India–Bangladesh enclaves

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]

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.

  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. ^ 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. ^ a b 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. ^ 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. ^ "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. ^ 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. ^ "The Constitution (119th Amendment) Bill, 2013" PRS India. Retrieved 10 May 2015.[1]
  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. ^ 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. ^ 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. ^ Taylor, Adam (1 August 2015). "Say goodbye to the weirdest border dispute in the world". The Washington Post.
  12. ^ Bagchi, Suvojit (13 June 2015). "Land pact rollout in next 11 months". The Hindu. Retrieved 15 June 2015.
  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. ^ Roy, Indrani (5 June 2015). "Border deal will control infiltration from Bangladesh". Rediff.com.
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