Golaghat

Golaghat, in Upper Assam, grew around the Dhansiri River as a river-landing and market town linking the Doyang–Dhansiri valley with routes to the Brahmaputra plains and the Naga hills. Local history reaches far back: the district administration notes rock inscriptions, fortification traces, brick structures, monuments, temples and tanks that suggest a 9th-century kingdom in the valley. The area was earlier ruled by the Kacharis, who were later pushed west of the Karbi Hills; by the 16th century, the Ahoms ruled the Doyang–Dhansiri valley.

In the modern era, Golaghat’s identity became tied to commerce and tea. The name is commonly explained as “gola” (market/shop) + “ghat” (river landing), reflecting riverbank trading on the Dhansiri. With the expansion of tea plantations across Upper Assam in the colonial period, Golaghat developed into a service and trading centre, and it still preserves heritage sites such as the Golaghat British Cemetery (1876) and mission-founded institutions. The town hosted tea planters’ groups and chambers of commerce, and it is remembered for the Golaghat Convention linked to the formation of the Assam Gana Parishad (AGP) in 1985. Golaghat became a separate district headquarters in 1987 and remains a key hub today.