Gangachara Upazila: History
Like much of the Rangpur region, Gangachara has a strong Mughal heritage and this attested by its historic mosques in Coleconda, Barabil and Mandrain. Sharif Pir Saheb, a Sufi pir, is buried at Pakuria. The area was also home to Rangpur's only major zamindar family, whose presence dates back to the eleventh century. The village of Narsingha was renamed to Mahipur in honour of the Pala emperor Mahipala around this time. The family maintained respective authority and feudal aristocracy in Gangachara for several centuries, with Arif Muhammad Choudhury becoming the military commander-in-chief for the Cooch Behar State. Gangachara later passed on to the hands of the Mughal Empire in 1711, with Choudhury officially becoming the first Zamindar of Mahipur which extended across Qazirhat, Mahipur, Tushbhandar, Tepa and Dimla. A fourth of the Mahipur Estate went underwater due to a change in the Teesta River's course in 1787. Many people became landless as a consequence.
In 1917, the British Raj established a thana (police outpost administrative headquarters) in Gangachara. Another Teesta River course change happened again in 1964, affecting not only Mahipur but also Gajaghanta and Marania. The settlements in Gangachara also suffered from the floods and river erosions of 1968, 1971 and 1974.
During the Bangladesh Liberation War of 1971, a Pakistan Army soldier is noted to have chased a young girl and her father in Gangachara in the middle of August until they were forced to jump in the river, where they subsequently died by drowning. Two months later, two soldiers along with five Razakars died whilst fighting members of the Mujib Bahini. Later on, the army launched attack on worshippers at the Taltala Mosque, killing seventeen Muslims entering the mosque. On 13 December, Gangachara was liberated and 212 Razakars surrendered at the Gangachara police station. Gangachara Thana was upgraded to an upazila (sub-district) in January 1984 as part of the President of Bangladesh Hussain Muhammad Ershad's decentralisation programme. The president inaugurated the Gangachara Criminal Court on 18 March that year. In 2011, Gangachara was declared a Model Thana. In 1992, the unions of Alambiditar and Nohali in Kishoreganj Upazila were transferred to Gangachara.