RETHINKING BORDER CROSSING NARRATIVES: A COMPARISON BETWEEN BANGLADESH-INDIA ENCLAVES

Bangladesh and India share 198 enclaves between them with a population of about 52,000. The enclave dwellers have to cross the international border of two different sovereign states each and every day merely to survive. While under normal circumstances this crossing should have been treated as ‘illegal’, it is not and what should have been ‘legal’ is treated as ‘illegal’. This paper attempts to explain how and why these crossings are atypical by comparing an enclave of Bangladesh named Dahagram-Angorpota with some other enclaves and exclaves of both India and Bangladesh. Both empirical and secondary data have been used for the analysis. Finally it argues that the existing border crossing narratives should be rethought if the border crossing of the enclave population is to be understood.