Border Enclaves (Chitmahal) Reconnection: Understanding

The Social And Cultural Perspective

Submitted To
Al Jamal Mustafa Shindaini (Tamal)
Assistant Professor of Sociology
Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (FASS)
Bangladesh University of Professionals (BUP)

Submitted by
Faisal Ahmed
ID: 2112091058
7th Batch
Master of Development Studies (MDS)
Department of Development Studies
Faculty of Arts and Social Science (FASS)
Bangladesh University of Professionals (BUP)

Date of submission: April 23, 2021.

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Table of contents

Table of contents.........................................................................................................................................2
Declaration..................................................................................................................................................3
Executive summary.....................................................................................................................................4
Introduction.................................................................................................................................................5
Background study........................................................................................................................................5
Objective of the study.................................................................................................................................6
Literature review.........................................................................................................................................7
Socio-cultural theory and factors affecting the life and living of the residents of the enclaves..................9
Framework to understand the socio-cultural perspective of border enclaves and life in statelessness....11
Underlying assumptions of the people to choose host country citizen in light with social and cultural
dimensions of Bangladesh.........................................................................................................................13
Conclusion.................................................................................................................................................16
References.................................................................................................................................................17

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Declaration

I hereby declare that the term paper entitled “Border Enclaves (Chitmahal) Reconnection:
Understanding The Social And Cultural Perspective” is submitted for the requirement of the
course MDS 503 (Society and Culture in Changing Landscape) in the Department of
Development Studies, BUP. This term paper is my original work and not submitted for the
award of any other degree, diploma, fellowship or other similar titles or prizes and that the
work has not been publishes in any journal or magazine.

Faisal Ahmed
ID: 2112091058
7th Batch
Master of Development Studies (MDS)
Department of Development Studies
Faculty of Arts and Social Science (FASS)
Bangladesh University of Professionals (BUP)

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Executive summary
Border enclaves forms an unusual fragmentation of geographical borders creating subsequent
statelessness and marginalization of people inhabiting in those areas. The border enclaves of
Bangladesh-India border inherited a long history of deprivation and underdevelopment because
of complex land treaty between different ruling states. In August 01, 2015 a historical land
treaty enables the exchange of land and settlement of citizen by individual choice. This
historical event allows study of socio-cultural aspect of people in this area in light of different
sociological dimension. This paper explores different socio-cultural theory and factors affecting
the life and living of the residents of the enclaves, develops a framework to understand the
socio-cultural perspective of border enclaves and life in statelessness and Identifies underlying
assumptions of the people to choose host country citizen in light with social and cultural
dimensions of Bangladesh. Study of which can enable better understanding of the socio-cultural
perspective of the historic event.

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Introduction
Enclaves can be defined as sovereign pieces of land completely surrounded by another
sovereign country. In case of Bangladesh-India border of northern territory the border enclaves
was entitled as Chitmahal or paper places according to the local. The history of creation of
these peculiar land pieces goes back to the ear of Mughal when the Mughal empire signed a
land treaty with the feuding king of Cooch bihar (Jones, 2009). After different ups and downs o
history Bangladesh and India reached an agreement in 1974 regarded as Mujib-Indira
agreement to resolve the issue regarding these fragmented territories. Finally on the midnight
of July 31, 2015 the treaty was executed by two countries resulting an end to the long held
geographical oddities in the boarder. This also portrayed a n unique socio-cultural reality before
and after this reconnection event. This paper highlights some of the arena of socio-cultural
perspective of the people living in this area.

Background study
India and Bangladesh formally exchanged 162 enclaves in the boarder of northern territory on
August 1, 2015. This event ends a century old geographical oddity and enables the process to
complete land and population exchange. Enclaves are fragmented territory of a sovereign
nation located inside another sovereign nation. After independence from British empire in 1947
India and Bangladesh (then East Pakistan) inherited total about 119 square kilometers of
enclaves within each other creating a fragmented geographical situation. As it happened a small
number of Indian citizens lived within the demarcated boundary of Bangladesh and vise versa.
Sometimes the condition gets more complicated by creating counter enclaves. This
geographical anomaly resulted in creating statelessness (Reece, 2009) and left the people
inhabiting in those area without basic necessity facilitating by government. Their economic and
socio-cultural activities were hindered as they had to get visa to go to their mainland as they
passed by the territory of foreign nation. Thus, they end up with becoming refugee in their own
homeland. After the relentless effort and prudent diplomacy of Prime minister of Bangladesh
the historic land exchange was executed in mid-2015. This historic event enables the host
nation to absorbed the land and provided option to the people to chose citizenship. By the time
of reconnection there were estimated 50,000 residents in total (BBC, 2015). The reconnection
resulted in 51 Bangladeshi enclaves having total area of 7,110 acres land became part of Indian
territory. 14,863 inhabitants of those enclaves chose Indian citizenship. On the other hand, 111
Indian enclaves became part of Bangladesh having a total land area of 17,161 acres. 37,531
residents chose Bangladeshi citizenship, while 989 residents resettled in India.

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Objective of the study
Border enclaves are not a unique phenomenon in this region. For example, the Belgian town of
Baarle-Hertog is completely surrounded by Dutch territory. The residents of this area have
turned that as a tourist attraction and they has been abled to utilize the unusual border as a
way of maintaining livelihood and standard of living. But in case of south aisa those border
enclaves became sensitive spaces because of the fragmentation and residents of those enclaves
affected severely because of statelessness. They live in a zone that is outside of the legal
administration of either country. This phenomenon given rise to a unique blend of socio-
cultural reality before and after the reconnection event. On the other hand, different socio-
cultural aspect played an important role in choosing citizenship and integrate into the
mainstream social and cultural low.
Objective of this study is to
 Highlight different socio-cultural theory and factors affecting the life and living of the
residents of the enclaves.
 Develop a framework to understand the socio-cultural perspective of border enclaves
and life in statelessness
 Identify underlying assumptions of the people to choose host country citizen in light
with social and cultural dimensions of Bangladesh.

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Literature review
Jones, J. has studied the border enclaves in the border between India and Bangladesh backed in
2009 on the basis of geographical and political perspective in the article “Sovereignty and
Statelessness in the Border Enclaves of India and Bangladesh” . In his research he highlighted
the issue of emergence of those enclaves in this region. The border enclaves are important field
to study the connection between people living in border and different aspect of sovereignty.
They also demonstrate both the social benefits the sovereign state system has brought through
the establishment of law and order and the devastating consequences it has caused by
territorializing those basic social protections.
The research conducted on interview method to investigate different aspect of statelessness of
enclave dwelling people, demonstrates the devastating consequences of lack of social benefits
of a sovereign state system and institutionalized the concepts of sovereignty and territorial
integrity. This study depicted the history of the enclaves and their aspect of physical boundary.
The complex structure of the land deters the sovereign states to conduct census and includes
the people in the mainstream development. After living for many years in stateless spaces, the
enclave residents do not identify with the categories of nation and state that organize modern
political imaginaries. The statelessness results into lack of modernization. Establishment of law-
and-order situation was also at stake because of tertiarization of modern amenities of
functioning states. In global state, this enclave demonstrates the concept of coterminous
nation. The humanitarian crisis and the doctrine of contingent sovereignty has challenged the
notion of absolute authority of states in internal matters without intervention. It also
encourages a broad assessment of the fundamental notion o current state system. While the
solution of this condition lies in an appropriate exchange of enclaves based on free opportunity
to choose nation as well as importance over socio-economic and religious perspective.
Another significant study in this area is covered by Cons, J in 2012 in the article named
“Narrating boundaries: Framing and contesting suffering, community, and belonging in enclaves
along the India Bangladesh border”. This paper explores the politics of community making at
different enclaves of Bangladesh India border by scrutinizing the public and private narratives of
history of belongingness. This study highlighted the history of the marginalization, para-legal
activities of enclave inhabitants and continuous struggle of the people to construct themselves
as a moral community deriving of inclusion of mainstream cultural sphere of sovereign nation.
The boundaries and border demarcation depends construction of both physical presence
security forces as well as mental maps and virtual checkpoints. The social dimension associated
with border division can be visible in maps but reality differs in various occasion. The
community level belongingness paves the way towards understanding the place, performance
and perspective of life and sociocultural dimension of borderlands. This study highlights the
way that these enclaves and the marginalized living condition of the groups frames a particular
form of submission to the state for the sake of survival. This article also stipulates the

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practicability of community formulating representation of themselves, creating unique political
framework and ensuring welfare.
The research of Banerjee, S. Guha, A. and Chaudhury, A. in 2017 naming “The 2015 India-
Bangladesh Land Boundary Agreement: Identifying Constraints and Exploring Possibilities in
Cooch Behar” explores different perspectives of border enclave’s reconnection issues. This
research highlights the land boundary agreement of 2015 between Bangladesh and India which
has resulted in exchange of the border enclaves. It also explores the possibilities of settlement
of issues regarding border enclaves and adverse position of groups inhabiting the enclaves. This
research explores a multidimensional array of administrative, political, cultural, institutional
role of Indian government to rehabilitate the new citizens and role of government, NGOs and
other parties to ensure inclusion of the people by ensuring land distribution, creating
occupation and other facilities to ensure healthy life of the new citizens. The role of political
parties is also examined to ensure development of this region in the context of India.
On the other hand, the study of Ferdoush, A.(2019) highlights the real-world condition of
reconnected enclaves populations in his article named “Acts of Belonging: The choice of
citizenship in the former border enclaves of Bangladesh and India” . this study points out the
Tinbigha corridor as a infrastructural means to connect the enclaves residences and different
political aspect of both nation regarding the issue. This study explores different aspect of pre
and post exchange condition of border enclaves. The issue of nationalism, sociocultural factors
regarding choosing nationality is an important aspect of this study.
A range of research has been conducted regarding the issue of border enclaves between
Bangladesh and india exploring and challenging different aspect of geographical anomaly, issue
of fragmented sovereignty, impact of statelessness, pre and post exchange conditions and
factors of livelihood in light of political, strategic, economic, sociological and development
perspective. However, the sociocultural dimension of pre and post exchange events and their
relevance in sociological theory is touched rarely in the studies and research mentioned above.

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Socio-cultural theory and factors affecting the life and living of the
residents of the enclaves
Sociology is the scientific study of human life, social group, society as a whole and the human
world. On the other hand, culture is everything made, learned or shared by the member of a
society. Culture includes values, belief, behavior and material objects o particular group of
people. Culture is learned and varies significantly from one society to another (Giddens, A.
2009). Sociology investigates social life by posing question related to different aspect of social
life and human and develop theories by systematically researching the answers.
Inequalities and marginalization are two widely aspect of sociology to investigate the anomaly
in social and human life perspective. Marginalization can result in powerlessness and
deprivation in many forms. Issue of health is a major factor in studying the groups who are
deprived of development. The social mobility refers to the movement up and down in social
scale within a person’s working life. The intrageneration movement and intergeneration
movement in perspective of social mobility is considered as the lifeline of a society absence of
which can make a society stagnant. Poverty is barrier to the social mobility. On the other hand
social exclusion can be refereed as lack of resource and income and alienation from the
economic activities and social relationship.
Incase of the enclaves of India-Bangladesh border all of those socio-cultural perspective stated
above shapes the society, cultural dimension and psychology of inhabitants over last 70 years.
The peculiar nature of the land, sovereignty and land demarcation conflict and complexity of
administrative formalities hampers the development of enclave dwellers. Residing between
two developing nation because of the geographical anomaly they were forced to be
marginalized and kept out of the economic growth. Thus, inequality and deprivation is the
common phenomenon in the life and livelihood of the people. Because of administrative
complexity no nation were interested to build basic infrastructure such as roads, bridge, school,
hospital etc prior to the land exchange of 2015.
Issue of health was a substantial element in socio-cultural development. Pre-exchange era of
Chitmahal depicted a picture of poor health management. The sociological understanding of
vulnerability is important to understand this aspect. The most severely affected groups of
health-related hazard was the most vulnerable group women. In times of natural calamity and
disaster women suffered a lot due to Absence of formalized health management system.
The issue of formal education was a burning issue before border enclaves reconnection.
Absence of proper educational institutes forced the residents to create false identity to admit
their children into schools.

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As India established border infrastructure including fences and checkposts in most places along
the Bengal border to prevent irregular movement from Bangladesh, these measures also
affected enclave dwellers’ mobility. It became necessary for residents to illegally enter the
surrounding country to fulfill basic needs and for their economic survival (to access local shops
to buy and sell goods, for instance), often becoming victims of sovereignty mechanisms and
subject to prosecution as illegal intruders (Shewly, H. 2016) . Thus residents were often the
victims of social exploitation by political elites, gangs, and mainland neighbors.
All of these factors created unique set of socio-cultural blend within the Chitmahal. Thus
understanding the socio-cultural perspective of the enclaves dwellers paves the way to
understand the development of cultural perspective in geographical anomaly. On the other
hand, it can develop understanding of cultural dilemma in statelessness.

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Framework to understand the socio-cultural perspective of border
enclaves and life in statelessness
Value, belief and norms: the value and belief system of enclaves dwellers predominated by
religion and local beliefs. Lack of formal education, low engagement of formal economy and
lack of law and order system enabled them to create a unique group cohesiveness. With no
police force the enclaves were forced to maintain order system by themselves.

Livelihood and material culture: Most of the enclaves are farmers and produce rice juts etc.
lack of education and systematic deprivation disabled them to include the formal economy.
Even they have to use foreign land to sell their produced crops and buy commodities. Thus,
their dwelling places are predominantly rural structure. They were deprived of electricity and
unbaled to build permanent structure.

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 Sense of belongingness: Belonging and national identity in India and Bangladesh are complex,
historically rooted in Hindu-Muslim feuds and the division of India in 1947 first and foremost on
the basis of religion. In time of partition, the enclaves dwellers swapped their hand in the basis
of religion and priority. Thus, enclaves inhabitants religion is dominated by host country
religion.
Struggle of inclusiveness: the enclaves inhabitants experienced almost seven decades of
lawlessness, lack of governance, landholding complexity etc. their value and norms developed
in such a way that ensures their struggling way to life to maintain sustenance. It also affect their
norms as decades of lawlessness and absence of social mobility disabled themselves to shape
their behavior and include themselves in formal way of life.

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Underlying assumptions of the people to choose host country citizen
in light with social and cultural dimensions of Bangladesh
After the land exchange agreement of 2015, the enclaves inhabitants began to see a hope to be
included in the formal state system and came out of seven decades long statelessness. They
were considered as refugee in their own homeland and deprived of facilities of functioning
states. However, the event of reconnection emerged a new dilemma in the life of the enclaves
inhabitants. Choosing citizenship of either nations provided a new complexity in their life.

In decision making process of acquiring citizenship multiple factors were considered by the
people. Entranced social division played a significant role. 989 hindu enclave dwellers of
Bangladesh side chose Indian citizenship signifying the importance of religious identity in the
construction of nationless and boundaries for some people.
However, religion was not the only motivation in decision making as most hindu enclave
dwellers decided to stay where they are. The deep-rooted attachment and cultural alignment
plays the most significant role. Most of the enclave dwellers has emotional attachment and
even developed relationship with the neighboring villages. Thus the attachment with the
present culture and value system enables them to celebrate the citizenship of host nation.

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 Economic factors and future job opportunity can be considered as a substantial aspect to
choose host country citizen. A comparison of per capita GDP can be important factor in
understanding the economic perspective of two nations which show very insignificant
difference in economic prospect.

Per capita GDP comparison

$2,500.00

$2,000.00

$1,500.00

$1,000.00

$500.00

$-
2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018

Per capita GDP of BD Per capita GDP of India

Thus it is evident that the meaning o state and their its cultural perspective plays an effective
role in reintegration and reconnection of the formal enclave dwellers. The current generation of
enclave dwellers born in the cultural realms of host country Bangladesh. Thus the culture and

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state of the country gave them the medium of imagination and connect them with the cultural
descriptive. They saw a better future and reestablishment of human relationship in existing
land. Ending of artificial separation by the anomaly of geographical consequences enabled them
to create a complex cultural identity. But close cultural proximity with dominant culture of
Bangladesh make them hopeful of easy integration and pursuit of a better future.

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Conclusion
The border enclaves are example of complex sociocultural structure of human civilization which
is a result of human created complexity of land demarcation, geographical anomaly and
complication resulting from clash of sovereignty. Border enclaves in Bangladesh-India border
has a long history of complex land treaty. The consequence of the incongruity resulted into
statelessness and marginalization of the inhabitant. Decades old alienation pave the way of
complex socio-cultural identity. Reconnection of the land with proper inclusion of the citizen in
mainstream economy is the most effective solution of the problem. In this regard, socio-cultural
dimension plays the most significant role in integration of the enclaves inhabitant to the
conventional state.

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References
1. “Enclaves swapped in landmark India-Bangladesh border deal.” (2015). BBC.
2. Banerjee, S. Guha, A. and Chaudhury, A.(2017). The 2015 India-Bangladesh Land
Boundary Agreement: Identifying Constraints and Exploring Possibilities in Cooch Behar.
Observer Research Foundation,117.
3. Chatterji, J. (1999). The Fashioning of a Frontier: the Radcliffe Line and Bengal’s Border
Landscape, 1947-1952. Modern Asian Studies 33 (1), 185-242.
4. Cons, J. ( 2012). Narrating boundaries: Framing and contesting suffering, community,
and belonging in enclaves along the India–Bangladesh border. Political Geography, 35,
37-46.
5. Duggleby, L. (2015). The last days of Bangladesh's chitmahals. Al Jazeera America.
6. Ferdoush, A.(2019). Acts of Belonging: The choice of citizenship in the former border
enclaves of Bangladesh and India. Political Geography, 70, 83-91.
7. Giddens, A. (2009). Sociology. UK: Polity Press.
8. Hasan, M, (2015). The Indo-Bangladesh enclave exchange: Revealing conceptions of the state.
LSE blog.
9. Mohan, S. (2015). India-Bangladesh Enclave Exchange: Some Concerns. Institute of Peace and
Conflict Studies.
10. Reece, J. (2009). Sovereignty and Statelessness in the Border Enclaves of India and
Bangladesh. Political Geography 28 (6), 373-81.
11. Shewly, H. (2016). India and Bangladesh Swap Territory, Citizens in Landmark Enclave
Exchange. Migration policy.

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