaced by Achak Narayan.
Following the Islamic Conquest of Sylhet in 1303, Syed Nasiruddin led a contingent of 1,000 soldiers along with the help of 12 Muslim saints to capture Tungachal in 1304. Nasiruddin was the military commander of Shamsuddin Firuz Shah, the Sultan of Lakhnauti (in western Bengal). After the successful capture and defeat of Achak Narayan, Tungachal was renamed to Taraf and incorporated into Bangalah (Bengal). Taraf was transformed to an esteemed centre of study in the subcontinent.
Late medieval Between the thirteenth and early seventeenth centuries, parts of Habiganj were a part of the state of Nasirabad, based in Mymensingh.
Syed Musa became the zamindar of Taraf in the 16th century. During his office, the King of Tripura Amar Manikya called upon the Baro-Bhuiyans to contribute labourers to aid in the digging of a reservoir tank. Musa refused to accept such subordination to the Twipra Kingdom. As a result, the Battle of Jilkua emerged in 1581 leading to the imprisonment of Musa and his son Syed Adam Bairam.
By the middle of the 15th century, when all the divisions of Laur were united under the headship of Baniachang House (now of Muslim faith), it seems the Muslim area of Taraf passed under the control of Baniachung, which now became very powerful to include in its territory, the whole of present Sunamganj and Habiganj subdivisions. A town by the name of Habibganj was founded by Syed Habib Ullah who belonged to the Syed zamindar dynasty of Taraf. The name Habibganj eventually turned into Habiganj.
In Baniachang, a battle occurred between the Baro-Bhuiyan zamindars of Baniachang (Anwar Khan and Husayn Khan) with the Mughal army in the 17th century, which can be found in the Bahrastan-i-Gayebi. Khwaja Usman fled Bukai Nagar Fort and established a shelter at Putijuri on the foot of the Giripal. He also established a fort at Putijuri, which was extremely important for defense. The Mughal army took the advantage when Khwaja Osman's brother was absent from the fort, leading to the successful annexation of Baniachang and Taraf into Mughal Bengal.
Taraf was incorporated into the Sarkar of Sylhet. The Mughals made use of the fort at Taraf, often camping whilst on expeditions to defeat other rebellious chieftains such as Pahlawan of Matang and Bayazid Karrani II of Sylhet. With the establishment of the East India Company and later the British Raj, Taraf continued to exist as a pargana or fiscal division within Sylhet. Its area was 79.65 square miles, consisted of 1601 estates and had a land revenue of £4400 as of 1875.
Modern
During the British Raj, Habiganj was established as a Thana (police precinct) in 1790, under Dhaka district (1779–1793).
In the second session of the Congress held in Calcutta in 1886, the Indian National Congress was able to attract representatives from Habiganj District. Until 1896, Habiganj's administrative centre was in Court Andar, Laskarpur. On 12 September 1874 it came under Sylhet district (part of Assam). Habiganj was declared as subdivision in 1867. On 7 April 1893, according to Notification #273 of Assam Provincial Government, Habiganj Thana (Administrative unit) was established. Habiganj was rejoined with East-Bengal (now Bangladesh) in 1911. Then the Office of the Circle Officer (Development) was established in 1960.
Habiganj is the historical place where the Mukti Bahini started their first guerrilla movement against rule of Pakistan Army. On 4 April 1971, during Bangladesh War of Independence, the senior army officers assembled at the headquarters of 2nd East Bengal Regiment at Teliapara, a semi-hilly area covered by tea gardens where General MAG Osmani, Lieutenant Colonel Abdur Rob, Lieutenant Colonel Salahuddin Mohammad Reja, Major Kazi Nuruzzaman, Major Khaled Mosharraf, Major Nurul Islam, Major Shafat Jamil, Major Mainul Hossain Chowdhury, and others were present.
At this meeting four senior commanders were entrusted with the responsibility of operational areas. Sylhet-Brahmanbaria area was placed under the command of Major Shafiullah, Comilla-Noakhali area was given to Major Khaled Mosharraf while Chittagong-Chittagong Hill Tracts was given to Major Ziaur Rahman and Kushtia-Jessore area was placed under command of Major Abu Osman Chowdhury. In the meeting the organization concept of the freedom fighter forces and the command structure were chalked out under the command of General MAG Osmani.
On 16 November 1971, Mukti Bahini fighter Jagat Jyoti and 11 villagers were killed in an encounter with the Pakistan army.
On 1 March 1984, Habiganj was established as a district under CMLA Hussain Muhammad Ershad's decentralization programme.
Geography Habiganj is located at . Its area is 2,636.58 km2 and bounded by Sunamganj District to the north, Tripura of India and Moulvibazar District to the east, Balaganj Upazila of Sylhet to the north-east, Brahmanbaria and Kishoreganj districts to the west.
This part of Bangladesh is characterized by alluvial plains which are dissected by various connecting rivers as well as streams, lakes; and it is vulnerable to both flood and drought. The land is devoted mainly to agriculture due to its fertile alluvial soils.
Land Cultivated agricultural land: 1,54,953 hectare (60.22% of the total agricultural land). Forestland 95 11,644 hectare (4.53% of the total land). For crops 51.6% single-crop, 38.7% double-crop and 9.7% triple-crop; fallow 521 hectares. Its rivers include Barak, Bheramahana, Gopala, Kalni, Kalishiri, Khowai, Korangi, Kushiara, Meghna River(lower), Ratna, Shwasanali, shutki, sonai, Korangi, Shutang, Tentulia, Jhingri, Bizna, Yojnal, and Lohor.
Demography
According to the 2022 Census of Bangladesh, Habiganj District had 491,884 households and a population of 2,358,886, of whom, 15.03% of the inhabitants lived in urban areas. The population density was 895 people per km2. 22.13% of the population was under 10 years of age. Habiganj had a literacy rate (age 7 and over) of 69.44%, compared to the national average of 74.80%, and a sex ratio of 94.16 males per 1000 females.
+Religion in present-day Habiganj DistrictReligion194119811991200120112022%%%%%%Islam 434,53659.43%997,42178.08%1,224,85380.23%1,431,88681.47%1,731,16882.87%1,981,08983.98%Hinduism 260,45735.62%265,65520.80%291,86019.12%321,07718.27%352,40716.87%374,10415.86%Tribal religion35,7944.90%Others 3640.0514,2901.12%9,8960.65%4,7020.26%5,4260.26%2,7610.12%Total Population731,151100%1,277,366100%1,526,609100%1,757,665100%2,089,001100%2,358,886100%
Muslims make up 83.98% of the population, while Hindus are 15.86% of the population. There is a population of 2,300 Christians, mainly among the ethnic minorities.
The ethnic population is 41,573 (1.76%), of which 13,152 are Munda, 6,666 Santal, 3,184 Bhumij and 2,551 Oraon. Most of the ethnic minorities are workers from the tea gardens whose ancestors were brought to the region by the British
Economy Tea Gardens: 24 covering total area 15,703.24 hectare. Rubber gardens: 3 Rupaichhara-Bahubal (1981). Half of this garden is situated in Habiganj and the rests are in Shreemangal, total area . Shahjibazar-Chunarughat(1978) area , Shatgaon Rubber garden (1971) area .
Rashidpur gas field (1960), Bibiana gas field (1998) and Habiganj gas field (1963). The approximate stock of these gas fields is 5.5 Trillion Cubic Feet. Habiganj gas field lies in Madhabpur Upazila. This field was also discovered by Pakistan Shell Oil Company in 1963. The structure measures 12x5 square km with a vertical closure of 300 m which has a roughly sub-meridian axis tilted slightly eastward at the northern end. Total recoverable gas reserve of this field re-estimated by Hydrocarbon Unit is . Commercial gas production from this field was commenced in 1968 and till 31 August 2006 total or 35.42 percent of reserves has been recovered.
Literature and culture Habigang is famous for folk Literature: Mahuya Sundari and Dhupar Path.