SYMI Sylheti Youth Movement of India
অসমীয়া
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অসমীয়া · this translation is being reviewed by native speakers. The page is shown in English until it is ready.

Our history

A people, along one river.

From the first Nagri manuscripts to the renaming of Karimganj. Scroll down the river, then see where Sylheti lives today. For the stand at Latu in 1857, walk through Malegarh.

History

Centuries of a people, along one river.

Scroll down the river. Kingdoms, colonial lines, a partition and a renaming have all crossed it.

  1. c. 1549

    The earliest known Nagri manuscript

    Talib Huson, by Ghulam Huson, is the earliest known text in Sylheti Nagri. The date it gives is read as 1549 by most sources, though some read it later.

  2. 18 Dec 1857

    The stand at Malegarh

    Sepoys of the 34th Bengal Native Infantry, marching from Chittagong toward Manipur, fight the Sylhet Light Infantry on a hillock at Latu, near Karimganj. Twenty-six fall and are buried on the hill.

  3. 1874

    Sylhet is moved into Assam

    The Government of India separates Sylhet from Bengal and places it in the new Chief Commissionership of Assam. The decision shapes the region for the next 150 years.

  4. 19th–20th c.

    The Nagri presses

    Printing presses in Sylhet and beyond publish puthi poetry, Sufi texts and ballads in Nagri, giving the script a popular readership.

  5. 1947

    A referendum divides Sylhet

    Historic Sylhet is split. Part of Karimganj stays in India, and the Barak Valley becomes the centre of Sylheti life in India.

    → Sylhet drifts across a new border.

  6. 19 May 1961

    Eleven lives at Silchar

    During the Barak Valley's movement for Bengali as an official language, eleven people are killed at Silchar railway station. Bengali is recognised in the valley; Sylheti is not.

  7. 2005

    Nagri enters Unicode

    Syloti Nagri is added to Unicode 4.1. For the first time the script can be typed and shared on any device.

  8. Nov 2024

    Karimganj renamed Sribhumi

    The state government renames the district. For many in the community the renaming becomes a turning point.

  9. 2026

    SYMI is founded

    Young Sylheti speakers organise a civic and cultural movement for recognition, built outward from the Barak Valley.

Where Sylheti lives

A language that crosses every line drawn through it.

Tap a place to learn about it. SYMI works wherever Sylheti is a mother tongue.

Barak Cachar Karimganj Hailakandi Hojai North Tripura Unakoti Dhalai Shillong Jiribam
Schematic. Not to scale; positions are approximate.

  • The largest town of the valley and home of Assam University. The centre of Barak Valley organising.

The neglect record

A valley overlooked.

Recognition sits beside the valley's material needs. The record is worth knowing.

  1. 01

    Floods every year

    The same villages flood season after season. Lasting protection has yet to arrive, and the same families carry the cost.

  2. 02

    A development gap

    Roads, rail, healthcare, connectivity and jobs in the Barak Valley lag behind the rest of the state.

  3. 03

    Decisions from afar

    Budgets for the valley are decided far from the people they affect, with little local say.

  4. 04

    A name taken

    Karimganj was renamed Sribhumi in November 2024. For many, the name carried history and meaning.

  5. 05

    A border port, no voice

    The Sutarkandi land port handled about ₹410.6 crore of trade in 2022-23. The people who live beside it have little say in its future.

  6. 06

    A wetland disappearing

    Son Beel, the largest freshwater wetland of the Indian sub-Himalayas, faces growing flood and water stress that threatens farming and fishing families.