The letter was written by the Purvo Shrihatta Sanmillani, and addressed to the Prime Minister of India, the Minister of External Affairs, and the Minister of Home Affairs (Department of Border Management), through the Governor and Chief Minister of Assam, dated 30 May 2017. 

They submitted a memorandum providing a comprehensive explanation of their claim that the demarcation of Sylhet in 1947 was carried out incorrectly. They stated that approximately 4,692 sq km of territory was wrongly placed in East Pakistan and,should have remained in India. 

Some extracts from the memorandum are as follows:  
“That a land, with an area measuring approximately 4692 sq km, equivalent to 2.6 times of the present Karimganj district of Assam (1809 sq km) was erroneously demarcated in 1947 in favor of East Pakistan during partition of Sylhet district of Assam, as per Cyril Radcliffe AWARD, Consequently the entitled territory of the state of Assam (and India) is yet to be possessed or under adverse possession of Bangladesh.”  
“He was not a cartographer but a legal expert. That’s why he finally wrote in his award for Sylhet specifically to ignore the ‘Map’ as shown in Map 3 above saying that “In the event of any divergence between the line as delineated on the map and as described in paragraph 13, the written description is to prevail“.  Now let us look into the written description little closely. “A line shall be drawn from the point where the boundary between the Thanas of Patharkandi and Kulaura meets the frontier of Tripura State and shall run north along the boundary between those Thanas, then along the boundary between the Thanas of Patharkandi and Barlekha, then along the boundary between the Thanas of Karimganj and Barlekha,….So much of the district of Sylhet as lies to the west and north of this line shall be detached from the province of Assam and transferred to the province of East Bengal. No other part of the province of Assam shall be transferred.”  
“Accordingly, due to erroneous exercise, only three Thanas of Badarpur (47 sq mi or 122 sq km), Ratabari (240 sq mi or 622 sq km), Patharkandi (277 sq mi or 717 sq km) and a portion of Karimganj Thana (145 sq mi or 376 sq km) with a total area of 709 sq mi or 1836 sq km and a population of 23 million were retained in Assam and a land area of 4692 sq km and a population of 57 million left in the Sreebhumi or under adverse possession of East Pakistan.”  
“Pakistan could adversely possess 87.2% of land area covering 12,298 sq km (present Sylhet Bighag in Bangladesh) and only 12.8% of land area covering 1,809 sq km was retained in Assam, in place of 6,128 sq km.   
There was an unwanted, biased, and statutorily non-tenable, unprepared Referendum in a single district (Sylhet) of Assam on 5-7 June, 1947.   
A district is not an independent unit of administration. However, there were 5,41,517 eligible voters and 77% voters participated in the voting. Out of these 77% voters (4,23,660), the 56.56% (2,39,619) voters voted for East Bengal (Pakistan) and 43.44% voters (1,84,041) opted for Assam (India).  
 Demarcation of boundary was based not on results of simple majority but on the basis of “sharing of land area in proportion to voting pattern”.  Sir Cyril John Radcliffe genuinely awarded 43.44% (6,128 sq km) of land to India (Assam), more or less in proportion to the overall voting pattern in the Referendum, as shown in Map 4, 5 & 6.  In an unfair exercise, Assam (India) was allowed only 1,809 sq km (12.8%) of land and East Bengal (Pakistan) was allowed 87.2% (12,298 sq km) of land. As per description, Assam is entitled to 44% land and East Bengal (Pakistan) is entitled to 56% of Sylhet, Assam. But Assam was allowed only 13% and East Bengal was awarded 87%.”

“That the South Sylhet region (comprising Kulaura, Rajnagar, Moulvibazar, Kamalganj, Srimangal thanas constitute about 60% of the aforesaid Sreebhumi) was Hindu majority area. There are 133 tea gardens in the aforesaid area of Sreebhumi. Among them 24 tea gardens are located in neighboring Habiganj sub-division. The tea communities are all Hindus. Interestingly they were not allowed to caste vote in the referendum. Still, amidst all adversities, majority of votes in the Referendum went in favor of remaining in Assam (India).”

** **Series of Protest**:** That the protests on erroneous demarcation, popularly known as “*SYLHETER BARO THANAR DABI*” (Demand for twelve Thanas of Sylhet) were immediately voiced by local citizens in 1947, but the response from the Governments of India & Pakistan was feeble.

Size of Sreebhumi: As per Redclfffe’s Award, 1947, territory (designated here as Sreebhumi) lies to the border of north-eastern of Tripura in its south-west. It is to be pointed out that the NCR of Delhi is only 1,484 sq km. The combined area of said Sreebhumi (6,501 sq km) is about three times of NCR of Delhi. In Assam, it would have ranked 2nd among 33 districts only after Karbi Anglong district (10,434 sq km).

Many economic possibilities and resource strengths were also mentioned based on their interpretation.

Note- All the points mentioned here are extracted from the memorandum. 

What do you think? 

The Sylhet Referendum: Unfair Practices and Wrongful Demarcation of 1947