Sylhet Division

Sylhet Division represents Bangladesh's diaspora capital—the region that sent more emigrants to Britain than any other, creating a Sylheti community in the UK that now numbers over 500,000. The connection dates to the 1940s when Sylheti sailors (lascars) working on British merchant ships jumped ship in London and established the restaurant trade that defines 'Indian' cuisine in Britain. This migration pattern created remittance flows that transformed Sylhet from a tea-producing backwater into one of Bangladesh's wealthier regions, despite limited industrial development. The division's hills host Bangladesh's tea industry—estates established by the British in the 19th century that still produce export-quality leaves. Sylhet city developed as the tea auction center, creating commercial infrastructure that persists. The Hakaluki Haor, one of Asia's largest wetland ecosystems, supports fishing communities and migratory birds in patterns that climate change increasingly disrupts. Natural gas reserves at Sylhet provide a significant portion of Bangladesh's domestic energy, though depletion rates raise long-term questions. The division's population maintains linguistic and cultural distinctiveness—the Sylheti language is sometimes classified as separate from standard Bengali. The August 2024 political transition affected Sylhet like all divisions, but the diaspora connection provides economic buffers that purely domestic regions lack. By 2026, Sylhet's trajectory depends partly on British immigration policy: restrictions on family reunification would affect the generational renewal of the UK Sylheti community that sustains remittance flows to the homeland.