It is the evening of July 31, 2015. A few minutes before the clock strikes midnight. It is history in the making- soon the world's only third-order enclave, Dahala Khagrabari (enclave #51), shall cease to exist- a piece of India inside Bangladesh inside India inside sovereign Bangladesh separated from mainland India.
Let me explain that. An enclave is a part of a country totally surrounded by another one. While Lesotho, Vatican City and San Marino can't be counted in (as they are full sovereign states in their own right), there are numerous examples dotted around the world, including West Europe and the former Soviet States. Some examples are Baarle-Hertog (municipality with 22 Belgian enclaves in Antwerp inside the Netherlands' province of North Brabant), Campione d'Italia (municipality of the Italian province of Como in the Swiss canton of Ticino), Jungholz (part of the Austrian state of Tyrol in the German state of Bavaria), to name a few. These are just first order enclaves.
Second order enclaves, or counter-enclaves, are those when the above mentioned first order enclaves have an exclave of the land surrounding them, i.e. country A surrounding country B surrounding country A. In the Belgian-Dutch example, that would be 7 second order enclaves of Netherlands within Belgian lands which themselves are enclaves of the first order. Another example is in the Middle East in the United Arab Emirates. Nahwa, belonging to the UAE is surrounded by Madha of Oman which in turn is an exclave located within sovereign borders of the UAE, far away from the Omani territory.
The above examples are dwarfed in sheer magnitude and complexity by the number of enclaves and exclaves that existed of not just the first and second order, but even the third order along the Indian-Bangaldeshi border. Within the Indian mainland were 51 Bangladeshi enclaves with 3 counter-enclaves. Whereas within the Bangladeshi mainland existed 111 Indian enclaves, within which were 21 counter-enclaves and to top it all one counter-counter-enclave or a third order enclave. As of July 31, 2015, most of these have ceased to exist.
The origins of the weirdest border, the fifth-longest in the world at 4,053km with 199 sections (of which 198 are enclave borders) have been attributed to a variety of people and factors across the ages. Some legend has it that the land chunks were used as wagers in a game of chess played by the Maharaja of Cooch-Behar and the Faujdar of Rangpur and they remained so ever since. Others attribute it to the drunkenness of a British cartographer as the Indian-Pakistan land borders were mapped out in the days leading to the partition (but this is not widely accepted). An article in the Economist quotes Brendan Whyte, an academic as saying they were parts cut from larger territories by treaties signed in 1711 and 1713 between the Maharaja of Cooch-Behar and the Mughal Emperor in Delhi.
The enclaves belonged to the Bengali district of Cooch-Behar, called Chhits in the local language, Bengali. When the partition occured, the Maharaja of Cooch-Behar ceded to India, thus creating the majority of the world's modern-day enclaves. They have stood the test of time by withstanding the break-up of Bengal in the India-Pakistan partition of British India of 1947 and even the Bangladeshi independence movement of 1971. These Chhits were mired in the deepest imaginable limbo these past 68 years since the British left the sub-continent for good, much against the Victorian Churchill's wishes.
Coming to the third-order enclave of Dahala Khagrabari, it is only 7000 sq.m. It was surrounded by the Bangladeshi enclave of Upanchowki Bhajni. A Bangladeshi farmer residing in this enclave owned the Indian land in Dahala Khagrabari. The Bangladeshi enclave was itself within Indian enclave village of Balapara Khagrabari within the Debiganj, Rangpur division of Bangladesh.
The peoples of the enclaves were effectively stateless considering they would have to bribe border guards for the most basic of amenities- that would be buying food, going to school, or receiving hospital treatment. These 'stateless' people were not able to procure any required national documents of identification due to the cumbersomeness of the situation, thereby perhaps asking their neighbours from India or Bangladesh to show them as adopted to pass off as locals. There have been instances of a newborn not having been able to have its own parents' names on its birth certificate for sake of discriminatory practices that were in place- that meant it would have 'foster' parents' names in order to able to receive immunization vaccines at the local hospital (that was located across the border) and attend the local school (which still was in international territory). They were not even allowed electricity access and power lines- to this day they live with candles and kerosene lamps- a phenomenon that evokes pre-Independence era emotions in the minds of the people from the subcontinent.
With the changeover, all Bangladeshis within Indian enclaves have adopted the Indian nationality, while all but 1000 Indians within Bangladeshi enclaves adopted Bangladeshi nationality. They would have time until November 2015 to move westward towards the Indian state of West Bengal for resettlement by the Indian authorities. The joint census that was conducted by the two countries in the enclaves accounted for 51,549 (of which 37,334 were Indians in enclaves within Bangladesh) 'stateless' people who were denied their right to basic amenities, discriminated and helpless.
In 1974, the Indian and Bangladeshi governments signed the Land Boundary Agreement (LBA) soon after the Bangladeshi independence to try and resolve the border issues. Bangladesh ratified it but India didn't as it would have to cede territory (which it did indeed after 41 years in 2015) leaving it in a limbo. The Protocol of 2011 as an addendum to the LBA of 1974 helped push the unresolved land boundary issue where July 31, 2015 was called ''the Appointed Day''. The day when the two nations would have their strings of land transferred to one another, exchanging maps of the demarcated new boundaries and completing the transfer of the territorial jurisdiction. Most people had opined in the 2011 joint census that they would not wish to move, but rather stay where they had lived all their lives- this was an indication of the relative small movement of people expected, unlike the Partition Exodus of 1947. The ground demarcation of the international boundary between the two nations would be completed by June 30, 2016.
Legally, I think of half an hour when the most complex of ideas would be at work. Bangladesh is UTC+6 while India is UTC+5:30. Now let me contemplate on the quagmire not when 7000 sq.m. of land is half an hour behind the land that surrounds it, but the the point of ''transferring of land at midnight from one country to the other''. India would have got the 51 Bangladeshi enclaves half an hour prior to Bangladesh receiving most of the 111 enclaves. India, for just half an hour would have grown in size just to shrink further half an hour later, oh the small pleasures of time travel across an enclave.
Photo Credits: http://geosite.jankrogh.com/cooch_behar.htm
Let me explain that. An enclave is a part of a country totally surrounded by another one. While Lesotho, Vatican City and San Marino can't be counted in (as they are full sovereign states in their own right), there are numerous examples dotted around the world, including West Europe and the former Soviet States. Some examples are Baarle-Hertog (municipality with 22 Belgian enclaves in Antwerp inside the Netherlands' province of North Brabant), Campione d'Italia (municipality of the Italian province of Como in the Swiss canton of Ticino), Jungholz (part of the Austrian state of Tyrol in the German state of Bavaria), to name a few. These are just first order enclaves.
Second order enclaves, or counter-enclaves, are those when the above mentioned first order enclaves have an exclave of the land surrounding them, i.e. country A surrounding country B surrounding country A. In the Belgian-Dutch example, that would be 7 second order enclaves of Netherlands within Belgian lands which themselves are enclaves of the first order. Another example is in the Middle East in the United Arab Emirates. Nahwa, belonging to the UAE is surrounded by Madha of Oman which in turn is an exclave located within sovereign borders of the UAE, far away from the Omani territory.
The above examples are dwarfed in sheer magnitude and complexity by the number of enclaves and exclaves that existed of not just the first and second order, but even the third order along the Indian-Bangaldeshi border. Within the Indian mainland were 51 Bangladeshi enclaves with 3 counter-enclaves. Whereas within the Bangladeshi mainland existed 111 Indian enclaves, within which were 21 counter-enclaves and to top it all one counter-counter-enclave or a third order enclave. As of July 31, 2015, most of these have ceased to exist.
The origins of the weirdest border, the fifth-longest in the world at 4,053km with 199 sections (of which 198 are enclave borders) have been attributed to a variety of people and factors across the ages. Some legend has it that the land chunks were used as wagers in a game of chess played by the Maharaja of Cooch-Behar and the Faujdar of Rangpur and they remained so ever since. Others attribute it to the drunkenness of a British cartographer as the Indian-Pakistan land borders were mapped out in the days leading to the partition (but this is not widely accepted). An article in the Economist quotes Brendan Whyte, an academic as saying they were parts cut from larger territories by treaties signed in 1711 and 1713 between the Maharaja of Cooch-Behar and the Mughal Emperor in Delhi.
The enclaves belonged to the Bengali district of Cooch-Behar, called Chhits in the local language, Bengali. When the partition occured, the Maharaja of Cooch-Behar ceded to India, thus creating the majority of the world's modern-day enclaves. They have stood the test of time by withstanding the break-up of Bengal in the India-Pakistan partition of British India of 1947 and even the Bangladeshi independence movement of 1971. These Chhits were mired in the deepest imaginable limbo these past 68 years since the British left the sub-continent for good, much against the Victorian Churchill's wishes.
Coming to the third-order enclave of Dahala Khagrabari, it is only 7000 sq.m. It was surrounded by the Bangladeshi enclave of Upanchowki Bhajni. A Bangladeshi farmer residing in this enclave owned the Indian land in Dahala Khagrabari. The Bangladeshi enclave was itself within Indian enclave village of Balapara Khagrabari within the Debiganj, Rangpur division of Bangladesh.
The peoples of the enclaves were effectively stateless considering they would have to bribe border guards for the most basic of amenities- that would be buying food, going to school, or receiving hospital treatment. These 'stateless' people were not able to procure any required national documents of identification due to the cumbersomeness of the situation, thereby perhaps asking their neighbours from India or Bangladesh to show them as adopted to pass off as locals. There have been instances of a newborn not having been able to have its own parents' names on its birth certificate for sake of discriminatory practices that were in place- that meant it would have 'foster' parents' names in order to able to receive immunization vaccines at the local hospital (that was located across the border) and attend the local school (which still was in international territory). They were not even allowed electricity access and power lines- to this day they live with candles and kerosene lamps- a phenomenon that evokes pre-Independence era emotions in the minds of the people from the subcontinent.
With the changeover, all Bangladeshis within Indian enclaves have adopted the Indian nationality, while all but 1000 Indians within Bangladeshi enclaves adopted Bangladeshi nationality. They would have time until November 2015 to move westward towards the Indian state of West Bengal for resettlement by the Indian authorities. The joint census that was conducted by the two countries in the enclaves accounted for 51,549 (of which 37,334 were Indians in enclaves within Bangladesh) 'stateless' people who were denied their right to basic amenities, discriminated and helpless.
In 1974, the Indian and Bangladeshi governments signed the Land Boundary Agreement (LBA) soon after the Bangladeshi independence to try and resolve the border issues. Bangladesh ratified it but India didn't as it would have to cede territory (which it did indeed after 41 years in 2015) leaving it in a limbo. The Protocol of 2011 as an addendum to the LBA of 1974 helped push the unresolved land boundary issue where July 31, 2015 was called ''the Appointed Day''. The day when the two nations would have their strings of land transferred to one another, exchanging maps of the demarcated new boundaries and completing the transfer of the territorial jurisdiction. Most people had opined in the 2011 joint census that they would not wish to move, but rather stay where they had lived all their lives- this was an indication of the relative small movement of people expected, unlike the Partition Exodus of 1947. The ground demarcation of the international boundary between the two nations would be completed by June 30, 2016.
Legally, I think of half an hour when the most complex of ideas would be at work. Bangladesh is UTC+6 while India is UTC+5:30. Now let me contemplate on the quagmire not when 7000 sq.m. of land is half an hour behind the land that surrounds it, but the the point of ''transferring of land at midnight from one country to the other''. India would have got the 51 Bangladeshi enclaves half an hour prior to Bangladesh receiving most of the 111 enclaves. India, for just half an hour would have grown in size just to shrink further half an hour later, oh the small pleasures of time travel across an enclave.
Photo Credits: http://geosite.jankrogh.com/cooch_behar.htm
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