Bongaigaon district

Bongaigoan district fell under Eastern Dooars. Dooars between Sankosh River and Manas River are called Eastern Dooars.

From early 17th-century some parts of present-day Bongaigaon district was under the control of Kingdom of Bhutan, till the Duar Wars in 1865 when British removed the Bhutanese influence and later the areas were merged to undivided Goalpara district of the Indian Union in 1949.

The district was part of Kamrup. In the 14th century, its rule was passed onto the Baro-Bhuyans. Later in the 1580s Nara Narayan of the Kamata kingdom conquered the area and it subsequently became the fiefdom of the Bijni family, who were descendants of Nara Narayan. When the Kamata kingdom split into Koch Bihar and Koch Hajo due to rivalry between the king and his nephew Raghu Rai, Bongaigaon became part of Koch Hajo. Soon Koch Hajo and Koch Bihar went to war, and the Mughal Nawab of Dhaka, supporting Koch Bihar, defeated Rai at Dhubri in 1602. Rai's son Parikshit signed a peace treaty, but hostilities resumed in 1614 and Parikshit was driven back to modern-day Guwahati, where he surrendered and soon after died. His son, Bijit Narayan, was made Zamindar of the region between the Manas and Sankosh: from him the Bijni family descended. Koch Hajo was tributary to the Mughals, but in the last decades of the 17th century Mughal influence waned significantly due to the Ahom-Mughal wars in which the Ahoms were eventually successful. Koch Hajo, including Bijni Zamindari, fell under Ahom influence.

The district of Bongaigaon was created on 29 September 1989 from parts of Goalpara and Kokrajhar districts.[2] 2004 saw a loss of size when part of the district was split to make Chirang district.[2]

In the late 1750s, the East India Company strengthened their influence in Bengal and Lower Assam. In 1822 the East India Company created Goalpara district containing present-day Lower Assam, the Garo Hills and northeastern Rangpur division in Bangladesh. The Bijnis continued to pay tribute to the British, and even gained a small amount of land after the Duar War in 1865. Rangpur and the Garo Hills were eventually stripped away to form different districts, but Goalpara continued to be administered as part of a Cooch Behar province. Eventually the Assam Valley province was founded in 1874, and Goalpara was moved to it. Goalpara was later divided into various districts including Kokrajhar and Dhubri, and later Bongaigaon.[3]

The district religious composition are as follows: Hindu 359,145, Muslim 371,033, Christian 5,924, Sikh 384, Buddhist 236, Jain 871 as per 2011 census report.[10] Way back in 1971, Hindus were slight majority in Bongaigaon district with forming 69.8% of the population, while Muslims were 27.8% at that time.[11]

According to the 2011 census, 48.51% of the population spoke Assamese, 43.35% Bengali, 3.06% Hindi, 1.45% Kamtapuri and 1.13% Boro as their first language.[12]