Nagaon
Encyclopedia
Nagaon is a medium sized city and a municipal board in Nagaon district
Nagaon district
Nagaon is an administrative district in the state of Assam in India. As of 2011 it is the most populous district of Assam .-History:...

 in the India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

n state
States and territories of India
India is a federal union of states comprising twenty-eight states and seven union territories. The states and territories are further subdivided into districts and so on.-List of states and territories:...

 of Assam
Assam
Assam , also, rarely, Assam Valley and formerly the Assam Province , is a northeastern state of India and is one of the most culturally and geographically distinct regions of the country...

. It is situated 123 kilometres (76 mi) east of Guwahati
Guwahati
Guwahati, Pragjyotishpura in ancient Assam formerly known as Gauhati is a metropolis,the largest city of Assam in India and ancient urban area in North East India, with a population of 963,429. It is also the largest metropolitan area in north-eastern India...

. An older spelling of the name is Nowgong.

It is one of the fastest growing cities of the northeast.

History

The entire credit of introduction of modern education in the district goes to the Christian missionaries. Of them American missionaries, Miles Bronson
Miles Bronson and the Noctes
Miles Bronson and the Noctes in the Namsang Hill Miles Bronson, one of the pioneer American Baptist missionaries worked in Assam, arrived at Sadia in Assam on 8 July 1838. In the previous year, Nathan Brown and O.T. Cutter landed at Sadia with their families with an object to go to Northern...

 and Nathan Brown
Nathan Brown (missionary)
Nathan Brown was an American Baptist missionary to India and Japan, Bible translator, and abolitionist.-Early life and missions to Burma and Assam:...

 are worth mentioning. The apostle of the new age Anandaram Dhekial Phukan spent the best part of his life at Nagaon. His spiritual successor Gunabhiram Barua also worked in Nagaon for about two decades.

Geography

The river Kolong, a tributary of the Brahmaputra River
Brahmaputra River
The Brahmaputra , also called Tsangpo-Brahmaputra, is a trans-boundary river and one of the major rivers of Asia. It is the only Indian river that is attributed the masculine gender and thus referred to as a in Indo-Aryan languages and languages with Indo-Aryan influence...

, flows through Nagaon and in the process divides the town into two distinct regions: Nagaon and Haibargaon. There are 2 railway stations in the city: Nagaon and Haibargaon.

Nagaon is bounded on the North by the Sonitpur district and the Brahmaputra river. On the South it is bounded by the West Karbi Anglong District
Karbi Anglong District
Karbi Anglong district is the largest amongst the 27 administrative districts of Assam state in north-eastern India. The district is bounded by Golaghat district on the east, Meghalaya state and Marigaon district on the west, Nagaon and Golaghat districts on the north and Dima Hasao district and...

 and Dima Hasao. On the East it is bounded by East Karbi Anglong and the Golaghat district
Golaghat District
Golaghat district is an administrative district in the state of Assam in India. It attained district status in 1987. The district headquarters are located at Golaghat. The district occupies an area of 3502 km² and lies 100 m above sea level. As of 2001, Golaghat district has a population of...

, while the West is bounded by the Marigaon district
Marigaon district
Marigaon district is an administrative district in the state of Assam in India. The district headquarters are located at Marigaon. The district occupies an area of 1,550 km² and has a population of 957,853 of which males and females are 485,328 and 472,525 respectively.The ancient place of...

.

The area of the district is 4435.3 km2.

The total population of the district was 1,893,171 as of 1991. This was divided into 1,687,449 people in rural areas and 205,722 in urban areas.

Extension 250-45' to 260 -45' North Latitude 920 -33' -6" East

The major rivers are the Brahmaputra, Kalong, Sonai, Nanoi, Jamuna, Kopili and Barpani.

There are several beel
Beel
A beel or a bheel is a term for a pond with static water , in the Ganges - Brahmaputra flood plains of the Eastern Indian states of West Bengal, and Assam and in the country of Bangladesh...

s, marshy lands and swamps in the district. These are abandoned channels of the Kalong and Kopili rivers. They are Marikalong, Potakalong, Haribhanga, Jongalbalahu, Samoguri beel, Urigadang and Nawbhanga.

The district is shaped like a broken dish. Marigaon and Nagaon makes a perfect geomorphological area.

Transport

Nagaon is well connected by road links. The National Highway 36 and 37 provide easy access to important places of Nagaon District.
There are two railway stations in Nagaon, one at Haiborgaon and another at Nagaon town.
The nearest Railway Junction is at Chaparmukh which is around 28 km from Nagaon Town.

The nearest airport is Tezpur Airport
Tezpur Airport
Tezpur Airport is located in Tezpur in the state of Assam, India. It is also known as Salonibari Airport based on the village/township of Salonibari where it is located....

. The nearest international airport is Lokpriya Gopinath Bordoloi International Airport
Lokpriya Gopinath Bordoloi International Airport
Lokpriya Gopinath Bordoloi International Airport , also known as Guwāhāti International Airport and formerly as Borjhar Airport, is the airport of Guwahati, Assam, India. The airport is managed by Airports Authority of India and also serves as Indian Air Force base...

 at Borjhar (Guwahati).

Demographics

India census
Census
A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring and recording information about the members of a given population. It is a regularly occurring and official count of a particular population. The term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common...

, Nagaon city had a population of 107,471. In 2009 the urban agglomeration had a population of 563,200. it is the fourth largest city in assam after guwahati, silchar and dibrugarh.
Males constitute 53% of the population and females 47%. Nagaon has an average literacy rate of 77%, higher than the national average of 59.5%: male literacy is 81%, and female literacy is 73%. In Nagaon, 10% of the population is under 6 years of age.

Schools

Nagaon has the oldest school in Assam, Nowgong Mission High School, established by the Christian missionary Miles Bronson way back in 1846. It also has the third oldest Government school in Assam, Nowgong Govt. Boys' Higher Secondary School, established in 1865.
Another old school is Dawson Higher Secondary & Multipurpose School. Another assamese medium high school is Haibargaon Girls' High School,establish in 1960.

There are some Bengali Medium schools also in Nagaon town.

Nowgong Bengali Higher Secondary School,
Nowgong Bengali Girls' High school,

There are some Hindi Medium schools:
Marwari Girls' High School,
Marwari Boys' High School

The most respected English medium schools of Nagaon are as follows ...
Nowgong Mission High School,
St. Ignatius Loyola School,
Christ Jyoti School,
Nagaon English Academy,
Little Flower School
Kendriya Vidyalaya, Nagaon

There are some Assamese Medium Primary schools:
Mohendra Barua L.P. School,
Kalongpar L.P. School,
Nehru Bidyapith, etc.

Colleges

At present, there are 25 colleges, of which probably the most renowned is the Nowgong College, located at the heart of the town. Other worthmentionings are: A.D.P. College (named after Anandaram Dhekial Phukan), Khagorijan College (named after old administrative head quarter of Nowgong District), Nowgong Girls' College, Nowgong Law College, Nagaon G.N.D.G. Commerce College,College of Fisheries (the only one of its kind in northeastern India), located in Raha, comes under the academic management of Assam Agricultural University http://www.aau.ac.in, Jorhat, etc.

Health

Nagaon has a good number of nursing homes and hospitals with specialized and super-specialized units. Government run hospital : 1 (Civil Hospital).

Specialized clinics like :Diabetes (Diabetes Care Centre - Dr. Nirmal Kumar Das), Orthopaedics, Ophthalmology, Neurology, Nephrology, Radiology.
Nagaon also has a Homeopathic Medical College. Nowgong Polytechnic is one of the oldest technical education institutes in Assam.

A Medical College, a Fishery University and a special Srimanta Sankardev University have been planned for Nagaon.

Notable personalities

Many renowned politicians were born in this town, like Poet Deba Kanta Baruah (former President of All India Congress Committee); Revolutionary Communist leader Comrade M. Shamsul Huda (writer, poet, journalist, literary pensioner who had been elected several times with also highest ever cast votes in favour to Assam Legislative Assembly as its Member from Dhing LAC); Prafulla Kumar Mahanta (youngest Chief Minister of Assam); Mahim Borah (former President of Assam Sahitya Sabha), * Bhabendra Nath Saikia
Bhabendra Nath Saikia
Dr. Bhabendra Nath Saikia was a novelist, short story writer and film director from Assam. He had a PhD in Nuclear Physics from the University of London and later taught at Gauhati University. He won many literary awards, including Sahitya Academy , and was also recognised with the Padma...

, writer, director and former editor of the magazines Prantik
Prantik
Prantik is a multi-topic Assamese magazine published fortnightly from Guwahati since 1981. It plays a vital role in the socio-political lives of the people of Assam. The founder editor of the magazine is Dr. Bhabendranath Saikia. The present editor is Pradip Baruah.-References:The magazine was...

and Safura, * Parveen Sultana
Parveen Sultana
Begum Parveen Sultana is an Assamese Hindustani classical singer of the Patiala Gharana. She is among the foremost classical vocalists in India and is known as Queen of Classical Vocal.She was conferred the Padmashri in 1976....

, classical singer and Padmashree award winner (1976)

Sports

The stadium in Nagaon is named after the late Nurul Amin. It hosts the prestigious Independence Day Cup Football tournament every year in Aug-Sep in which most of the teams of national repute participate.

See also

  • Nowgong (Lok Sabha constituency)
    Nowgong (Lok Sabha constituency)
    -Assembly segments:Nowgong Lok Sabha constituency is composed of the following assembly segments :* Jagiroad * Marigaon* Laharighat* Raha * Nowgong* Barhampur* Jamunamukh* Hojai* Lumding-Members of Parliament:...

  • Namghar
    Namghar
    Namghar is a social rendezvous used for various spiritual activities such as common prayer, Bhaona used by Assamese peopleVaishnavite Hindus in Assam.The Vaishnavites are devotees of Lord Krishna who assemble in namghars regularly to offer prayers...

    - were introduced by saint Sri Srimanta Sankardeva
The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK