The Bengal Borderland

THE BENG AL
BO RDERLAND
Anthem South Asian Studies
Series editor: Crispin Bates
THE BENG AL
BO RDERLAND
BEYO ND STATE AND
NATIO N IN SO UTH ASIA
Willem van Schendel

This edition published by Anthem Press 2004
Anthem Press is an imprint of

Wimbledon Publishing Company
75-76 Blackfriars Road
London SE1 8HA
or
PO Box 9779, London, SW19 7QA
Willem van Schendel 2004
The moral right of the author to be identified

as the author of this work has been asserted
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,

stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any
means, without the prior permission in writing of Wimbledon
Publishing Company, or as expressly permitted by law, or under
terms agreed with the appropriate reprographics rights organization.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

Data available
Library of Congress in Publication Data

A catalogue record has been applied for
ISBN 1 84331 144 5 (Hbk)

1 84331 145 3 (Pbk)
1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2
CONTENTS
Figures, Plates, Tables vi
Abbreviations ix
Acknowledgements x
1 Studying Borderlands 1
2 Partition Studies 24
3 Radcliffes Fateful Line 39
4 A Patchwork Border 53
5 Securing the Territory 87
6 Defiance and Accommodation 118
7 The Flow of Goods 147
8 Narratives of Border Crossing 191
9 Migrants, Fences and Deportation 210
10 Rebels and Bandits 256
11 Rifle Raj and the Killer Border 296
12 Nation and Borderland 332
13 Conclusion: Beyond State and Nation 363
Appendix 398
References 400
Index 419
FIGURES
2.1 One into Four State fragmentation in Southern Asia

3.1 Bengal in 1947
3.2 The Radcliffe line through Bengal
3.3 The Partition border
3.4 The 201 parts of partitioned Bengal
3.5 Majority populations on either side of the Bengal border
4.1 Component parts of the Bengal border
4.2 Border disputes mentioned in this chapter
7.1 Some borderland trade flows, about 2003
10.1 Location of some borderland rebellions
Appendix 1 The Partition border and adjacent districts
Appendix 2 New administrative units in the borderland, 1947-2003
PLATES
4.1 After the political earthquake

4.2 An Indian motor boat on the Karnaphuli
4.3 A guard of honour stands next to the flag-covered coffins
4.4 Bangladeshi border guards training their gun at India
5.1 Cross-border nationalism: We Want Kamata Land!
5.2 States controlling their borders
6.1 Opening paragraphs of the first issue
6.2 Ziratia tenants drew up a petition
6.3 Visitors entering Rangamati
6.4 Market day at Bandarban
7.1 Railway tracks coming to an end at the border
7.2 After a break of 36 years
7.3 Sanctioned trade
7.4 The border crossing between Tamabil and Dawki
7.5 Indian coal trucks waiting for clearance to enter Bangladesh
7.6 Travellers in no mans land
7.7 Unloading a Bhutanese truck
7.8 Burmese trader visiting the border town of Teknaf
7.9 Swapping
7.10 A winter morning
7.11 Burmese mule caravan in Mizoram
7.12 Bangladesh border guard at Hili railway station
8.1 Government signboard on a tree in Chawngtwe/Kamalanagar
8.2 Muslim refugees waiting at the border railway station
8.3 Cartoon from Shankars Weekly
8.4 Map from a book entitled Assams Agony.
8.5 If the eviction of Bengalis from Assam does not stop
9.1 Indians (left) and Bangladeshis at Jamaldho village
9.2 Informal border crossing
9.3 Indian border villager being frisked by Indian border guards
9.4 Locked-out Indian cultivators and their cow waiting
9.5 Triple Indian border fence
9.6 Posed photograph from an Indian newspaper
9.7 Cartoon by Champak Barbora
9.8 &
9.9 Border guards barring stranded deportees from entering
9.10 Indian police arresting 50 suspected Bangladeshis
10.1 A borderland rebel: Charu Mazumdar
10.2 &
10.3 Mizo guerrillas retreating from the Sajek hills
10.4 Saluting another nation
10.5 President Yahya Khan of Pakistan is seen shooting across the border
10.6 A borderlander ferries Bangladeshi freedom fighters
10.7 Indian troops ensconced in the border town of Hili
10.8 Members of the Shanti Bahini, a guerrilla army
10.9 Inhabitants of the Chittagong Hill Tracts
10.10 The borderland under military rule
10.11 Bangladesh Rifles patrolling Lake Kaptai
11.1 Patrolling a closed border
11.2 An armed Bangladeshi guarding the closed border
11.3 Indian truck drivers having lunch at the border
11.4 The wife of Mohammad Yusuf wails over her husbands body
11.5 Stone collector and his workplace
11.6 Bangladeshis collecting boulders and sand
11.7 Village woman and patrolling Indian border guard
11.8 A Bangladeshi border guard with two blindfolded Indian guards
11.9 Indian border guards, helped by villagers, are loading
11.10 Bangladeshi borderlanders wounded
12.1 Pillar marking the border
12.2 This buoy in the mouth of the river Naf
12.3 A flag meeting
12.4 A member of the Bangladesh Rifles
12.5 Pakistani tank in the border town of Cooch Behar
12.6 Statue of anticolonial hero Khudiram Bose
12.7 The Central Monument to the Martyrs
12.8 Place of Pilgrimage for Independence
12.9 Quashed borderland market
12.10 A national event in the borderland: Pakistans Liberation Day
12.11 Borderlanders dressed up
12.12 A cross-border birth
12.13 Borderlanders expelled from the nation
12.14 Body codes of the nation
12.15 The flag of independent Bangladesh being raised
12.16 The flag of independent Bangladesh covers the corpse
12.17 Outline of the national territory
12.18 Signpost at Banglabandha (Tetulia)
12.19 Todays National Weather
12.20 Installing the Provisional Government of Bangladesh
12.21 &
12.22 The mausoleum at Mujibnagar
TABLES
3.1 Hindu, Muslim and other populations on the Bengal border

4.1 Demarcation of the Bengal border, 1947-2003
11.1 Persons killed, wounded and abducted
ABBREVIATIONS
BDR Bangladesh Rifles; the border guards of Bangladesh
BJP Bharatiya Janata Party
BOP Border outpost, usually manned by 20 to 25 border guards
BSF Border Security Force, the border guards of India
CHT Chittagong Hill Tracts
CID Central Intelligence Department
CPI(M) Communist Party of India (Marxist)
EB East Bengal
EBR East Bengal Regiment
EP East Pakistan
EPR East Pakistan Rifles, the border guards of East Pakistan
IMDT Illegal Migrants (Determination by Tribunals) Act of 1983
ISI Inter-Services Intelligence, Pakistans foreign intelligence agency
Nasaka Border Administration Force of Burma/Myanmar (also spelled Na Sa Ka)
PIF Prevention of Infiltration Force
Re., Rs. Rupee, Rupees (the currencies of India and Pakistan)
SAARC South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation
Tk. Taka (the currency of Bangladesh)
VHP Vishwa Hindu Parishad
WB West Bengal
WP West Pakistan
NOTE
The modern history of the region explored in this book has been turbulent. The region has
been named and renamed, and as a result there is a confusing multiplicity of geographical
and political designations. The following explanation may help some readers.
East Bengal, East Pakistan and Bangladesh refer to the same territory, now the
independent state of Bangladesh. In 1947 the region of Bengal was divided and its eastern
part joined the new state of Pakistan. In 1971 it broke away from Pakistan and formed the
independent state of Bangladesh.
India, Hindustan and Bharat refer to the same state, India.
Burma and Myanmar refer to the same state, currently known as Myanmar in official
parlance.
Assam, a state (province) of India, gradually broke into several smaller states: Arunachal
Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram and Nagaland (See Appendix Figure 2).
The official spelling of many towns and districts has varied during the period under review,
for example Dacca/Dhaka, Calcutta/Kolkata, Gauhati/Guwahati. For current spellings of
district names, see Appendix Figure 1.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This book has wound its way through many relationships and chance meetings. I could not
have written it without the help of four groups of people. First, the many interlocutors in
various parts of the borderland who offered insights, hospitality, documents and bittersweet
stories. Second, my travel companions in the borderland, in particular Md. Mahbubar Rahman
(North Bengal, Assam, Meghalaya, Teknaf, Chittagong Hill Tracts, Sylhet), Gautam Chakma
(Tripura, Assam, Mizoram), Md. Ahsan Habib (Panchagarh), Mitu Chakma (Chittagong
Hill Tracts), Shahriar Kabir (Darjeeling), Suborno Chisim (Mymensingh) and Ellen Bal
(Mymensingh, Meghalaya). Not only did they make my travels much more enjoyable, but
they were also invaluable for their interviewing skills and practical help. Third, without the
very generous help of the staff of the National Archives of Bangladesh in Dhaka (especially
its director, Dr. Sharif Uddin Ahmed, and its senior archivist, Md. Hashanuzzaman Hydary),
I would not have been able to access the rich historical documentation contained in their
collections. Finally, I am very grateful to Manpreet Kaur Janeja and Mrs Manjit Kaur Janeja
(Calcutta), and Kubra (Rajshahi), for assistance in searching old newspapers.
Many others helped me with material, suggestions, comments, criticism, opportunities to
present my findings, and other support, especially Itty Abraham, Aftab Ahmad, Imtiaz
Ahmed, Reaz Ahmed, Shahidul Alam, Jenneke Arens, Champak Barbora, Sanjib Baruah,
Avtar Singh Bhasin, Sugata Bose, Jan Breman, Shib Shankar Chatterjee, Partha Chatterjee,
Joya Chatterji, Sanjay Chaturvedi, Binay Bhusan Chaudhuri, Lucy Chester, Suranjan Das,
Abhijit Dasgupta, Anindita Dasgupta, Satyajit Das Gupta, Subhoranjan Dasgupta, Anjan
Datta, Leo Douw, Nienke Klompmaker, David Ludden, Erik de Maaker, Muntassir Mamoon,
Nilufar Matin, Hans Meier, Tanvir Murad, Nipa, Silvia Rivera Cusicanqui, Jan Reynders,
Mario Rutten, Ahmad Saleem, Henk Schulte Nordholt, Kathinka Sinha-Kerkhoff, Laura
van Schendel, Tobias van Schendel, Jacqueline Vel, Brendan Whyte, Thurein Yazar, Shaduz
Zaman and Vazira Zamindar. Michiel Baud deserves special thanks for his detailed criticism
of the entire text.
Most of the photographs reproduced in this book are mine, and therefore they appear
without acknowledgement. All others are duly attributed to those who made them, and I
thank the photographers for their permission to reproduce them. In the few cases in which
my attempts at identifying or locating the copyright holders have not been successful,
copyright holders are invited to contact the publisher.
Some of the material presented in this book has also been used in articles published in
the International Review of Social History, South Asian Refugee Watch, The Journal of Asian
Studies and Modern Asian Studies. The University of Amsterdam, the International Institute
of Social History (IISH), and the Indo-Dutch Programme on Alternatives in Development
(IDPAD) provided important financial and logistic support. Among the many archives and
libraries consulted in the course of this study, the Oriental and India Office Collections at
the British Library (London) and Ain-O-Shalish Kendro (Dhaka) deserve special mention.
I thank them all.
Willem van Schendel
September 2003.

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THE BENG AL

Willem van Schendel

Anthem Press is an imprint of

PO Box 9779, London, SW19 7QA

Willem van Schendel 2004

The moral right of the author to be identified

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

Library of Congress in Publication Data

ISBN 1 84331 144 5 (Hbk)

Figures, Plates, Tables vi

3 Radcliffes Fateful Line 39

5 Securing the Territory 87

6 Defiance and Accommodation 118

7 The Flow of Goods 147

8 Narratives of Border Crossing 191

9 Migrants, Fences and Deportation 210

10 Rebels and Bandits 256

11 Rifle Raj and the Killer Border 296

12 Nation and Borderland 332

13 Conclusion: Beyond State and Nation 363

2.1 One into Four State fragmentation in Southern Asia

4.1 After the political earthquake

3.1 Hindu, Muslim and other populations on the Bengal border

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