[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.

[13] The initial capital of the kingdom was in Khalangsha in Cachar, which has been identified as Rajghat village in Sonai, 18 km from Silchar.

[17] Bhim Singha, the last Koch Raja of Khaspur, only had a daughter called Kanchani who was married off to Prince Laksmichandra of the Kachari Dimasa kingdom of Maibang in 1745.

Laksmichandra became the Raja after Bhim Singha's death and eventually the two kingdoms were merged and present day Cachar came under Dimasa rule.

[21][22] Gobinda Chandra was reinstated on the throne but had to pay an annual tribute of Rs.10,000 to the British as per the Treaty of Badarpur, which adversely affected the post-Burmese occupation Cachar's economy.

[22] Though Gambhir Singh of Manipur, who was suspected to be behind the assassination, laid claim on Cachar, it passed onto British hands as per the Treaty of Badarpur.

[25] After shifting the district headquarters to Silchar in 1832, Captain Fisher started building Sadar Station in Janiganj.

A jail and a police outpost for the Sylhet Light Infantry was constructed in Fatak Bazar, while offices and residential quarters were made in Janiganj.

Under him, the jail was shifted from Fatak Bazar to its present site, and traders from nearby areas in Bengal were encouraged to settle in the town.

Communication facilities were strengthened with the steamer service between Silchar and Kolkata in 1850, the establishment of the Head Post Office in 1852, and the introduction of telegraph in 1861.

While Tarapur, Malugram and Itkhola were part of the older settled areas, newer localities such as Central Road, Nazirpatty, Premtola, Tulapatty, and Narshingtola emerged.

In 1891, the town became a municipality and in 1899 the Assam-Bengal railways reached Silchar, providing easier access to the Chittagong sea port.

The town now had increased amenities, including 'presses, motor works, druggist shop, oil mills, ice factory'.

In 1942, the Japanese forces dropped a bomb on Derby Tea Estate 20 km from the town and the Second World War led to the shortage of water, electricity, paper, wood, kerosene.

In the 1850s, the British observed exiled Manipuri princes in Silchar play Sagol Kangjei, the predecessor to modern polo which was already popular in nearby Manipur.

[32] The first competitive modern form of polo was played in Silchar as well, and the plaque for this feat still stands behind the local District Library.

[38] Apart from the refugees from East Pakistan, Silchar also saw a lot of migration from neighbouring states in Northeast due to political disturbances which added to the population growth.

When the Assam government, under Chief Minister Bimala Prasad Chaliha, passed a circular to make Assamese mandatory, Bengalis of Barak Valley protested.

After the popular revolt, the Assam government had to withdraw the circular and Bengali was ultimately given official status in the three districts of Barak Valley.

It says, “Without prejudice to the provisions contained in Section 3, the Bengali language shall be used for administrative and other official purposes up to and including district level.”[41] Silchar is located in the southernmost part of Assam.

The city is located in an alluvial flat plain with swamps, streams, and isolated small hills (locally known as tilla) marking its landscape.

Mr. Wright, the Deputy Commissioner, was the chairperson and Babu Jagat Bandhu Nag was elected by the committee members as the vice-chairperson.

Kamini Kumar Chanda and Mahesh Chandra Dutta were the first elected chairperson and vice-chairperson of the Silchar municipality.

[7] The municipality took decisions like construction and repair of roads, buying medicines and taking public health preventive steps, sanitation, and setting prices to guard again inflation.

As the pro-Independence sentiments grew, the municipality started to participate as well; reception plans for the Viceroy Chelmsford's visit to Silchar in 1919 were cancelled because of the Jallianwala Bagh massacre, a resolution was passed after the death of Chittaranjan Das in 1925, and members of the municipality proposed a hartal to protest against the Simon Commission's visit to India in 1928.

[7] In 1930, the then chairperson Dhirendra Kumar Gupta and member Satindra Mohan Deb were arrested because of their participation in the Civil Disobedience Movement.

The municipality took out a resolution in July 1947 against including Cachar within Pakistan and sent a member to Kolkata to submit a memorandum in front of the Boundary Commission.

This period also saw the municipality giving over the control of the fire brigade to the state government, and donation of land to establish educational institutes.

[65] In December 1985, Air India operated the first all-woman crew flight in the world from Kolkata to Silchar which was commanded by Captain Saudamini Deshmukh on a Fokker F-27 Friendship aircraft.