Syhlet

Sylhet came under British administration in 1765. Sylhet was strategically important for the British in their pursuit of conquering Northeast India and Upper Burma. The first commercial tea plantation in British India was opened in the Mulnicherra Estate in Sylhet in 1857.^[20] Sylhet was constituted as a municipality in 1867.^[21] Despite protests to the Governor of Bengal from its Bengali-majority population, the town was made part of the Chief Commissioner's Province of Assam in 1874 in order to facilitate Assam's educational and commercial development. The Assam Bengal Railway was established in the late 19th century to connect Assam and Sylhet with the port city of Chittagong. In 1905, Sylhet became a divisional headquarter of Eastern Bengal and Assam. In 1912, it was again separated from Bengal and made part of Assam Province. The Muslims of Sylhet generally favored reunion with Bengal.^{[citation needed]} The Bengali Muslim elite in Dacca also vouched for Sylhet's reunion with Bengal. By the 1920s, organizations such as the Sylhet Peoples Association and Sylhet-Bengal Reunion League mobilized public opinion demanding the division's incorporation into Bengal. Nevertheless, the Bengalis of Sylhet were influentially placed in the administration, educational institutions and commercial activities of Assam.