Assam CM Himanta Biswa Sarma announces renaming of Karimganj district; it will now be called…

Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma announced the renaming of Karimganj district on Tuesday in response to a ‘long-standing demand’. The region will now be known as Sribhumi — a name first used by famed Bengali poet Rabindranath Tagore.

“Over 100 years ago, Kabiguru Rabindranath Tagore had described modern-day Karimganj district as Sribhumi – the land of Maa Lakshmi. Today, the Assam cabinet has fulfilled this long-standing demand of our people,” Sarma explained.

The decision was taken during a meeting of the state cabinet on Tuesday afternoon. Sarma also indicated plans to “continue to change names” that were not based on actual words or lacked historical relevance during a press conference in Guwahati.

Local media reports also cited his plans to rename various various villages, towns and districts into “modern Assamese names that do not have a communal angle”. He also cited the renaming of Kala Pahar in Guwahati as Nilachal Nagar to underscore his point.

“We are gradually changing the names of places that lack historical mentions or dictionary meanings…Kalapahar doesn’t have a historic significance…there’s no meaning. The term ‘Kalapahar’ doesn’t appear in either Assamese or Bengali dictionaries, nor does ‘Karimganj’. Place names are typically rooted in linguistic meaning, and many such names have already been revised, including several villages like Bhasoni Chowk in Barpeta,” local media reports quoted him as saying.

Karimganj district (now Sribhumi) is located in southern Assam and shares a border with Tripura as well as Bangladesh. It is one of the three districts forming the Barak Valley region and used to be a part of Sylhet district before the partition of India. 

According to an excerpt from Sreehatter Itibritta-uttarrangsho by Bengali writer and historian Achyut Charan Choudhury, the area was named after a local mirashdar. Muhammad Karim Chowdhury had established a bazaar (known as Karimganj) close to the confluence of Natikhal and Kushiyara River.

(With inputs from agencies)