PM Manmohan Singh is on a visit to Bangladesh on 6 and 7th
of September. This visit was touted as historic and of import by the media and there is
reason to do so. This was first in last 12 years when an Indian PM was on a
visit to our eastern neighbor. The visit was of crucial significance within the
context of India’s bilateral agreements involving the disputed border and
sharing of teesta river water between both the countries. This was aptly
referred to by the economist as 'a watershed agreement in the annals of a
bizarre geography'. In this context, it would be interesting to know the
current state of affairs in the relations between the two countries and more
interesting, to study what makes this geography so unique.
The border that we share with Bangladesh unlike our other geographical
neighbors such as Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan, Sri Lanka, Maldives or Myanmar, has
one of the most bewildering feature called "enclaves complex" which
exist along Bangladesh's northern border with India and is called Cooch Behar
enclave complex. The story behind this enclave complex is too compelling to
tell and has deep historical and political bearings.
An Enclave, as Wiki puts it, is a territory whose
geographical boundaries lie entirely within the boundaries of another territory
i.e. fragments of one country which are entirely surrounded by other. The word
"enclave" entered into the dictionary of British diplomacy in 1868
and owes its etymological origin to Latin word "clavus" which means
'embedded and surrounded'.
In his book "Stateless in South Asia: The making of the India Bangladesh Enclaves”, Wilhelm Schendel refers to about 250 such enclaves
surviving in the world today and are found mainly in three geographies -
western Europe, eastern fringes of former soviet empire and south Asia. Most of
the enclaves in south Asia are found along the borderland of India-Bangladesh. Cooch
Behar, as the territory falling into the Indian side of the border called, is a
district in north Bengal which once had been the seat of the princely state of
Koch Bihar, ruled by the Koch dynasty. Cooch Behar possesses almost 200 exclaves out of which 106 are in
Bangladesh. Of those, 3 are counter-enclaves (enclaves within enclaves) and world’s only counter-counter enclave i.e. a patch of Bangladesh that is
surrounded by Indian Territory itself surrounded by Bangladeshi territory.
The border between India and Bangladesh runs for 4096 km where
its entire stretch splits up into
flat/plains (in West Bengal, Assam-Barak Valley, Tripura), riverine (southern
extremity of West Bengal border and of Assam) and hilly/jungle (in Meghalaya).
Along its length it touches border with Assam, Tripura, Mizoram, Meghalaya and in
the longest stretch 2,217 km with West Bengal.
In his scholarly work titled Waiting For the Esquimo, Brenden Whyte chronicles the history of Bengal
and of Cooch Behar dating from Mughal and British period (1500-1950) to Indo-Pakistan
period (1947-1970) till formation of Bangladesh in 1971. It would be worthwhile to spend some time on the crucial periods of this history.
The Mughal Period
About 1200 AD much of the Bengal was conquered by Muslims enlarging
the Mughal Sultanate except the northern part which was overrun by local tribes
called Koch. During the same time, Assam was ruled by Asom dynasty. Muslim
rulers from central and south Bengal, under the patronage of Mughals tried
several times to attack and occupy kingdoms of north Bengal, but could not succeed. 1500 - 1600 AD saw the
rise to power of Koch dynasty, the rulers of Behar. Around that period, Muslim
rulers such as Sher Shah Suri, Suleman Kararani who ruled Bengal, invaded this
region several times. Finally, Emperor Akbar removed Kararani from Bengal and
added it to Mughal Empire with Koch’s help. However, the powerful landlords of Cooch Behar
retained possession of their land surrounded by the area of Mughal state giving
a tough fight to the Mughals. The period between 1600 -1700 AD was chaotic due
to dynastic wars and fight for succession within Koch Dynasty. Taking advantage
of this condition, Mughals under Eebadat Khan begun occupying the outlying
regions called Chaklas, of the
dynasty. These Chaklas were
established by Mughals replacing the previous divisions called Sarkars for easy administration and
Zamindars of these and nearby Chaklas
paid allegiance to Mughal. The remaining region remained under control of Kochs.
Whyte lays
importance on the crucial peace treaties happened in 1711 and 1713 between the
kingdom of Cooch Behar and the Mughal Empire which ended a long series of wars
in which the Mughals wrested several districts from Cooch Behar thus leading to
the formation of enclaves. This is because the Mughals were not able to remove
some of the powerful overlords of Cooch Behar from some of these Chaklas. So these lands were still held
by these chieftains even though they were annexed from that state and were ‘enclaved’
in Mughal land. Similarly other side, disbanded Mughal soldiers who occupied
lands inside reminder of Cooch Behar retained their allegiance to Mughal Empire
although detached from it and ‘enclaved’ inside Cooch Behar. The Mughal Empire
never considered these enclaves as problematic as they lacked the scientific
methods to earmark boundaries.
The British
Period
Over time
Mughal Empire disintegrated and eventually the Nawab Nazir of Bengal became the
de-facto ruler till the time East India Company established itself in India in mid-18th
century. After Robert Clive defeated Siraj-ud-daula at Plassey in 1757, Mir
Jafar, uncle of nawab, was enthroned who was later replaced with his son-in-law
Mir Kasim. The control of Bengal was slowly passed onto East India Company with
the granting of Diwani of Mughal Bengal and enclaves of Cooch Behar.
The company
accidently in 1814 discovered existence of Cooch Behar enclaves, their
jurisdictions being held independent of company control and had no authority of
magistrate. Such regions were then natural sanctuaries for notorious offenders
fleeing the police.
British indirectly
ruled north Bengal, and so the Maharaja and his administration were retained
under their rule and eventually Cooch Behar survived as princely state till the
end of colonial rule. Being the principality, Cooch Behar saw little unrest for
independence from British rule.
Post-Independence
After the
colonial rule ended, princely states had only two options either to join India
or join Pakistan. Cooch Behar was end up being wedged between India and east
Pakistan. As Wilhelm Schendel puts it succinctly “The Mughal outliers in
Cooch Behar had become part of British India and then part of Pakistan, whereas
the Cooch Behar outliers in Mughal territory had become part of princely state
and then part of India”. Eventually in 1971, as a result of Bangladesh
liberation war and Indo-Pak war, East Pakistan seceded to form Bangladesh. Remarkably,
even after being a part of such an eventful history involving frequent changes in
dominion, the enclaves survived.
Post 1971
Relations between India and newly formed Bangladesh were pleasant
since solving the boundary problems were not on the priority of newly formed
independent state. In 1972 signing of trade
agreements led to trade movements across border in specified commodities. The
agreement expired after one year and then never reinstated. In 1974, a treaty
was signed between two countries called Indira-Mujib Treaty. This treaty listed
15 sectors of boundary to be demarcated and agreed that enclaves of both the
countries in others region shall be exchanged expeditiously with no
compensation for loss of Bangladesh and with exception to few enclaves which
shall be retained by Bangladesh. India also agreed to lease an access corridor between
Dehagram and Bangladesh known as Teen
Bigha. Teen Bigha was one such attempt to connect the Bangladeshi enclaves
to their ‘mainland’. India ratified this agreement in 1980
after passing a bill in parliament. However, the implementation did not happen
due to 1) Dispute regarding the transfer and terms of lease of Teen Bigha to Bangladesh 2) an ongoing
dispute regarding use of this land by anti-India elements and illegal
immigrants to cross over into India, and the agreement remained a pipe dream. After
lot of political and social hullabaloo, eventually in 1992 Teen Bigha was transferred to Bangladesh.
The condition of those stuck in those enclaves is beyond
what we call livable. They are virtually cut from all amenities like water
electricity roads, hospitals, schools etc. They are trapped into a no-man’s
land with limited ingress to their ‘mainland’ and even need a visa to get that
access. This resulted in rise in illegal border crossing.
Fencing the Border
Border between India and Bangladesh is highly porous which also
makes it highly conducive to illegal immigration and smuggling of goods. To
curtail this, in late 1984, Indian Government announced its plan to fence the
border. The construction started in two phases. Phase I began in 1987 and
completed fencing only 20% of border while Phase II started in 2000. BSF was deployed
to guard the border. However, the illegal immigration continued and over time condition
worsened due to rise of terrorism. This border became notorious for enforcing a shoot-to-kill order
against Bangladeshi migrants by BSF.
Notwithstanding the daft of agreements between both the
countries, little progress has been made from both the sides raising ire of the
people trapped between disputed borders. The
economist puts this plight of those living in this limbo pertinently-
“A few years ago, away
from Cooch Behar, on the eastern border with India, I met a man who lived smack
on the border between Tripura state and Bangladesh. His living room was in
Bangladesh, his toilet in India. He had been a local politician in India, and
was now working as a farmer in Bangladesh. As is typical in such places, he
sent his daughters to school in Bangladesh, and his sons to India, where
schools, he thought, were much better. To his mind, the fence dividing the two
countries was of little value. But, he conceded, “at least my cows don’t run
away anymore.”
Stateless in South Asia: The making of
the India Bangladesh Enclaves by Wilhelm Schendel
No comments:
Post a Comment