India–Bangladesh_enclaves

India–Bangladesh enclaves

India–Bangladesh enclaves

Enclaves along the Bangladesh–India border

The India–Bangladesh enclaves, also known as the Chiṭmahals (Bengali: ছিটমহল chiṭmôhôl[1][2][3][4]) and sometimes called Pasha enclaves,[5] were the enclaves along the Bangladesh–India border, in Bangladesh and the Indian states of West Bengal, Tripura, Assam and Meghalaya. The main body of Bangladesh contained 102 Indian enclaves, which in turn contained 21 Bangladeshi counter-enclaves, one of which contained Dahala Khagrabari, an Indian counter-counter-enclave, the world's only third-order enclave when it existed. The Indian mainland contained 71 Bangladeshi enclaves, which in turn contained 3 Indian counter-enclaves. A joint census in 2010 found 51,549 people who were residing in these enclaves: 37,334 in Indian enclaves within Bangladesh and 14,215 in Bangladeshi enclaves within India.[3][6]

On this map of the various enclaves, east is at the top of the map. India is shown in orange, and Bangladesh is cyan.

The Prime Ministers of India and Bangladesh signed the Land Boundary Agreement in 1974 to exchange enclaves and simplify their international border. A revised version of the agreement was adopted by the two countries on 7 May 2015, when the Parliament of India passed the 100th Amendment to the Constitution of India.[7][8] Under this agreement, which was ratified on 6 June 2015, India received 51 Bangladeshi enclaves (covering 7,110 acres (2,880 ha)) in the Indian mainland, while Bangladesh received 111 Indian enclaves (covering 17,160 acres (6,940 ha)) in the Bangladeshi mainland.[9] The enclave residents were allowed to either continue residing at their present location or move to the country of their choice.[10] The exchange of enclaves was to be implemented in phases between 31 July 2015 and 30 June 2016.[11] The enclaves were exchanged at midnight on 31 July 2015 and the transfer of enclave residents was completed on 30 November 2015.[12] After the Land Boundary Agreement, India lost around 40 square kilometres (15 sq mi) to Bangladesh.[13][14]

Since the exchange of territory took place, the only remaining enclave is Dahagram–Angarpota, an exclave of Bangladesh.

History

According to a popular legend, the enclaves were used as stakes in card or chess games centuries ago between two regional kings, the Raja of Koch Bihar and the Maharaja of Rangpur.[3] As far as historical records are concerned, the little territories were apparently the result of a confused outcome of a 1713 treaty between the Kingdom of Koch Bihar and the Mughal Empire. Possibly, the Kingdom and the Mughals ended a war without determining a boundary for what territories had been gained or lost.[15]

After the partition of India in 1947, Rangpur was joined to East Pakistan. Cooch Behar State, with its exclaves and holes, was a native state, whose Raja had the option of joining either India or Pakistan. Cooch Behar district was merged in 1949 with India. The desire to "de-enclave" most of the enclaves was manifested in a 1958 agreement between Jawaharlal Nehru and Feroz Khan Noon, the respective Prime Ministers, for an exchange between India and Pakistan without considering loss or gain of territory. But the matter then worked into a Supreme Court case in India, and the Supreme Court ruled that a constitutional amendment was required to transfer the land, so the ninth amendment was introduced to facilitate the implementation of the agreement. The amendment could not be passed because of objections to the transfer of the southern Berubari enclave.[3][16] Because of India's deteriorated relations with Pakistan, the issue remained unsolved. Negotiations restarted after East Pakistan became independent as Bangladesh in 1971 following the Bangladesh Liberation War.[citation needed]

Agreement

The diagramatic sketch of Cooch Behar district of West Bengal marking enclaves

The Land Boundary Agreement was signed on 16 May 1974 between Indira Gandhi and Sheikh Mujibur Rahman which provided for the exchange of enclaves and the surrender of adverse possessions.[17] Under the agreement, India retained the Berubari Union No. 12 enclave while Bangladesh retained the Dahagram-Angorpota exclaves with India providing access to it by giving a 178-by-85-metre (584 ft × 279 ft) corridor, called the Tin Bigha Corridor. Bangladesh quickly ratified the agreement in 1974 but India failed to do so. The issue of the undemarcated land boundary of approximately 6.1 kilometres (3.8 mi) in three sectors — Daikhata-56 in West Bengal, Muhuri River-Belonia in Tripura and Lathitila-Dumabari in Assam — also remained unsolved. The Tin Bigha Corridor was leased to Bangladesh in 1992 amid local opposition.[3]

The list of enclaves was prepared in 1997 by the two countries. Two Joint Boundary Working Groups were formed to work out the details of enclaves in 2001. A joint census was carried out in May 2007. In September 2011, India signed the Additional Protocol for the 1974 Land Boundary Agreement with Bangladesh.[18] Both nations announced an intention to swap 162 enclaves, giving residents a choice of nationality.[19][20][21]

Under the agreement, India received 51 of the 71 Bangladeshi enclaves (from 51 to 54 of the 74 chhits) that were inside India proper (7,110.2 acres, 2,877.4 ha), while Bangladesh received 95 to 101 of the 103 Indian enclaves (111 out of 119 chhits) that were inside Bangladesh proper (17,160.63 acres, 6,944.66 ha).[3][9] Bangladesh retained the 4,617 acres (1,868 ha) of its Dahagram-Angarpota exclave. India acquired 2,777.038 acres (1,123.827 ha) adverse possession areas and transferred 2,267.682 acres (917.698 ha) adverse possession areas to Bangladesh. After the exchange of enclaves, India lost around 40 km2 (10,000 acres) to Bangladesh. According to July 2010 joint census, there were 14,215 people residing in Bangladeshi enclaves in India and 37,269 people residing in Indian enclaves in Bangladesh.[22] The people living in these enclaves without a nationality were allowed to choose their nationality.[23]

The Constitution (119th Amendment) Bill, 2013 was introduced in the Rajya Sabha, the upper house of the Parliament of India, on 18 December 2013.[10][24][25] Nationalist groups in Assam strongly opposed the bill,[26] which would cause India to lose 10,000 acres of land, but Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi supported it because it would make the border with Bangladesh easier to manage.[27] The parliament panel, Standing Committee on External Affairs, approved the bill in November 2014.[28][29] The Rajya Sabha approved the constitutional amendment on 6 May 2015, and the Lok Sabha approved it the following day.[7] President of India Pranab Mukherjee gave his assent to the Act on 28 May 2015.[8]

On 6 June 2015, Modi ratified the agreement during his visit to the Bangladesh capital Dhaka. In the presence of Modi and Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, the foreign secretaries of the two countries signed the instruments of the land exchange.[30] The exchange of enclaves and land parcels in adverse possession, and the boundary demarcation, was implemented in phases between 31 July 2015 and 30 June 2016. The enclaves were to be exchanged at midnight on 31 July 2015 and the boundary demarcation was to be completed by 30 June 2016 by Survey Departments of the respective countries. The transfer of enclave residents was expected to be completed by 30 November 2015.[12]

Indian and Bangladeshi officials conducted a field survey of enclave residents between 6 July 2015 and 16 July 2015. Seventy-five teams, made up of one Indian and one Bangladeshi member each, were tasked with conducting the enumeration. Twenty-five teams surveyed the Bangladeshi enclaves which would be transferred to India, while 50 worked on the Indian enclaves that would be transferred to Bangladesh. As the enclave residents were allowed to choose citizenship of either nation, by 13 July 2015, 100 families residing in the Indian enclaves applied for Indian citizenship, while none of the residents of the Bangladeshi enclaves chose to go to Bangladesh. New citizenship, if chosen, took effect from 1 August 2015. Nearly 14,000 people living in the former Bangladeshi enclaves became Indian citizens, while about 36,000 people living in the former Indian enclaves became Bangladeshi citizens. Some 1,000 people in the former Indian enclaves chose Indian citizenship and were to be relocated to India by December 2015.[19][31][32][33]

Notable enclaves

Dahala Khagrabari was the world's only third-order enclave. It was a piece of India within Bangladesh, within India, within Bangladesh. It was less than 0.70 hectares (1.7 acres) in area, and contained a field. (Maps)

Bangladesh

Dahagram–Angarpota: The largest Bangladeshi composite enclave (combining the first- and third-largest Bangladeshi chhits by area), administered as part of Patgram Upazila in Lalmonirhat Zila, lies within the Indian province of West Bengal. It is separated from the contiguous area of Bangladesh at its closest point by 178 metres (584 ft). The enclave has an area of 25.95 km2 (10.02 sq mi) with a resident population of 20,000 people. The enclave lacks basic facilities. The lone health complex remains virtually useless because of lack of power supply, as India refused to allow Bangladesh to run power lines to the enclave.[3] After the exchange of enclaves in July 2015, Bangladesh retained it as an exclave.

The Tin Bigha Corridor, a strip of Indian territory 85 metres (279 ft) wide running from the Dahagram–Angarpota composite enclave to the Bangladeshi mainland at their nearest approach, was leased by India in perpetuity to Bangladesh for access to the enclave. It is available for use by the residents of Dahagram–Angarpota.[3][34][35]

India

Dasiar Chhara, the fourth largest Indian chhit by area, was the largest stand-alone Indian enclave (i.e., not a composite of adjoining chhits). It lay 3 km (1.9 mi) from the main part of India and had an area of 6.65 km2 (2.57 sq mi).

Dahala Khagrabari, enclave #51, was the world's only third-order enclave, being a piece of India within Bangladesh, within India, within Bangladesh. It was the site of a jute field, owned by a Bangladeshi farmer living in the Bangladeshi second-order enclave surrounding Dahala Khagrabari. As part of the 2015 border agreement, India ceded it to Bangladesh.

List of former enclaves and exclaves

Schematic overview:

Bangladesh

102 enclaves of India (69.5 km2)

21 counter-enclaves of Bangladesh (2.1 km2)

1 counter-counter enclave of India (0.007 km2)
India

71 enclaves of Bangladesh (47.7 km2)

7 counter-enclaves of India (0.17 km2)

Some individual enclaves were composed of several administrative units (chhits and/or mauzas). These administrative units must be differentiated from the enclave as a whole. "This is particularly important for the Cooch Behar enclaves, where the several administrative units which together form some of the larger enclaves are commonly, but wrongly, termed enclaves themselves, or where one component unit commonly lends its name to the whole enclave. ... [T]he official Indo–Bangladesh Boundary Commission figure of 111 Indian and 51 Bangladeshi exchangeable enclaves would appear to count only individual mauzas, even when these consisted of more than one enclave."[3] There is not a one-to-one relationship between enclaves, chhits and mauzas.[3]

All of the information shown in the following two tables has been assembled from Brendan R. Whyte.[3]

Bangladesh

In order to distinguish chhits having the same names, serial numbers established by Banerjee (1966)[36] are shown in parentheses, as (#). The Bangladesh series is separate from the India series.

With 4 exceptions (Chhat Tilai, Baikunthapur Teldhar (#3, #4, #5)), the first-order enclaves, including the 3 composite enclaves, lay entirely within the Cooch Behar District of West Bengal state, India. All 21 counter-enclaves lay within the Rangpur Division of Bangladesh. The Bangladeshi enclaves had an estimated population of 14,215 in 2015.[31]

More information Bangladeshi chhits within Indian territory, Area (km2) ...
❋ This chhit was part of a composite enclave and by itself was neither an enclave nor an exclave.
† Stated size may not be exact.[3]

India

The 102 first-order enclaves (including the 6 composite enclaves) and the 1 counter-counter enclave lay within the Rangpur Division of Bangladesh. The 3 counter-enclaves lay within the Cooch Behar District of West Bengal state, India. In order to distinguish chhits having the same names, serial numbers established by Banerjee (1966)[36] are shown in parentheses, as (#). The India series is separate from the Bangladesh series. There were 37,334 people living in the Indian enclaves in 2015.[31]

More information Indian chhits within Bangladeshi territory, Area (km2) ...
❋ This chhit was part of a composite enclave and by itself was neither an enclave nor an exclave.
† Stated size may not be exact.[3]

See also

References

  1. [1]
    van Schendel, Willem [in Dutch] (February 2002). "Stateless in South Asia: The Making of the India-Bangladesh Enclaves" (PDF). The Journal of Asian Studies. 61 (1): 115–147. doi:10.2307/2700191. JSTOR 2700191. S2CID 56506815. Similarly, landlords from the Mughal area were able to hang on to landed estates within Cooch Behar. Like most estates in Bengal, these were fragmented into many scattered plots. Such holdings detached from the parent estate were then known as chhit mohol in Bengali; this term came to mean enclave after 1947. These small territories paid taxes to one state but were surrounded by the territory of the other state. Sovereignty was expressed not so much in terms of territorial contiguity as in terms of jurisdiction and tax flows.
  2. [2]
    Houtum, H. Van; Berg, Eiki (18 October 2018). Routing Borders Between Territories, Discourses and Practices (2 ed.). Routledge. p. 310. ISBN 9781351759113. Retrieved 14 February 2019. Such holdings detached from the parent estate were then known as chhit mohol in Bengali; the term came to mean 'enclave' after 1947.
  3. [3]
    Whyte, Brendan R. (2002). Waiting for the Esquimo: An Historical and Documentary Study of the Cooch Behar Enclaves of India and Bangladesh (1 ed.). Melbourne, Australia: School of Anthropology, Geography and Environmental Studies, University of Melbourne. p. 502. ISBN 9780734022080. Retrieved 14 February 2019.
  4. [4]
    Debroy, Bibek (5 August 2011). "Strong will from PM needed to resolve India-Bangladesh issues". The Economic Times. No. 2. Times Group. Times News Network. Retrieved 14 February 2019. Third, there is the issue of "enclaves", the nowhere people. In Bengali, these are called chitmohol, signifying a chit of paper. Origins go back to gambling between Raja of Cooch Behar and Maharaja of Rangpur. When they lost, they traded each other's possessions and created enclaves in each other's territory. This goes back to the Mughal period and continued under the British.
  5. [5]
    "India and Bangladesh discuss 'pasha' enclaves: Recognition of landlocked areas won in card games to be raised during India PM's visit". Al Jazeera. 6 September 2011. Retrieved 15 July 2014.
  6. [6]
    Roy, Shubhajit (2 December 2014). "Everything you need to know: Land swap in offing with Bangladesh to end disputes". The Indian Express. Retrieved 29 May 2015.
  7. [7]
    "The Constitution (119th Amendment) Bill, 2013" PRS India. Retrieved 10 May 2015.
  8. [8]
    "Prez assents: Constitution (One Hundredth Amendment) Act, 2015". 1, Law Street. 30 May 2015. Archived from the original on 22 August 2015. Retrieved 30 May 2015.
  9. [9]
    Nagchoudhury, Subrata (7 June 2015). "I've got a nation. It comes at the end of my life, still it comes: resident of a Bangladeshi enclave". The Indian Express. Retrieved 7 June 2015.
  10. [10]
    Mukhopadhyay, Sougata (7 September 2011). "India-Bangladesh sign pact on border demarcation". CNN-IBN. Archived from the original on 22 June 2012. Retrieved 20 September 2011.
  11. [11]
    Taylor, Adam (1 August 2015). "Say goodbye to the weirdest border dispute in the world". The Washington Post.
  12. [12]
    Bagchi, Suvojit (13 June 2015). "Land pact rollout in next 11 months". The Hindu. Retrieved 15 June 2015.
  13. [13]
    Daniyal, Shoaib (8 May 2015). "India-Bangla land swap: was the world's strangest border created by a game of chess?". Scroll.in.
  14. [14]
    Roy, Indrani (5 June 2015). "Border deal will control infiltration from Bangladesh". Rediff.com.
  15. [15]
    Evgeny Vinokurov, "Theory of Enclaves" (2005) – Chapter 6: Enclave stories and case studies, page 117: Cooch Behar Archived 28 September 2007 at the Wayback Machine
  16. [16]
    "Berubari Union and Exchange of Enclaves". 1, Law Street. Supreme Court of India. 14 March 1960. Archived from the original on 10 June 2015. Retrieved 30 May 2015.
  17. [17]
    Cons, Jason (October 2007). "The Tin Bigha corridor 15 years on". Forum. Vol. 2, no. 9. The Daily Star. Retrieved 5 June 2017. India will retain the southern half of South Berubari Union No.12 … in exchange Bangladesh will retain the Dahagram and Angarpota enclaves. India will lease in perpetuity to Bangladesh an area … to connect Dahagram with … Bangladesh.
  18. [18]
    "India & Bangladesh Land Boundary Agreement" (PDF). Ministry of External Affairs Government of India. Retrieved 1 March 2015.
  19. [19]
    "The land that maps forgot". The Economist. 15 February 2011.
  20. [20]
    "Bangladesh, India to swap 162 land parcels". Google News. Agence France-Presse. 30 August 2011. Archived from the original on 21 February 2014. Retrieved 30 August 2011.
  21. [21]
    "Hope for Indo-Bangladesh enclaves". NDTV. 12 September 2011. Retrieved 12 September 2011.
  22. [22]
    "Proposed enclave exchange with Bangladesh will be national loss: BJP". Yahoo News. Indo-Asian News Service. 11 March 2013. Retrieved 17 August 2013.
  23. [23]
    "Thousands Celebrate Historic India-Bangladesh Border Pact". NDTV. 7 June 2015. Retrieved 7 June 2015.
  24. [24]
    Chakrabarty, Rakhi (15 August 2013). "Mahanta canvassing support to stall exchange of enclaves bill in Parliament". The Times of India. Retrieved 17 August 2013.
  25. [25]
    "Bangladesh land swap bill tabled in Rajya Sabha". The Times of India. 19 December 2013. Retrieved 19 December 2013.
  26. [26]
    "AGP plea to Modi on land-swap deal". The Telegraph. 29 May 2014. Archived from the original on 19 June 2014. Retrieved 19 June 2014.
  27. [27]
    "Why Narendra Modi made a U turn on Land Boundary Agreement?". dna. 2 December 2014. Retrieved 19 December 2014.
  28. [28]
    "Bring bill without delay to ratify Indo-Bangla Land Boundary Agreement: Panel to House". The Indian Express. 19 December 2014. Retrieved 19 December 2014.
  29. [29]
    "Par panel approves bill on Indo-Bangla agreement". Business Standard. 26 November 2014. Retrieved 19 December 2014.
  30. [30]
    "India, Bangladesh ratify historic land deal, Narendra Modi announces new $2 billion line of credit to Dhaka". The Times of India. 6 June 2015. Retrieved 7 June 2015.
  31. [31]
    "Land exchange deal: Will you go to Bangladesh? Not many Yes in enclaves". The Indian Express. 12 July 2015.
  32. [32]
    "Modi in Bangladesh to conclude land swap agreement". Dawn. Karachi.
  33. [33]
    Bose, Pratim Ranjan (31 July 2015). "Freedom at midnight on India-Bangladesh border". Business Line.
  34. [34]
    "Tin Bigha corridor to remain open 24 hours". Bangla News 24. 6 September 2011. Archived from the original on 22 September 2012. Retrieved 7 September 2011.
  35. [35]
    "Transit tumbles into Teesta abyss". bdnews24.com. 6 September 2011. Retrieved 7 September 2011.
  36. [36]
    Banerjee, R. (1966). "An Account of Exclaves – Origin and Development". Census 1961, West Bengal, District Census Handbook, Cooch Behar. West Bengal Government, India.
  37. [37]
    Hartley, A. C. (1940). Final Report of the Rangpur Survey and Settlement Operations, 1931–1938. Bengal Govt.
  38. [38]
    Census of India District Census Handbooks, for Cooch Behar and Jalpaiguri, for 1991 census. West Bengal Government, India.
Share this article:

This article uses material from the Wikipedia article India–Bangladesh_enclaves, and is written by contributors. Text is available under a CC BY-SA 4.0 International License; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.