To draw a map of Bangladesh is not easy. It is nearly impossible for anyone to draw an accurate and complete map of Bangladesh if all the enclaves are included in the account. No geography books in Bangladeshi schools have them drawn! These enclaves are also unseen, forgotten, and neglected because they are difficult to visit, communication is controlled, daily life activities are limited, and developments are unworkable.
What is an enclave? Enclaves (Chitmahal in Bangla) are defined as a fragment of one country surrounded by another. They are not uncommon – many enclaves in many parts of the world were created due to historical, political, or geographical reasons. However, Bangladesh-India enclaves represent 80% of the total number of enclaves in the world since the 1950s.
A British Lawyer, Cyril Radcliffe, was given 37 days to draw a border between so-called ‘Hindu’ India and ‘Muslim’ Pakistan in 1947. And he did it – without visiting the area, without knowledge of culture, in complete secrecy, and destroyed all his papers before he left India. The border affected people, culture, geography, history, and politics. The last Viceroy of India, Lord Mountbatten, thought a hundred thousand deaths as “an acceptable level of violence” – indeed, millions died.
The number of existing enclaves in Bangladesh and India varies from source to source. The partition of the Indian subcontinent left 111 Indian enclaves inside Bangladesh and 51 Bangladeshi enclaves inside Indian territory, according to one source. Other estimates count 130 Indian Chitmahals in Bangladesh and 95 Bangladesh Chitmahals in Indian territory or 102 Indian exclaves inside Bangladesh and 71 Bangladeshi ones inside India. [Source] Whatever the accurate number of enclaves, the combined population in these areas is between 50,000 to 100,000.
All these enclaves are different in shape, size, and characteristics. In fact, Indo-Bangladesh enclaves are perhaps the most interesting, enigmatic, strange, complicated, and ‘Swiss cheese’ kind of map that exists today. Some enclaves are inside another enclave! Dahala Khagrabari is the world’s only third-order enclave, being Indian territory inside a Bangladeshi territory inside an exclave of India in Bangladesh. Suppose a resident of Dahala Khagrabari, India, wishes to reach Delhi. In that case, he/she must cross four international borders: first over into Bangladesh, then into India, back into Bangladesh again, and then, finally, into India.
Enough introduction. Let’s look into some of the enclaves via Google Maps! Some enclave maps have direct links for further exploration.
