Silchar

Silchar is a city and the headquarters of the Cachar district of the state of Assam, India.[2] It is second largest city of Assam after Guwahati in terms of area, population and GDP.[3] It is also administrative capital of Barak Valley division.[4][5] It is located 343 kilometres (213 mi; 185 nmi) south east of Guwahati.[6] It was founded by Captain Thomas Fisher in 1832 when he shifted the headquarters of Cachar to Janiganj in Silchar.[7] It earned the moniker "Island of Peace" from Indira Gandhi, the then Prime Minister of India.[8] Silchar is the site of the world's first polo club and the first competitive polo match.[9][10] In 1985, an Air India flight from Kolkata to Silchar became the world's first all-women crew flight.[11] Silchar was a tea town and Cachar club was the meeting point for tea planters. The name Silchar comes from the two Sylheti words 'shil' and 'char', meaning 'rock' and 'shore/island' respectively.[citation needed] The city was founded in Janiganj-Sadarghat area of the town near the Barak bank which was used as a river port.[12] It is theorised that the locals started calling the area 'Shiler Chor' meaning the rocky shore, which got shortened to 'Silchar', which was in turn adopted and popularised by the British.[7]