As far as I am aware, exchange has still not yet taken place due to the continuing disputes over adverse possessions and at least one small stretch of as-yet undelimited boundary near Haldibari. Then there is the question of what to do with the enclave populations: exchange them too or leave them in situ, or allow them some sort of opportunity to choose which side to remain with... this is compounded by the fact that neither state wants to recognise all the residents in its own enclaves as it own citizens: they each feel that their own citizens have long been forced out and residents of the surrounding state have taken up residence instead. This is particularly the case with India, which feels Bangladeshis make up much of the population of Indian enclaves in Bangladesh now.
Boundary talks are ongoing, and further complicated by Talpatty/New Mooroe 'island', and several other issues; and of course local politics in each country, which is what delayed the Nehru-Noon and Indira-Mujib agreements so long in Indian and Bangladeshi courts.
The only pat of the enclave exchange implemented to date is the leasing by India of the Tin Bigha coridor to Dahagram-Angarpota, the only enclave Bangladesh will get to keep, and even that lease cost much judicial intervention, and several lives.
So in other words, no demonstratable progress since publication of my book . However I would argue that exchange would not be progress, but a step backwards for the area. The enclaves provide a potential tourist attraction in an otherwise peripheral area with little hope of development from other industries, so that instead of exchange, some modus vivendi to allow 'pretty' demarcation of the enclaves, and homestays or other approriate tourist development, a la Baarle Nassau/Hertog's enclaves, would offer a better prospect for the locals in and around the enclaves than exchanging the enclaves and completing the Indian border fence in the disputed/adversely possessed areas.
Dr Brendan Whyte
Ubon Ratchathani University
THAILAND
Date: Thu, 13 Nov 2008 08:07:08 -0800
From: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Maintaining the higher ground v. Stemming the Tide
To: [log in to unmask]
About the Cooch Behar enclaves (and exclaves). Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cooch_Behar_Enclaves) cites Professor Whyte's book, but says that while the two states agreed to the exchange, it was never actually implemented. What is the state of play de facto and de jure with regard to these territories -- have they been exchanged or not? Can they have been exchanged de jure but not de facto?
David Phillips
San Francisco
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