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 (now Bangladesh) and Karimganj under India.

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 into 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 into Barak.

The official language of Barak valley is Bengali. The majority of the people are of Sylheti decent and they speak Sylheti language. Sylheti speaking people consider themselves as Indigenous of the valley

Hindusim is the majority religion in Barak valley. Religious composition of the valley population according to Census report of 2011 is Hindus:50.0% (18,12,141) ,Muslim:48.1% (17,44,958), Christians 1.6% (58,675) and others 0.2%. Barak Valley is second place in India after Kashmir Valley where Muslims are in majority after Hindus . Hindus are majority in Cachar district(60%) while Muslims are majority in Hailakandi district(60.31%) and Karimganj district (56.26%).

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