BANGLADESH INSTITUTE OF INTERNATIONAL AND STRATEGIC STUDIES

SIXTY-SIX YEARS SAGA OF BENGAL BOUNDARY-MAKING: A HISTORICAL EXPOSÉ OF BANGLADESH-INDIA BORDER

Author: Hosna Jahan Shewly

DOI Link: https://www.doi.org/10.56888/BIISSj2013v34n3a2

ABSTRACT

The history of the Bangladesh-India border started with the partition of British India in 1947. The Bengal border was the longest international border to come into existence during the worldwide decolonisation process in the middle of the twentieth century. The process that started to make international boundary through Bengal in 1946 is still ongoing as Bangladesh and India failed to demarcate the entire Bengal border. In addition, there are unresolved border enclave matters which indicate both countries failed to delimit their territory. This paper focuses on six and a half decades' process of Bengal boundarymaking under the shadow of politics. This article fills a gap in the literature by examining a geologically slow process of border-making under the shadow of politics. The paper shows how inter and intra-state politics victimised the boundary-making process for over a half-century time while concerns over territorial loss function as an instrument to keep the disputes alive.