Empirical Study of Stateless Persons in India-Bangladesh Ex-enclaves: Lives, Experiences, and Prospects
IDE Research Bulletin
TSUBOTA Kenmei
March 2020
PDF (124KB)
Background and objective
The geographical setting of the enclaves between Bangladesh and India was too unique to be imagined easily. The category that Indian enclaves in Bangladesh falls into is "true enclaves". Among the existing true enclaves as of 2015, the sum of all enclaves in India-Bangladesh borderlands was the largest cluster in number of enclaves, the largest in population size and second largest in area size.1There were various problems associated with international border and the pervious studies identified the residents of enclaves as stateless situation. They were abandoned by the states and left as stateless for 68 years since Partition of India in 1947. Finally, on 1st August in 2015, the land exchanges between the two countries were enforced and the people of these lands are formally recognized as the citizens of one of two nations.
- The largest enclaves in area size is Sokh, Uzbekistan enclaves in Kyrgystan. See Vinokurov (2007), Table 2.3.