Cachar district

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Cachar District

Cachar (Assamese and Sylheti: কাছাড় Kasaŗ, Bengali: কাছাড় Kachhaŗ) is an administrative district in the state of Assam in India. The district headquarters are located at Silchar. The district occupies an area of 3786 km² and has a population of 1,442,141 (as of 2001).Bengali has a status of Official Language in this district, although the people of the district primarily speak Sylheti, a distant dialect of Bengali.

Silchar is one of the most important business centres of Assam. It is also one of the 6 cities of Assam to have an airport. NIT Silchar is one of best engineering colleges in India.

The name Cachar traces its origin to the Kachari kingdom. Cachar was a part of the greater Kachari kingdom which also included the adjoining Hailakandi and Karimganj districts. However, due to large scale migration of Bengali (Sylheti dialect) speaking Hindu people from neighbouring Bangladesh (erstwhile East Pakistan) during partition of India, the native Kachari tribesmen became minority, just like the Tripuris in Tripura. Most of the native Dimasa Kachari people were forced to leave the area and settle in the adjoining district of North Cachar Hills.

Official language: Assamese, Bengali
Regional language: Sylheti