Barak Valley
The Barak Valley (Bengali: বরাক উপত্যকা) (also South Assam) is located in the southern region of the Indian state of Assam. The main city of the valley is Silchar. The region is named after the Barak river. The Barak valley mainly consists of three administrative districts of Assam State - namely Cachar, Karimganj, and Hailakandi. Among these three districts, Cachar and Hailakandi belonged to the erstwhile Cachar district in British-India, whereas Karimganj belonged to the Sylhet district . Karimganj was separated from Sylhet after the 1947 referendum; with the rest of Sylhet falling under East Pakistan and Karimganj under India.
Bengali and Meitei (Manipuri) are the two official languages of Barak Valley districts of Assam.[1][2][3]
Etymology
[change | change source]The name "Barak" has derived from the Dimasa words 'Bra' & 'Kro'. Bra means bifurcation and Kro upper portion/stream. The river Barak is bifurcated near Haritikar in the Karimganj district in to Surma River and Kushiyara River. The upstream of this bifurcated river was called Brakro by the local Dimasa people. Over the years, Brakro got converted in to Barak.
Demography
[change | change source]
Religion in Barak Valley (2021 census)[4]
Barak valley had a population of 4,377,612 as per as 2021 census.[5] Hinduism have gone-down from 50% in 2011 to 47% in 2021 due to low fertility rate and large scale immigration of the community from the Valley to others parts of the region in search of jobs and livelihood.[4] The number of Hindu immigrants from Bangladesh into Barak Valley has varied estimates from year 1971-2014. According to the Assam government, (1.3-1.5) lakhs such people residing in the Barak Valley are eligible for citizenship if the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019 becomes a law.[6][7] Islam is the fastest growing religion in Barak valley, As per as 2011 census, Muslims were 48.1% in the valley and in 2021 census it have gone up to 51% due to high fertility rate and lower immigration of the community to others regions/parts of the country.[8][9] Christian missionaries have active in Barak region since from the time of independence. As a result of Christian missionaries, Christianity is rapidly growing among the tribals and poor section of Muslim and Hindu society of the valley since from the past 2 decades. In 2011, Barak valley had 57.9 thousand christians but in the year of 2021, it have grown to almost 74.4 thousands approximately due to high rate of conversion from various church denomination missionaries from the valley.[10][11][12]
| Religion | Population | Percentage |
|---|---|---|
Hindu ( )
|
2,057,477 | 47 |
Muslim ( )
|
2,232,582 | 51 |
Christian ( )
|
74,419 | 1.7 |
| Others | 13,132 | 0.3 |
References
[change | change source]- ↑ "Assam recognises Manipuri as associate official language in four districts". Hindustan Times. 2024-02-24. Retrieved 2024-02-24.
- ↑ PTI (2024-02-24). "Assam Cabinet gives nod to recognise Manipuri as associate official language in four districts". The Hindu. ISSN 0971-751X. Retrieved 2024-02-24.
- ↑ "Assam Cabinet gives nod to recognise Manipuri as associate official language in four districts". The Indian Express. 2024-02-24. Retrieved 2024-02-24.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 "Assam Assembly Election 2021: In Barak Valley, Congress battles religious fault lines; local factors bother BJP-India News , Firstpost". April 2021.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Karmakar, Rahul (30 March 2021). "Assam Assembly Elections 2021 | 2 mills deepen divide in poll-bound Assam". The Hindu.
- ↑ "Bengali Hindu refugees in Assam's Barak Valley hope for CAB's passage in RS". 11 December 2019.
- ↑ "Citizenship Amendment Bill protests: Here's why Assam is burning".
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 "Assembly polls 2021: Assam politics' tryst with religion and language". 24 March 2021.
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 "In Assam's Barak Valley, Muslims fear the new citizenship bill will disempower them politically".
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 "Christians of Barak Valley are unconcerned about the CAAসংশোধিত নাগরিকত্ব আইন নিয়ে ভাবছেন না বরাকের খ্রিস্টানরা".
- ↑ 11.0 11.1 "Christmas celebrated with fervour in Barak Valley - Sentinelassam". 26 December 2015.
- ↑ 12.0 12.1 The activities of Welsh Presbyterian Mission in Barak Valley
