Subho Bhattacharya

1/n As a student of history, I want to set the record straight on the false claims made by @nishikant_dubey. The claims made by Dubey contain significant historical inaccuracies regarding the Partition of India, the princely state of Tripura, the demarcation of Bengal and Assam, and the individuals involved in the 1947 Sylhet Referendum. (a) Chittagong, Noakhali, and Sylhet Were Never Part of Tripura :- The historical status is that Chittagong and Noakhali were never administrative territories of the Princely State of Tripura (known historically as Hill Tippera). They were distinct British-administered districts of Bengal Province. (b) While the Manikya Maharajas of Tripura held private zamindari estates (Chakla Roshnabad) in the British plains of Tippera (now Comilla), Noakhali, and Sylhet, these were private landholdings subject to British revenue administration, not sovereign territory of the Tripura princely state. (c) W.r.t accession, when Maharani Kanchan Prabha Devi (regent for minor Maharaja Kirit Bikram Kishore Manikya) signed the Instrument of Accession in August 1947 (and later the Tripura Merger Agreement in 1949), Tripura acceded strictly with its own princely boundaries. India did not "hand over" Tripura’s sovereign land to Pakistan. (d) The Demarcation of Chittagong, Noakhali, and Sylhet Was Not Decided by Nehru (i)Noakhali:-According to the 1941 Census of British India, Noakhali was overwhelmingly Muslim-majority (over 81% Muslim), not Hindu-majority. Under the core partition formula accepted by the British, the Congress, and the Muslim League, Muslim-majority contiguous districts of Bengal went to East Bengal (Pakistan). (ii)Chittagong Port & Hill Tracts(CHT):- Chittagong district had a clear Muslim majority (over 74%). The Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) were predominantly non-Muslim (indigenous Buddhist and Hindu populations), but Sir Cyril Radcliffe awarded CHT to Pakistan on the grounds that it was geographically contiguous to Chittagong port and lacked viable economic and infrastructural connections to India. Indian leaders including Nehru and Patel vigorously protested this award, but the boundary was drawn unilaterally by the British Boundary Commission. (iii) Sylhet:- Sylhet was a Muslim-majority district (61% Muslim in 1941) transferred to Assam in 1874 by the colonial administration. Because it was attached to Hindu-majority Assam, the British 3rd June Plan mandated a popular referendum to determine whether Sylhet would remain with Assam (India) or join East Bengal (Pakistan). There is factual inaccuracy about who conducted the Sylhet Referendum The 1947 Sylhet Referendum was administered by the British Indian Government. The official Referendum Commissioner was a British ICS officer, H. C. Stork (alongside military peacekeeping overseen by Brigadier Mohinder Singh Chopra). Justice Baharul Islam (1918–1993) did not conduct the Sylhet referendum. While his later political-to-judicial transitions (from Congress Rajya Sabha MP to High Court and Supreme Court judge, and back to politics) drew significant legal and public debate in the 1970s and 1980s, attributing the colonial-era referendum's administration or the leadership of a "Muslim League Red Army" in Noakhali to him contradicts official administrative records.