India–Bangladesh Border Disputes: History and Post-LBA Dynamics

164 Pages·2018·2.3 MB·English

by  Amit Ranjan

South Asia Economic and Policy Studies
Amit Ranjan
India–Bangladesh
Border Disputes
History and Post-LBA Dynamics
South Asia Economic and Policy Studies
Series editors
Sachin Chaturvedi, Director General, RIS for Developing Countries, New Delhi,
India
MustafizurRahman,ExecutiveDirector,CentreforPolicyDialogue(CPD),Dhaka,
Bangladesh
Abid Suleri, Executive Director, Sustainable Development Policy Institute,
Islamabad, Pakistan
Dushni Weerakoon, Executive Director, Institute of Policy Studies of Sri Lanka,
Colombo, Sri Lanka
The Series aims to address evolving and new challenges and policy actions that
maybeneededintheSouthAsianRegioninthe21stcentury.Itventuresnicheand
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More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/15400
Amit Ranjan
–
India Bangladesh Border
Disputes
History and Post-LBA Dynamics
123
Amit Ranjan
Institute of SouthAsian Studies
National University ofSingapore
Singapore
Singapore
ISSN 2522-5502 ISSN 2522-5510 (electronic)
SouthAsiaEconomic andPolicy Studies
ISBN978-981-10-8383-9 ISBN978-981-10-8384-6 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-8384-6
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For My Parents
Acknowledgements
Thisbookisaresultoftwoaccidents.First,in2013,afteraseriesoffailedattempts
to get a job, I got a call from the Indian Council of World Affairs (ICWA), New
Delhi,tojoinasaResearchFellow.Second,attheICWA,Iwasinstructedtowork
onBangladesh—acountryaboutwhichIhadlittleknowledge,Istartedthelearning
process, and this book is a result of it. Along with Deputy General of the ICWA,
Ajaneesh Kumar, I am also thankful to Dr. Vijay Sakhuja, Dr. Pankaj Jha,
Dr. Rahul Mishra, Dr. Shamshad Ahmad Khan and Dr. Smita Tiwari. A special
thanks to Vishal and Jagbir who, during my ICWA days, assured that every
morning I get my breakfast.
Although the project got some structure during my tenure at the ICWA, I fin-
ished it to my satisfaction only after I joined the Institute of South Asian Studies
(ISAS), National University of Singapore, in February 2017. I am thankful to my
colleagues at ISAS who have provided me competitive but friendly atmosphere.
Thanks to the Chairman of ISAS, ambassador-at-large Mr. Gopinath Pillai,
Professor Subrata Kumar Mitra, Mr. Hernaikh Singh, Mr. Vinod Rai,
Dr. D. Subbarao, Dr. Iftekhar Ahmed Chowdhury, Dr. Amitendu Palit, Dr.
DipinderSingh,Dr.RonojoySen,Dr.Jivanta,Dr.Shrikant,Dr.SojinShinandMr.
Rajeev Ranjan Chaturvedy.
DuringmyfieldworkinNewDelhi,ImetafewBangladeshiswhocrossedover
into the Indian side of the border in 1971 as a refugee, but now they identify
themselvesasBengalisfromtheIndianstateofWestBengalliving inDelhi. They
informed me about their roots and original identity after I promised them to not
revealtheirnames,locationandotherformsofidentitywhichcouldposeproblems
to them. They also told me their part of the stories about the atrocities they
experiencedin1971,andsharedthetraumaofbeingdisplacedfromtheir‘roots’in
Bangladesh. This includes both Hindus and Muslims. I also met a few migrants
fromBangladeshwhomoveacrossIndia–Bangladeshborderlineatregularinterval
oftime.Theysharedtheirexperiencesofcrossingintotheothersideoftheborder.
Thanks to all of them. I also discussed this issue with people in Guwahati and
Dhaka during my visits to the respective cities. Most of myinteractions with them
vii
viii Acknowledgements
wereinformal.Thishelpedmetolearnalotabouttheborder,borderlandandtheir
‘violation’.
Insearchoftheliteratureanddocumentsonthetheme,Ireceivedalotofsupport
fromthestaffmembersoftheCentralReferenceLibrary,UniversityofDelhi,New
Delhi; Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), New Delhi; ICWA Library; and
National University of Singapore, Singapore. Thanks to all staff members of the
respective libraries.
I am grateful to my parents, my brothers and my sister for all forms of support
they extended to me. I am also grateful to my ex-room partner Dayanand Rai. We
stayed together for more than three years. My roommates from my days in JNU,
Ramesh Singh and Sandeep Biswas, were very helpful during my days at the
university. My friends Angana Guha Roy, Kumar Dhananjay, Munil, Viswamitra,
Neeraj, Somya, Prakash, Binod, Vikash Anand, Riya et al. have made invaluable
contributions in this book in their own respective ways.
MywifeJyotideservesspecialthanks.Threedaysaftermymarriage,Ileftherin
Mumbai to complete a few of my pending research works. Till now she has not
complained about it. Thanks Jyoti!
Finally, I am thankful to Nupoor Singh and her team from Springer. A usual
disclaimerapplieswiththismanuscript.Theviewsexpressedinthisbookaremine
and do not reflect and represent views of my past or the present employers.
Contents
1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
India–Bangladesh Border Issues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Questions, Arguments and Methodology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Structure of the Book . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Note on Terminology and Spellings. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
2 Border: Physical, Political and Emotional Construct . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Defining Border: Beyond a Line . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Border and Security . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Border and Identity: Creation and Construction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Border: An Emotional Line. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
Conclusion. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
3 Drawing a Line Between Two Bengals: History and Politics . . . . . . 37
Partition of Bengal 1905: Administrative Necessity or Religion
Based Division of Population . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
Partition of Bengal in 1947: Emergence of Competitive Identity . . . . . . 44
Demand for United Bengal: A Last Minute Effort . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
Partitioning Bengal: Significance of Identity. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
Conclusion. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
4 India–Bangladesh Border Disputes, 1947–2015. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
Border Disputes from 1947–1971: Tensions and Disagreements . . . . . . 66
Signing of The LBA: A Sign of India–Bangladesh Bonhomie. . . . . . . . 72
Can LBA Be a Model to Resolve India’s Other Border-Related
Disputes?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
ix
x Contents
Maritime Border Disputes: Accepting Adjustments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
Conclusion. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
5 Post-LBA Dynamics: An Assessment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
Population Movement Along the India–Bangladesh Border:
Identity and Violence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
Tensions Over ‘Securing’ Their Border from Violation. . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
Rise of Militancy and Insurgency: Internal–External Linkages. . . . . . . . 110
Economic Aspects of Border. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116
Fencing the Border: Can It Stop the Violation of Line? . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
Border Haats: Economic Engagement of Borderland Population . . . . . . 121
Conclusion. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
6 Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
Current Status of India–Bangladesh Relationships. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130
Some Suggestions to Deal with Post-LBA Border-Related
Issues. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140
Appendix A... .... .... .... ..... .... .... .... .... .... ..... .... 141
Appendix B... .... .... .... ..... .... .... .... .... .... ..... .... 143
Appendix C... .... .... .... ..... .... .... .... .... .... ..... .... 147
Appendix D... .... .... .... ..... .... .... .... .... .... ..... .... 153
Glossary.. .... .... .... .... ..... .... .... .... .... .... ..... .... 159