Israel-Palestine conflict: How Chhitmahal can inspire a West Bank solution

The Israelis and the Palestinians are at it again. After the Hamas terrorists slaughtered over a thousand citizens, Israel has undertaken an operation to obliterate Gaza, the home of Hamas.

The world is fearing an escalation of this never-ending conflict. We call it a never-ending conflict because the solution offered by the international community could never come into effect, first because hardline Palestinians rejected it and after that because Israel did it, not in words but in its actions. The worst part of this sorry saga is that Israel, over the years, has made it a solution impassable.

Israel has created mini-enclaves across the West Bank, the land allotted to Palestine. In the two-state formula, the state of Palestine was supposed to govern the tiny Gaza Strip and comparatively expansive West Bank.

But now West Bank is dotted with Jewish settlements governed by Israel, while the land in Palestinian control shrinks by the day. Now that the annexation of West Bank is fait accompli, nobody seems to know how to keep alive the two-state solution.

After all, there are an estimated 5,00,000 Jewish settlers living within the West Bank. Palestine exists in the gaps between these over 100 Israeli enclaves. The two-state solution would mean Israel moving these 5,00,000 people out of West Bank into main Israeli territory, freeing up that place as Palestine. It would mean a loss of land for Israel. There’s that issue of ego to deal with first, of course.

So where do they go from here? Well, look East.

Not too long ago, India and Bangladesh had a somewhat similar problem, geopolitics wise. The problem went back a few centuries but it was resolved only eight years ago. The issue stretched on for sixty years after the Independence of India because of worries over land loss, and what not.

THE CHHITMAHAL PROBLEM
‘Chhitmahal’ — the sprinkling of Indian enclaves inside Bangladeshi land and vice versa — had been troubling both India and Bangladesh. 50,000 people lived in these areas that fell on the wrong side of history and border.

It was finally resolved by the Land Boundary Agreement, spoken about by Indira Gandhi and Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the heads of India and Bangladesh respectively in 1974; and finally sealed off by Narendra Modi and Sheikh Hasina, the heads of the two states in 2015. It was a moment unlike any in South Asian history. But let’s go back to the beginning of this land mess.

A TWISTED GAME OF CHESS
The Maharaja of Koch Bihar (India, today) had a game of chess with the Maharaja of Rangpur (Bangladesh, today). Remember these two players because they will keep reappearing in this tale of whim and tragedy.

Now, like it is with the rajas and maharajas of yore, land was used as stakes. The game of chess resulted in some land from Koch Bihar given to Rangpur and vice versa.

INDIA AND EAST PAKISTAN, 1947
All was well till 1947. After Partition, Rangpur became part of East Pakistan, and the Maharaja of Koch Bihar chose India for his kingdom to merge with in 1949. The lands given to each other in that game of chess stuck out like a sore thumb but there was the entire palm to worry about at that time. So, these became ‘chhitmahal’, and the individual enclaves were called ‘chhit’, inspired by the Bangla word for splash.

– India had 102 enclaves in Bangladesh
– Bangladesh had 71 enclaves in India

Within the 102 enclaves of India were
– 21 counter enclaves of Bangladesh

Within the 71 enclaves of Bangladesh were
– 7 counter enclaves of India

Within the 21 counter enclaves of Bangladesh was
– 1 counter-counter enclave of India… the world’s only third-order enclave till 2015.

Now that you have an idea of the numbers and the complexity of the issue at hand, let’s move on to the other numbers, the people in these enclaves and counter enclaves and counter-counter enclave.

37,334 people lived in the Indian enclaves in Bangladesh
– 14,215 people lived in the Bangladeshi enclaves in India

RUN-UP TO THE MAIN DEAL
Governments came and went. East Pakistan became Bangladesh in 1971.

The people of the enclaves, stuck in a limbo, got by their days hoping to become citizens of a state.

The enclaves were all calm and quiet if you were to look at them as an outsider. For these 50,000 odd residents, however, these were lines of fate that someone else had drawn for them. They were ‘nowhere people’. For a person in the Indian enclave in Bangladesh, there was no vote, no right to work, and nowhere to file a case if something were to happen to them.

It was no different for the Bangladeshi enclave-dwellers trapped within India.

THE LAND BOUNDARY AGREEMENT, 1974
After years of discussions, the two governments decided to arrive at a decision. The first bit of work towards a plausible solution was in 1974, when Indian PM Indira Gandhi and Bangladeshi PM Sheikh Mujibur Rahman signed an agreement to exchange the enclaves.

India and Bangladesh in 1997 drew up a list of enclaves that they wanted to exchange. The two countries formed Joint Boundary Working Committees and carried out a joint census in 2011. Then, a decision was arrived at: India and Bangladesh would exchange 162 enclaves in total.

India would give Bangladesh 111 enclaves.

Bangladesh would give India 51 enclaves.

THE LAND SWAP DEAL, 2015
So, at the stroke of the midnight hour on July 31, 2015, Indian PM Narendra Modi and Bangladeshi PM Sheikh Hasina exchanged land and people. The enclave-dwellers were given a choice: they could move to their country of choice and become legal citizens there.

About 14,000 people became the newest citizens of India.

About 36,000 people became the newest citizens of Bangladesh.

THE ISRAEL-PALESTINE SOLUTION
If Israel agrees to return the settler land to Palestine in the West Bank, it will have to abandon the settlements and resettle them in the land allocated to Israel by the United Nations. Or annex parts of West Bank adjacent to the 1947 borders. While it’s possible to allow people to choose their citizenship, it’s unlikely that the Jewish settlers would accept the citizenship of the state of Palestine.

The problem between India and Bangladesh and Israel and Palestine are different and solutions will also be different. But the Chhitmahal can inspire a compromise; a small step towards ending a never-ending conflict.