Indian-Bangladeshi border treaty 2015

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Location of Bangladesh and India on the Indian subcontinent

The India-Bangladeshi border treaty, ratified on May 7, 2015, reorganized the border between Bangladesh and India . The core of the agreement was a large-scale exchange of territories to solve the decades-long problems of the Indian-Bangladeshi enclaves and previously disputed areas along the shared border. The area swap officially took place on the night of July 31st to August 1st, 2015.

History of the border

Detailed map of the border in the area of ​​the Koch Bihar district
The only third-order enclave in the world was located in the area of ​​the border: Dahala Khagrabari, a less than 7000 m² field that belonged to India, surrounded by Bangladeshi territory, which in turn was surrounded by Indian territory, which was an enclave in Bangladesh. localization

The border between India and Bangladesh goes back to the frontiers in what was then British India . When British India was granted independence in 1947, the successor states India and Pakistan emerged . Pakistan consisted of two geographically disconnected parts, East Pakistan (from 1971 independent under the name of Bangladesh) and West Pakistan. The border between India and Pakistan was set by a commission chaired by British colonial official Cyril Radcliffe . Radcliffe, who himself never set foot on the Indian subcontinent, had little time with his commission to determine the border, which is many thousands of kilometers long. The numerous Indian princely states were attached to either India or Pakistan. The princely state of Cooch Behar in the north of what is now the Indian state of West Bengal became part of India in 1948, while the part of the former British Presidency of Bengal to the south became part of East Pakistan. The border from Cooch Behar to Bengal thus became the international border between India and East Pakistan or Bangladesh. This border in turn went back to border treaties between Cooch Behar and the Mughal Empire from the years 1711 and 1713. It is unclear why the borderline was not designed in a straight line, but so extremely complex and confusing. There are various legends for this, the truth of which is unclear. For example, an officer is said to have accidentally caused some ink splatters when drawing the borderline on the map, which were then later converted into an actual borderline when the map was worked out more precisely. Another tradition says that the Raja of Cooch Behar and the Nawab of neighboring Rangpur both loved the game of chess , each using small pieces of land as stakes, which they each won in irregular turns. The result was an extremely complex borderline with numerous first, second and even third order enclaves. The border has been described as "absurd" and "the strangest border in the world".

At the time of British India, the complex border was not a major problem as it was essentially an administrative border rather than an international border. The residents of the numerous enclaves were not restricted in their freedom of movement. This changed after independence when the border became an external border. In the first few years after independence, the new border had no major practical consequences for the inhabitants of the enclaves, as there were no border controls yet. In 1952 this changed with the introduction of passport and visa requirements between India and Pakistan. This meant that the inhabitants of the enclaves could no longer move out of them and were cut off from their motherland. Ultimately, the inhabitants of the enclaves lived as if they were on islands, which were surrounded by hostile surroundings and were in part at the mercy of attacks from the surrounding areas. The enclaves developed into largely unlawful areas in which smuggling and crime were rampant. Their inhabitants were largely forgotten by the respective mother country.

In addition to the enclaves, there were further border disputes between India and Bangladesh / East Pakistan due to the so-called adverse possessions . These were villages in the border area that, after the division of British India, did not want to follow the official demarcation, but instead joined the respective neighboring state. Bangladesh owned about 1,416 hectares of such adverse possessions and India about 1,224 hectares.

There were repeated border battles along the disputed border sections with numerous dead.

The border fence

The border fence in the Dakshin Dinajpur district

From an Indian perspective, illegal immigration from Bangladesh in particular has become a major problem. It is estimated that between 1950 and 2001 between 12 and 17 million Bangladeshis illegally immigrated to India across the border, which is difficult to control. In the Indian state of Assam in particular , this led to fears of foreign infiltration by Muslim immigrants, conditions resembling civil war and tens of thousands of deaths as a result of ethnically motivated violence in the 1980s and 1990s. The problem continues to smolder today. Another problem for India was the fact that separatist and terrorist organizations found shelter in Bangladesh and from there invaded India via the green border.

In the 1980s, the Indian government under Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi decided to seal the border with Bangladesh with a border fence. The construction of the border fence was planned in different phases and construction began in 1989. Originally only parts of the border were to be fenced. In the first phase, which was largely completed by the year 2000, 857 km of border fence were erected. It was then decided in a second phase that the entire land border, i. H. to provide another 2579 km with a border fence. Completion was originally planned for 2012, but has been delayed until today. Due to unfavorable weather conditions, considerable parts of the fence had to be replaced several times. According to announcements by the Indian Ministry of the Interior, the final completion should take place by May 2016.

According to the latest plans, a total of 3286.87 kilometers of the shared border will be provided with a barbed wire-reinforced border fence, with the 2840 km border also being equipped with floodlights . It is not possible to construct a fence in the remaining sections of the border, as the border runs in the area of ​​the Ganges delta , where the courses of the rivers frequently change. The border is guarded by the Indian Border Security Forces (BSF, Indian Border Guard Forces ). The border fence has provoked comparisons with that of the border between the United States and Mexico , the barrier around the Gaza Strip and around the West Bank and the Berlin Wall . There are regular fatal incidents along the border, usually caused by the use of firearms by Indian border security forces. Between 2000 and 2007, more than 700 Bangladeshis and an unknown number of Indians died along the border. According to information from human rights organizations, between August 2008 and June 2010 there were another 315 Bangladeshis and 61 Indians. The BSF is accused of disproportionately violent action. It's not always about illegal immigration. One of the main points of contention is the smuggling of cattle . In the predominantly Hindu and vegetarian India, cows are largely untouchable , while in the predominantly Muslim Bangladesh there is a great need for beef .

From an Indian perspective, the border fence is at least partially fulfilling its purpose. The number of Bangladeshis arrested by the Indian Border Guard (BSF) on suspicion of illegal immigration fell by half, from more than 10,000 in 2005 to around 4,900 in 2009.

Attempts to resolve the border conflict

Even under Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and his Pakistani opponent Malik Feroz Khan Noon , an attempt was made in 1958 to come to a practicable border regulation, which ultimately failed due to mutual distrust. After East Pakistan gained independence under the name of Bangladesh with Indian support in 1971, a border settlement seemed to be within reach. Under the government of Indira Gandhi, a border treaty was signed on May 16, 1974 with the government of Bangladesh under Mujibur Rahman , which provided for an exchange of territory with which the enclaves should be eliminated. 70 km² of Indian enclaves should come to Bangladesh and 28 km² of Bangladeshi enclaves to India. The area swap would have resulted in a loss of 40 km² for India.

The agreement was adopted by the Bangladeshi parliament on November 27, 1974. Due to the very small loss of land in India, the Hindu nationalists opposed the agreement and appealed to the Indian Supreme Court . This decided that a constitutional amendment was necessary for the border change. Relations between India and Bangladesh then deteriorated after the assassination of Mujibur Rahman in 1975, the subsequent establishment of a military dictatorship and later the proclamation of an Islamic republic in Bangladesh. The agreement was then no longer ratified by the Indian parliament and thus did not come into force.

After the electoral victory of the Awami League in the parliamentary elections in Bangladesh in 2008 , relations between the two countries began to improve gradually. In January 2010, the Prime Minister of Bangladesh, Sheikh Hasina , visited India and in September 2011 the Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh returned this visit to Bangladesh. On September 6, 2011, a joint protocol was signed that provided for border regulation. On December 18, 2013, the then Foreign Minister Salman Khurshid introduced a bill to amend the constitution (119th amendment to the constitution) in the Rajya Sabha , the “house of states” of the Indian parliament. The draft provided for the border regulation with Bangladesh, essentially as negotiated in 1974. In contrast to the 1974 agreement, however, it provided for the retention of the status quo in the case of adverse possessions in order to avoid that the people living there might have to be resettled. During the mutual visits, numerous agreements were signed, including on the use of the Ganges water, cultural exchange, trade agreements and agreements to connect the two sides' electricity networks.

The 119th Amendment was adopted by the Rajya Sabha on May 6, 2015 and by the Lok Sabha , the first chamber of Parliament, on May 7, 2015.

The 2015 Border Treaty

Border lengths before the border agreement
Indian
state 		Border with
Bangladesh
(km)
West Bengal 2216.70
Assam 263.00
Meghalaya 443.00
Tripura 856.00
Mizoram 318.00
total 4096.70

The land border between India and Bangladesh, i.e. H. the external border of Bangladesh included, in front of the border treaty 4,096.7 km (for comparison, the land border of size as compared to Bangladesh more than twice as large Germany comprises 3786 km). India's border with Bangladesh was thus significantly longer than India's borders with the People's Republic of China (a total of 3,488 km) and Pakistan (3,323 km, according to the Indian interpretation, i.e. including all of Jammu and Kashmir ), which stretched over much larger geographical areas . Bangladesh borders on 5 different Indian states . The border with the state of West Bengal made up more than two thirds of the length .

Before the Border Treaty, there were a total of 111 Indian enclaves with a total area of ​​69.45 km² (17,160.63 acres) and about 38,000 inhabitants in Bangladesh and 51 Bangladeshi enclaves with a total area of ​​28.77 km² (7,110.02 acres) and about 14,000 Residents in India. All enclaves in India were in the Koch Bihar district , while the enclaves in Bangladesh were spread over the four districts of Panchagarh , Lalmonirhat , Kurigram and Nilphamari . The border treaty provided for the complete exchange of all enclaves. According to the agreement, the residents of the enclaves were given the right to stay on their land and to take citizenship of the other country. A joint Indian-Bangladeshi delegation that visited the enclaves in May 2007 found that the majority of the residents there would like to take advantage of this opportunity and stay at their old place of residence with new citizenship.

With regard to adverse possessions , India waived 9.17 km² (2267.682 acres) and Bangladesh on 11.23 km² (2777.038 acres). The de facto existing ownership structure was thereby recognized.

The exchange of territory became legally effective on July 31, 2015.

Enclaves that were exchanged after the border treaty (rough overview map, many small enclaves are not shown)
Location of adverse possessions
Territorial exchange of adverse possessions
Territories Area
(km²) 		Indian
state 		Bangla
deschische
Division 		new
affiliation
Berubari and Singhpara-Khudipara
( Panchagarh - Jalpaiguri )		 5.56 West Bengal Rangpur IndiaIndia India
Pakuria ( Kushtia - Nadia Districts ) 2.33 West Bengal Khulna IndiaIndia India
Char Mahishkundi 1.59 West Bengal Khulna IndiaIndia India
Haripal / LNpur (Patari) 0.22 West Bengal Rajshahi IndiaIndia India
Bousmari-Madhugari
( Kushtia - Nadia districts )		 5.50 West Bengal Khulna BangladeshBangladesh Bangladesh
Andharkota 1.37 West Bengal Khulna BangladeshBangladesh Bangladesh
Berubari ( Panchagarh - Jalpaiguri ) 1.05 West Bengal Rangpur BangladeshBangladesh Bangladesh
Pyrdiwah 0.78 Meghalaya Sylhet IndiaIndia India
Lyngkhat I 0.02 Meghalaya Sylhet IndiaIndia India
Lyngkhat II 0.003 Meghalaya Sylhet IndiaIndia India
Lyngkhat III 0.03 Meghalaya Sylhet IndiaIndia India
Dawki / Tamabil 0.006 Meghalaya Sylhet IndiaIndia India
Naljuri I 0.02 Meghalaya Sylhet IndiaIndia India
Naljuri III 0.11 Meghalaya Sylhet IndiaIndia India
Lobachera Nuncherra 0.17 Meghalaya Sylhet BangladeshBangladesh Bangladesh
Chandannagar ( Moulvibazar District ) 0.56 Tripura Sylhet IndiaIndia India
Thakurani Bari-Kalabari (Boroibari)
( Kurigram - Dhubri )		 0.78 Assam Sylhet BangladeshBangladesh Bangladesh
Pallathal
( Moulvibazar - Karimganj districts )		 0.30 Assam Sylhet BangladeshBangladesh Bangladesh
total 20.41 - - -

Perspectives

The most interesting and most far-reaching perspective of the border treaty, besides solving the long-simmering humanitarian problem of the enclaves, is the prospect that the two neighbors India and Bangladesh will work towards more intensive cooperation. Both states have a lot in common historical and cultural. The division of British India in 1947 drew a completely artificial border across the Bengali language area and thus divided a cultural area. In terms of economic policy, India has the prospect that the underdeveloped and politically troubled northeast of India , which so far could only be reached from the rest of India via a narrow isthmus, the Shiliguri Corridor ('Chicken's Neck') , can be better developed if it Has access to the ports in Bangladesh, especially Chittagong . For the economy of Bangladesh, too, economic connections to India offer the prospect of great and urgently needed growth prospects. For Bangladesh, the agreement also represents a factor of political stabilization, as India can use itself as a model for a democratic, pluralistic and secular society. The country was under the rule of a military dictatorship for 15 years and for a long time was in danger of sliding into an Islamized, intolerant society modeled on Pakistan. However, Bangladesh has been trying to get rid of this model for several years. In 2010, the Supreme Court of Bangladesh declared secularism, ie the religious neutrality of the state, to be a constitutional principle of the country.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ India and Bangladesh sign historic territory swap deal. BBC News, June 6, 2015, accessed June 18, 2015 .
  2. ^ India and Bangladesh seal land-swap deal. Aljazeera, June 6, 2015, accessed June 18, 2015 .
  3. ^ India, Bangladesh near a momentous border agreement. The Daily Star (Lebanon), November 29, 2014, accessed June 18, 2015 .
  4. ^ Sanjoy Majumder: India-Bangladeshi enclaves ready to swap sides. BBC News, July 31, 2015, accessed July 31, 2015 .
  5. ^ Lucy Chester: The 1947 Partition: Drawing the Indo-Pakistani Boundary. American Diplomacy, February 2002, accessed July 5, 2015 .
  6. ↑ a b Baggage of History: India-Bangla land swap: was the world's strangest border created by a game of chess? scroll.in, May 8, 2015, accessed June 18, 2015 (English).
  7. ↑ a b Melitta Waligora: The border between India and Bangladesh as a conflict zone . South Asia Chronicle - South Asia Chronicle 2/2012, pp. 235-270; South Asia Seminar at the Humboldt University in Berlin ISBN 978-3-86004-286-1 ( pdf )
  8. ^ Matthew Phillips: Resolving the Absurd Indo-Bangladesh Border Complexities. The Diplomat, September 26, 2014, accessed June 18, 2015 .
  9. ↑ Hilmar König: Desolate Enclaves: Smoldering territorial conflict between India and Bangladesh. ag-friedensforschung.de, August 14, 2014, accessed on June 18, 2015 .
  10. ↑ Thorsten Otto: Heavy battles on the border between India and Bangladesh. Südasien.info, May 5, 2001, accessed July 8, 2015 .
  11. ↑ Bidisha Banerjee: The Great Wall of India. slate.com, accessed July 8, 2015 .
  12. ↑ India gives Bangladesh new evidence on terror camps. rediff.com, June 17, 2003, accessed July 8, 2015 .
  13. ^ Bangladesh: The rise of the Right. rediff.com, December 21, 2005, accessed July 9, 2015 .
  14. ↑ a b Pushpita Das: IDSA COMMENT: Border Fencing Will Not Stop Illegal Migration. ISDA - Institute for Defense Studies and Analysis, December 26, 2014, accessed on July 8, 2015 .
  15. ↑ FENCING AND FLOOD LIGHTING OF BORDERS. (PDF) (No longer available online.) Indian Ministry of the Interior, archived from the original on July 11, 2015 ; accessed on July 8, 2015 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / mha.nic.in
  16. ^ India-Bangladesh Border Fence. GlobalSecurity.org, accessed July 8, 2015 .
  17. ^ "Trigger Happy" - Excessive Use of Force by Indian Troops at the Bangladesh Border. (PDF) Human Rights Watch, 2010, accessed July 8, 2015 (English, ISBN 1-56432-723-X ).
  18. ^ Delwar Hussain: Fencing off Bangladesh. the Guardian, September 5, 2009, accessed July 8, 2015 .
  19. ^ Hundreds of Bangladeshis getting killed at the border with India. The Star (Toronto), April 1, 2013, accessed July 8, 2015 .
  20. ↑ Shegufta Hasnine Surur: Video of cow smuggling shocks two nations. Dhaka Tribune, September 9, 2016, accessed October 18, 2016 .
  21. ↑ Dohala Khagrabari: Border agreements: The end of the enclaves. The Economist, September 7, 2011, accessed July 3, 2015 .
  22. ^ Agreement between the government of the People's Republic of Bangladesh and the government of the Republic of India concerning the demarcation of the land boundary between Bangladesh and India and related matters. (PDF) The Bangladesh Gazette Extraordinary, November 28, 1974, accessed July 3, 2015 .
  23. ^ A b India-Bangladesh Relations. (PDF) Indian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, accessed on July 9, 2015 .
  24. ↑ a b c d India & Bangladesh Land Boundary Agreement. (PDF) Retrieved July 8, 2015 (English, information sheet from the Indian Ministry of Foreign Affairs on the treaty).
  25. ^ Constitutional Amendments: The Constitution (119th Amendment) Bill, 2013. Retrieved July 8, 2015 (English, including the text of the 119th Amendment).
  26. ↑ a b Geography. (No longer available online.) High Commission of India, Dhaka, Bangladesh, archived from original on May 25, 2015 ; accessed on June 18, 2015 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.hcidhaka.gov.in
  27. ↑ Statistical Yearbook 2013: 1.1 Geographical overview. (PDF) Federal Statistical Office, Wiesbaden, accessed on June 18, 2015 (English).
  28. ^ Ministry of Home Affairs (Department of Border Management). (PDF) (No longer available online.) Indian Ministry of the Interior, archived from the original on July 11, 2015 ; accessed on June 18, 2015 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.mha.nic.in
  29. ↑ Shubhajit Roy: Everything you need to know: Land swap in offing with Bangladesh to end disputes. The Indian Express, December 2, 2014, accessed June 18, 2015 .
  30. ↑ LBA: camps in enclaves to settle nationality choices. The Hindu, June 25, 2015, accessed July 10, 2015 .
  31. ^ Choosing citizenship on India-Bangladesh border. BBC News, July 18, 2015, accessed July 20, 2015 .
  32. ↑ Suvojit Bagchi: 'Connectivity deals will benefit both'. The Hindu, June 7, 2015, accessed July 10, 2015 .
  33. ↑ Rediff.com »News» 'Border deal will control infiltration from Bangladesh'. rediff.com, June 5, 2015, accessed June 18, 2015 .