Nagaon Essay

After establishing complete control over Kaliabor, one thousand paiks were taken from Kaliabor and placed at Nagaon. As the village was newly settled so the village came to be known as Nagaon (Na meaning ‘New’, Gaon meaning ‘Village’). In the early phase of the colonial rule, the southern bank of Brahmaputra and the entire central Assam was known as ‘Nowgong’, which is the anglicized form of present Nagaon. The eastern, western, and southern segments of the newly organized district were once ruled by different small-time feudal kings or their agents. Describing the mayhem created by the Burmese in Nagaon district, E. Gait comments that, “The district became also as other parts of Assam, prey to appalling atrocities of the Burmese. The depopulation of the region around Dobaka and the Kapili valley dates from this disastrous time, which is still fresh in the memory of the inhabitants of

Hunter, earlier the Nagaon district was a part of Kamrup district. In 1832 Nagaon was transformed into an administrative unit and the British first established their headquarters at Puranigudam in 1833, later at Rongagorah in 1835 and finally in 1839 at Nagaon. During the course of history, Nagaon witnessed many changes and various new places came into existence. People started to come from different parts of Assam and also from outside and settled at various places in Nagaon district which significantly influenced the nomenclatures of these places. At one time, a large chunk of the Naga Hills, the Mikir Hills, and North Cachar Hills were part of the district. With the passage of time, they were sliced away to form separate districts. According to the 2011 census Nagaon district has a population of 2,826,006, Muslims 1,180,267 and Hindus 1,106,354 (Census of India, 2011). Nagaon presents a fascinating and bewildering mix of cultures of Hinduism, Sikhism and Islam. At the social level, a great majority of the people are Vaishnavites, followers of Vaishnava