Brief History of Cooch Behar district
In English the district is named as Cooch Behar, whereas in Bengali it is known/named as KochBihar (pronounced as Coach-Bihar), which means the land through which the “Koch” Kings used to travel or roam about (“bihar“).
In course of time, Cooch Behar has been transformed from a kingdom to a State and from a State to the present status of a district. Before 28th August 1949, Cooch Behar was a Princely State ruled by the king of Cooch Behar, who had been a feudatory ruler under British Government. By an agreement dated 28th August, 1949 the king of Cooch Behar ceded full and extensive authority, jurisdiction and power of the state to the Dominion Government of India. The transfer of administration of the state to the Govt. of India came into force on 12th September, 1949. Eventually, Cooch Behar was transferred and merged with the province of West Bengal on 19th January, 1950 and from that date Cooch Behar emerged as a new District in the administrative map of West Bengal.
In fact, being the place of the Raj (monarchy), the district captures the bygone glorious past in the moods of local people even today. The peace loving people of Cooch Behar even boast of this beautiful city where the Maharajas (kings) used to stay and never tires, if not laments in excitement, narrating the Raj stories. It is obvious that anyone who has visited Cooch Behar city cannot keep sound in not appreciating this beautiful planned city with infrastructure quite similar to any modern planned city. Moreover, the place is so quiet & calm, void of the hassle-n-bustle of busy cities. And above that the climate here like the rest of North-Bengal is just fine to let you feel the freshness & beauty of nature all around. <read more>