The state government has changed the name of the Bengali-speaking district of Karimganj in the north-eastern state of Assam, India. The name of this district adjacent to Bangladesh has been changed to Sribhumi. The Cabinet of Assam took this decision on Tuesday. This information is known from the report of Indian media Hindustan Times.
Karimganj is one of the three districts in the Barak river basin of Assam which have a majority of Bengali speaking people. Regarding the renaming of the district, Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sharma said that this decision has been taken to honor the views of poet Rabindranath Tagore and fulfill the long-standing demands of the people of the region.
In a tweet shared on social media X, Himanta Vishwasharma wrote, 'About a hundred years ago, the poet Rabindranath Tagore described the modern Karimganj district as Sri Bhumi i.e. the land of Mother Lakshmi. Today the Assam Cabinet has fulfilled that long-standing demand.'
Himanta Vishwasharma also said that the name has been changed with the aim of restoring the old glory of this district in the southern part of the state. In a separate X post, the Chief Minister said, 'The new name of Karimganj will develop its own identity of Sribhumi. It will also highlight the rich cultural heritage of the district.
Talking to reporters, Himanta Vishwasharma said that the state government is taking initiatives to change some other names, which represent the history, culture and significance of the regions. He said, 'Names which are not related to history or are not in common lexicon will be changed. The name Karimganj is not found in Assamese or Bengali dictionaries. But Sribhumi is mentioned in the dictionary and meaningful.'
Before this, Karimganj was formed as a subdivision of Sylhet district in 1878 during the British period. Karimganj city was the headquarters of this subdivision. During the partition of India in 1947, Sylhet district was included in East Pakistan (now Bangladesh). However, three and a half police station areas (Ratabari, Badarpur, Patharkandi and a part of Karimganj) of Karimganj subdivision remain in Indian territory.
Later this subdivision was included in Cachar district. On July 1, 1983, Karimganj was elevated as a full-fledged district. According to the 2011 census, the population of Karimganj district is about 1.2 million.
