Sylhet at British Period

Although the British won the political and military supremacy in Bengal after their victory at Palashi in 1757, the Company as such did not interfere with the administration till1765. In that year the East India Company acquired the Diwani of Bangla, Bihar and Orissa from the Mughal Emperor Shah Alam II, thereby taking over the revenue collection and civil justice of the country. From this time Sylhet also came under the administrative control of the Company. At that time Muhammad Ali Khan Quimjong was the Faujdar of Sylhet who the chief administrator of the area under the Bengal Nawab. Till 1782, Sylhet was under the direct control of the Dhaka sub-provincial administration. On 3 January 1782 Sylhet was separated from Dhaka zone and made a separate administrative unit. Initially the Company allowed the Faujdar of Sylhet to administer the area with limited power. The Foujdars who worked under the East India Company were Bhikhu Khan (1773), Haidar Ali Khan (1785), Sadakat Ali Khan (1806) and Muhammad Hadi (1808-1810). After Muhammad Hadi the post of a full-fledged Foujdar was abolished and Torab Khan, Qasim Khan and Gunar Khan only served as Deputy Faujdars. While Fouzdars had the power to donate rent free lands the Deputy Foujdars could not make any such grants.

British administrative system gradually took shape following the model of the Mughals. The main objective of British administration was to form a military and civil administrative system through which they could ensure law and order in society, collect revenue and impose an overall control on local establishments. During the Mughal period Foujdar was the chief of the general administration at the district level. The chief revenue collector was Ameel and the chief of judiciary was the Qazi. They had their own separate jurisdiction for discharging their duties. In 1772 Warren Hastings combined these several jurisdictions of authority and laid down the foundation of a single unified district administrative unit. This was how the modern district system came into being. The executive chief of the newly-formed district was called Collector-Magistrate. In course of time the activities of the district administration greatly increased. In 1772, the area of Sylhet district was 3800 sq. miles with a population of 4,92,945. Under the British, the Collector-Magistrate was the pivot district administration. He was the chief executive of his distract. Other Magistrates, Police and Officers of revenue department were subordinate to him. Primarily he was the chief magistrate and chief civil judge in one person. Later the judicial responsibility of the District magistrate was transferred to the District and Sessions Judge. However, the district registry, jail, civil defense, customs and excise were the departments which remained directly under the control of the district magistrate. 

Till 1874 Sylhet was included in Dhaka Division. On 12 September 1874 the district was incorporated into the newly-formed Assam province. In 1905 the new province of East Bengal and Assam was created and Sylhet was included in it. But in 19 70 in1 when the partition of Bengal was annulled, Sylhet again became a part of the province of Assam and remained so till 1947.