Page:Report of the Bengal Boundary Commission (Radcliffe Award).pdf/6

1064 terms of reference was the correct one and that the "adjoining districts of Assam" did not extend to other districts of Assam than those that adjoined Sylhet. The Commission accordingly proceeded with its work on this basis.

6. It was argued before the Commission on behalf of the Government of East Bengal that on the true construction of our terms of reference and section 3 of the Indian Independence Act, 1947, the whole of the District of Sylhet at least must be transferred to East Bengal and the Commission had no option but to act upon this assumption. All my colleagues agreed in rejecting this argument, and I concur in their view.

7. We found some difficulty in making up our minds whether, under our terms of reference, we were to approach the Sylhet question in the same way as the question of partitioning Bengal, since there were some differences in the language employed. But all my colleagues came to the conclusion that we were intended to divide the Sylhet and adjoining districts of Assam between East Bengal and the Province of Assam on the basis of contiguous majority areas of Muslims and non-Muslims, but taking into account other factors, I am glad to adopt this view.

8. The members of the Commission were however unable to arrive at an agreed view as to how the boundary lines should be drawn, and after discussion of their differences, they invited me to give my decision. This I now proceed to do.

9. In my view, the question is limited to the districts of Sylhet and Cachar, since of the other districts of Assam that can be said to adjoin Sylhet neither the Garo Hills nor the Khasi and Jaintia Hills nor the Lushai Hills have anything approaching a Muslim majority of population in respect of which a claim could be made.

10. Out of 35 thanas in Sylhet, 8 have non-Muslim majorities; but of these eight, two—Sulla and Ajmiriganj (which is in any event divided almost evenly between Muslims and non-Muslims), are entirely surrounded by preponderatingly Muslim areas, and must therefore go with them to East Bengal. The other six thanas comprising a population of over 5,30,000 people stretch in a continuous line along part of the southern border of Sylhet District. They are divided between two sub-divisions, of which, one, South Sylhet, comprising a population of over 5,15,000 people, has in fact a non-Muslim majority of some 40,000; while the other, Karimganj, with a population of over 5,68,000 people, has a Muslim majority that is a little larger.

11. With regard to the District of Cachar, one thana, Hailakandi, has a Muslim majority and is contiguous to the Muslim thanas of Badarpur and Karimganj in the District of Sylhet. This thana forms, with the thana of Katlichara immediately to its south, the sub-division of Hailakandi; and in the sub-division as a whole Muslims enjoy a very small majority being 51 per cent. of the total population. I think that the dependence of Katlichara on Hailakandi for normal communications makes it important that the area should be under one jurisdiction, and that the Muslims would have at any rate a strong presumptive claim for the transfer of the Sub-division of Hailakandi, comprising a population of 1,66,536, from the Province of Assam to the Province of East Bengal.

12. But a study of the map shows, in my judgment, that a division on these lines would present problems of administration that might gravely affect the future welfare and happiness of the whole District. Not only would the six non-Muslim thanas of Sylhet be completely divorced from