First published by Context, an imprint of Westland Publications Private

PART II: THE INDIA–BANGLADESH BORDER
1
.  Smruti  S.  Pattanaik,  ‘India–Bangladesh  Land  Border:  A  Flawed
Inheritance and a Problematic Future’, Strategic Analysis, 35, vol. 5,
2011, p. 745 , 
https://doi.org/10.1080/09700161.2011.591763
.
2
. N.S. Jamwal, ‘Border Management: Dilemma of Guarding the India-
Bangladesh Border’, Strategic Analysis, 28, no. 1, Jan–Mar 2004, pp.
5–36, DOI: 10.1080/09700160408450116.
3
. Press Trust of India, ‘Difficult to watch Indo-Bangla border’, Rediff, 6
October 2006, 
https://www.rediff.com/news/2006/oct/06bangla.htm
.
4
.  Willem  van  Schendel,  ‘Spaces  of  Engagement:  How  Borderlands,
Illegal  Flows,  and  Territorial  States  Interlock’,  in  Illicit  Flows  and
Criminal  Things:  States,  Borders,  and  the  Other  Side  of
Globalization, Willem van Schendel and Itty Abraham (eds), Indiana
University Press, Bloomington, 2005, pp. 38–68.
5
.  Willem  van  Schendel,  The  Bengal  Borderland:  Beyond  State  and
Nation in South Asia, Anthem Press, London, 2005, p. 40.
6
. Joya Chatterji, ‘The Fashioning of a Frontier: The Radcliffe Line and
Bengal’s Border Landscape, 1947–52’, Modern Asian Studies, 33, no.

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1, 1999, p. 193, 
www.jstor.org/stable/313155
.
7
.  Smruti  S.  Pattanaik,  ‘India–Bangladesh  Land  Border:  A  Flawed
Inheritance and a Problematic Future’, Strategic Analysis, 35, vol. 5,
2011, 
https://doi.org/10.1080/09700161.2011.591763
.
8
.  Jawaharlal  Nehru,  Indian  Foreign  Policy:  Selected  Speeches,
September  1946–April  1961,  Publications  Division,  Government  of
India,  1961,  p.  49.  Cited  in  Smruti  S.  Pattanaik,  ‘India–Bangladesh
Land Border’.
9
.  Shahzeb  Jillani,  ‘Scars  of  Bangladesh  Independence  War  40  Years
On,’ 
BBC 
News, 
13 
December 
2011,
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-16111843
.
2. PANITAR: Playing Cricket in No Man’s Land
1
.  Ministry  of  External  Affairs,  ‘Frequently  Asked  Questions  on
Protected  Area  Permit  (PAP)  /  Restricted  Area  Permit  (RAP)
Regime’, 
https://www.mea.gov.in/Images/pdf/ForeigD-FAQs-
onPAPandRAP.pdf
.
2
. ‘Disputed Bay of Bengal Island Disappears into Sea,’ Telegraph, 24
March 
2010,
https://www.telegraph.co.uk./news/worldnews/asia/india/7513350/Dis
puted-Bay-of-Bengal-island-disappears-into-sea.html
.
3
.  ‘Disputed  Bay  of  Bengal  Island  “Vanishes”,  Say  Scientists’,  BBC
News, 24 March 2010, 
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/8584665.stm
.
4
.  Willem  van  Schendel,  The  Bengal  Borderland:  Beyond  State  and
Nation in South Asia, Anthem Press, London, 2005.
5
.  Human  Rights  Watch,  ‘India/Bangladesh:  Indiscriminate  Killings,
Abuse 
by 
Border 
Officers’, 
9 
December 
2010,
https://www.hrw.org/news/2010/12/09/india/bangladesh-
indiscriminate-killings-abuse-border-officers
;  Human  Rights  Watch,
‘Trigger  Happy:  Excessive  Use  of  Force  by  Indian  Troops  at  the
Bangladesh 
Border’, 
9 
December 
2010,
https://www.hrw.org/report/2010/12/09/trigger-happy/excessive-use-
force-indian-troops-bangladesh-border
.
6
.  Special  Correspondent,  ‘CBI  arrests  BSF  commandant  in  cattle-
smuggling 
case’, 
The 
Hindu, 
18 
November 
2020,

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https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/cbi-arrests-bsf-
commandant-in-cattle-smuggling-case/article33121161.ece
;  Sandhya
Ravishankar,  ‘Why  cattle  continue  to  be  smuggled  from  West
Bengal’s border areas to Bangladesh’, The Economic Times, 29 March
2015, 
https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics-and-
nation/why-cattle-continue-to-be-smuggled-from-west-bengals-
border-areas-to-bangladesh/articleshow/46729538.cms
.
7
.  ‘India  Acquits  Felani  Killer’,  Dhaka  Tribune,  6  September  2013,
https://www.dhakatribune.com/uncategorized/2013/09/06/india-
acquits-felani-killer
.
8
.  Suchitra  Vijayan,  ‘Border  Crossings’,  The  Hindu,  3  May  2014,
https://www.thehindu.com/features/magazine/border-
crossings/article5973146.ece
.
9
. Stories  My  Country  Told  Me:  Eqbal  Ahmad  and  the  Partitioning  of
India, 
directed 
by 
H.O. 
Nazareth, 
1996,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9opz5b-C4Do
.
10
.  Encyclopaedia  Britannica,  9th  ed.,  vol.  11,  113,  s.v.  ‘Gaur’;  D.C.
Sircar,  Studies  in  the  Geography  of  Ancient  and  Medieval  India,
Motilal Banarsidass, Delhi, 1971, pp. 118–30.
11
. Richard M. Eaton, The Rise of Islam and the Bengal Frontier, 1204–
1760,  University  of  California  Press,  Berkeley  and  Los  Angeles,
1993.
12
.  E.  Vesey  Westmacott,  ‘Gaur;  its  Ruins  and  Inscriptions’,  Calcutta
Review, 
69, 
no. 
137, 
July 
1879, 
pp. 
68–83,
https://search.proquest.com/openview/18fe879da1192879/1?pq-
origsite=gscholar&cbl=54072
.
13
.  Odhikar,  Teenage  Girl,  Felani,  Killed  by  the  BSF  Firing  at
Anantapur Border under Kurigram District: Fact-Finding Report, 7
January 
2011, 
http://odhikar.org/wp-
content/uploads/2011/03/Felani-killed-BSF-Fact-finding-report-
2011-eng.pdf
.
3. NEAR JALPAIGURI: ‘ey Stole My Dreams’
1
. Hosna Jahan Shewly, ‘Life, the Law and the Politics of Abandonment:
Everyday  Geographies  of  the  Enclaves  in  India  and  Bangladesh’,

---

Durham 
theses, 
Durham 
University, 
2012,
https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/9641035.pdf
; David N. Gellner (ed.),
Borderland  Lives  in  Northern  South  Asia,  Duke  University  Press,
Durham 
and 
London, 
2013,
https://library.oapen.org/bitstream/handle/20.500.12657/31797/62523
8.pdf
:  ‘As  Van  Schendel  (2005a:  ch.  3)  argues,  very  little  of  the
border actually separated majority Muslim and Hindu districts, and in
practice the border more frequently ran through areas where there was
a  majority  of  the  same  religious  group  on  both  sides.  Further,  “the
clear  lines  that  appeared  on  the  maps  used  by  colonial  officials,
including the Bengal Boundary (or Radcliffe) did not correspond with
anything  visible  ‘out  there.’  There  was  no  way  unequivocally  to
recognize the new border on the ground” (55–56) (see figure 9.2). In
practice,  the  border  was  worked  out  through  lengthy  and  often
contentious  legal  and  political  negotiations  between  India  and
Pakistan.  Many  of  the  ambiguities  resulting  from  this  process,
including  the  enclaves  themselves,  continue  to  plague  border
residents and are the source of ongoing conflicts.’
2
.  Agreement  between  Governments  of  India  and  Pakistan  Regarding
Procedures  to  End  Disputes  and  Incidents  Along  the  Indo-East
Pakistan  Border  Areas,  New  Delhi,  23  October  1959,  referred  to  as
the 
Ground 
Rules 
of 
1959,
https://peacemaker.un.org/sites/peacemaker.un.org/files/IN%20PK_59
1023_Agreement%20to%20End%20Disputes%20and%20Incidents%
20along%20the%20Indo-East%20Pakistan%20Border%20Areas.pdf
.
3
.  Subir  Bhaumik,  ‘Photo  ID  Cards  for  Indian  Cattle’,  BBC  News,  30
August 2007, 
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/6970305.stm
.
4
. Louise Moon, ‘India Plans to Give 88 Million Cows “Identity Cards”
Which  Can  Be  Tracked  Online’,  The  Telegraph,  4  January  2017,
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/01/04/india-plans-give-88-
million-cows-identity-cards-can-tracked/
.
5
.  Reese  Jones,  ‘Geopolitical  Boundary  Narratives,  the  Global  War  on
Terror and Border Fencing in India’, Transactions of the Institute of
British Geographers, 34, no. 3, July 2009, p. 293.
6
. Ibid.
7
. Ibid.

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