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Jorhat is and has been a vibrant place and is a perfect mixture of tradition and modernity. It was the hub of anti-British struggle of Assam. Before that it was the last capital of the Ahoms, the dynasty which ruled over Assam for six centuries. Apart from being a part of the Ahom Kingdom’s end, the city is also known for tea plantation.
Jorhat was established as a new capital in the year 1794 by the declining Tunkhungia Ahom Dynasty during the King, Swargadeo Gaurinath Singha. It became Sub-division of sibsagar district in 1869, the headquarter of Sibsagar District in 1912 during British rule and became the headquarter of Jorhat District in 1983. Jorhat, as the name signifies, was just a couple (Jor) joint markets (Hat). Two parallel markets namely, Chowkihat and Macharhat, lay on the eastern and the western banks of the river Bhogdoi.
The cultural environment which prevailed in Jorhat nearly a century ago has inspired the people to participate in cultural activities through the decades and as a result Jorhat has been able to produce many creative writers, musician, actors, historians and journalist, making Jorhat “The Cultural Capital of Assam”. In the building of modern Assam, Jorhat played a vital role so far as a sizable section of Assamese intelligentsia has always been from this Knowledge city of Northeast India. It is also a fact that Jorhat contains the largest number of educated people in Assam.
Jorhat is considered a good place for modern education providing a great platform for higher education in the field of engineering, arts and social science, law, commerce, medical science, agriculture. The city has many research institutes, including the world’s oldest and largest Tea Exprimental Station, North East Institute of Science & Technology, Rain & Forest Research Institute, Central Muga Eri Research Institute and universities like Assam Agricultural University & Kaziranga University.
Jorhat has had many firsts to its credit in different spheres. Jorhat was the first town of the Greater Assam installing electricity supply in 1923. The first aeroplane on northeastern soil was landed in Jorhat in 1928. Jorhat Gymkhana Club is the oldest golf course in Asia and third oldest in the world. The first stadium of Assam was built in Jorhat. The world’s oldest and largest Tea Experimental Station is located at Jorhat. The first non-government college of Assam J B College was established in Jorhat. The first Assamese Tea Planter Maniram Dewan, noted oriented scholar Krishana Kanta Handique- the founder vice chancellor of Gauhati University, Birendra Kumar Bhattacharya-the first Assamese to win Jnanpith award, the first Assamese judge-Late Radha Nath Phukon, Prof. J N. Goswami-the Principal Scientific Investigator of Chandrayaan-1 mission, IIFA2012 award winner Amrit Pritam Dutta for sound recording are a few held from Jorhat.
Statistical Accounts of Assam observed that “In 1865 the Bazar of Jorhat contained 160 shops of which 28 belonged to Marwari Merchants……...a few shops are kept by Mohammadans of the district, the chief articles sold by them being’ European’ goods and furniture, the remaining shops are petty stalls in which grains, oil, onion, etc are retailed.”
Now Jorhat is a rapidly developing city and one of the major business & commercial hubs of Northeast-India. Its population has now increased to more than 0.1million. The recent urban development of Jorhat has seen the rise of several high cost apartments and flats with people flocking in from all parts of the state making it truly a cosmopolitan City. The variety of heterogeneity of the city population, specially its business community – comprising of Punjabis, Biharis, Marwaries, Bengalis and even odd South Indian is something commendable. Yet each person, irrespective of his place of origin, who has made Jorhat his home is staunchly loyal to his adopted home and fully identifies with it. Jorhat is very dear to the heart of its inhabitants and they still consider it the best place to live. Urban, polite and polished behavior is the distinguishing features of an average Jorhatiya man.it has always been a leading city of the state in the matter of education, culture, literature, games & sports and in all other activities that make the lives of its inhabitants fruitful.
Jorhat has attracted many foreign as well as domestic tourists as the major tourist places like "Majuli"- one of the World's biggest river island , the World Heritage Site- Kaziranga National Park, Sibsagar are easily accessible from Jorhat and the city is easily accessible to the rest of the country by air.
Assam Tourism is a land of myths and mystery. "The land of red river and blue hills," as it is described, has a unique landscape with sprawling tea gardens and unending stretches of paddy fields interspersed with groves of coconut, areca nuts, and banana trees. Its population is a confluence of streams of different races and tribes like the Austrics, the Aryans, Negroids, Indo-Burmese, Indo-Tibetans, and Mongoloid. They have enriched each other and have evolved to give a distinctive identity to the Assamese people.
