Preliminary Programme

Border not only signifies geo-political divisions but is an integral component of identity formation, since border denotes and determines citizenship/refugeeisation/statelessness and how these different categories negotiate with the border in their everyday lives. Given the fact fact that border shapes the lives of a nation and the people, this paper seeks to explore the making of the Indo-Bangladesh border by taking the Nadia-Kusthia sector of the West Bengal-Bangladesh segment as a case-study to show how porous the border is and consequently how the identity of the border people, too, is marked by fluidity. The aim is to unravel the complex and multi-layered story of boundary formation in the eastern sector of India following the Partition in 1947—a process which dragged on for years. The main argument is that ‘fashioning of a frontier’ is a protracted process spread over the years, marked by uncertainty and confusion which in turn was complemented by the identity of the border people, which too remained in a state of flux. The paper is essentially a modification of Joya Chatterji’s article titled ‘The Fashioning of a Frontier: The Radcliffe line and Bengal’s Border Landscape, 1947-1952’ (Modern Asian Studies 33(1), February 1999) and Bidyut Chakrabarty’s book, The Partition of Bengal and Assam: 1932-1947 (London, 2004). I intend to show, by taking the Nadia-Kushtia border as a case study, that by terminating the study of boundary formation at Radcliffe Award (1947) or Bagge Tribunal (1950), the authors have offered a partial analysis of a complex process. The point that I wish to stress is that these are links in the chain of events that led to the final demarcation of the boundary in this area, in the given time-span. In fact the whole process is a sort of vicious circle—agreements on paper often clashed with the actual demarcation process when undertaken through the erection of boundary pillars; a flurry of memoranda from the afflicted parties; constitution of tribunals and of committees to look into the problem anew, leading to bilateral agreements. Then there were further discrepancies and animosities between the two nations, taking matters back to the beginning. International boundary, in the Nadia-Kushtia sector, thus being, kept in a state of flux, racked by uncertainties, the lives of the people living on the edge, too, was beset with apprehension and anxiety. Thus the lives of the nation and its people were intertwined as a result of ‘cartographic anxiety’ in this sector and the paper aims to bring to the fore how boundary formation is a multi-layered process involving the nation and its people. (Show less)

The Gram Panchayat of South Berubari was in the district of Jalpaiguri and under the jurisdiction of Kotwali Police Station, West Bengal, India. Since independence of India in 1947, the name of South Berubari was published as news headlines time and again. Berubari issue was a most sensitive and patriotic democratic movement during the second half of the twentieth century. The problems of people of berubari originated after the partition of India. The aim of this work is to highlight how the berubari-bangladesh international boundary problems originated and developed.

Key words: Berubari, Radcliff Award, Chhitmahal, Identity. (Show less)