The Politics of International Law and India- Bangladesh Land Border Management: a Critical Theory Approach
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The Politics of International Law and India- Bangladesh Land Border Management: A Critical Theory Approach Humayra Morsheda Mishu Nottingham Trent University May 2018 A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements of Nottingham Trent University for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy i Abstract This thesis explores the management of specific aspects of land border disputes on the India-Bangladesh frontier. Drawing on a critical theory approach which problematizes the politics of international law, it asks how a partial border dispute resolution between India and Bangladesh became possible and how and why it proved difficult to achieve in and after 1974, and it suggests that the interaction of law and politics is a major underlying cause of the patterns in that resolution. The specific approach used is taken from Koskenniemi (2005, 2011), who has argued that international legal theories tend to universalise conflicts which are better understood as specific problems in specific historical and political contexts, and that it is the politics of a dispute rather than the legal dimensions as law which shape the processes and possibilities of their resolution. The research asks how effective the available means for conflict resolution have been and why the ongoing border dispute between India and Bangladesh have proved so intractable. The employed methods, derived primarily from Strydom’s (2011) account of critical theory methodology, use a qualitative analysis approach to examine substantive issues between the two countries, their history, diplomacy and geography, and to examine carefully how the disputes are seen, defined and acted upon by key players on both sides. The thesis includes a critical analysis of the India- Bangladesh land border dispute with the primary focus on the weaker actor, making sense of Bangladesh’s response to attempts to dominate its border policies by a much larger country that was also, in the early 1970s, the sponsor of its independence. The thesis draws on a wide range of original sources, including primary documents sources from both sides and interview sources conducted by the author. It also includes a critical appraisal of the process of negotiation and the interlocking of legal and political arguments in the management of the conflict. The dispute has been partially resolved since the thesis was started, and the analysis aims to explain both the management and the degree of agreement reached by 2015. ii Acknowledgement It is a great pleasure to express my sincere thanks to Dr Chris Farrands, Dr Roy Smith for supervising my research. I am also grateful to Dr Chris Farrrands, Dr Roy Smith, Mr. Mandal, J.S. Moutushi, M. Hossain and my family for supporting me to complete this research. Humayra Mishu Nottingham May 2018 iii ABBREVIATIONS BDR Bangladesh Rifles. BGB Border Guards Bangladesh. BJP Bharatiya Janata Party. BNP Bangladesh Nationalist Party. BSF Border Security Force (India). CTIR Critical Theory of International Relations. CUFL Chittagong Urea Fertilizer Limited. ICJ International Court of Justice. INC Indian National Congress. (Often called Congress). JBWG Joint Boundary Working Group. KSS Kuchibari Songram Shomiti. Kuchibari Movement Committee (translated). LBA Land Boundary Agreement. NDA National Democratic Alliance. SAARC South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation. SAFTA South Asian Free Trade Area. SEATO Southeast Asia Treaty Organisation. TMC/AITC Trinamool Congress/ All India Trinamool Congress. TSS Tin Bigha Songram Shomiti. Tin Bigha Movement Committee(translated). ULFA United Liberation Front of Assam. UPA United Progressive Alliance iv Maps Map 1 Pre-partition map of India ……………………………………………………147 Map 2 The first proposed map of Pakistan …………………………………..........148 Map 3 Radcliffe line between India and former East Pakistan……………………150 Map 4 India-Bangladesh enclaves ……………………………………………….....157 Map 5 6.5 km of un-demarcated boundary at the India-Bangladesh border……158 Map 6 India-Bangladesh adversely possessed land…………………………........159 Map 7 Location of Angorpota-Dahagram enclaves and the Tinbigha Corridor....168 Map 8 India-Bangladesh-China geographical positions……………………………228 Map 9 Bangladesh-India transit ………………………………………………………239 v Figures, Charts and Tables Figure 2.1 Critical theoretical grounding and implication of the research…………….. ..62 Figure 3.1 Relations between methodology, methods, epistemology and ontology…….75 Table 3.4.1 Document collection by searching keywords …………………………………..87 Table 3.4.2 An example of the coding of the negotiation outcome………………………...90 Table 3.4.3 Document coding…………………………………………………………………..91 Table 3.4.4 Example of a document review …………………………………………………..96 Table 3.4.5 Coding of the identified causes …………………………………………………..98 Table 3.4.6 Coding of the identified causes …………………………………………………..100 Figure 3.4.7 Example of an interview review ………………………………………………… 111 Table 3.4.8 Example of a document review…………………………………………………...113 Table 3.4.9 Summary of the interview and document review……………………………......114 Table 3.4.10 Coding of the identified causes………………………………………………...... 117 vi Table 6.2.1 Abstraction of the analysis of the interviews ……………………………………..179 Table 6.2.2 BFS’s attack and killing ledger …………………………………………………….185 Table 7.1.1 Findings of the qualitative content analysis………………………………………..211 Figure 7.1.2 Visualizing the findings of the qualitative content analysis……………………… 216 Table 7.1.3 Causes of the success/failure of the border dispute management………………218 Table 7.1.4 Other Causes…………………………………………………………………………..221 Table 7.1.5 Causes of the unresolved disputed issues …………………………………………223 Table 7.4.1 Promise and distribution of Indian aid to Bangladesh……………………………...252 Table 7.4.2 Bangladesh-India Trade Data………………………………………………………...253 Table 7.4.3 Bangladesh-India Trade Data…………………………………………………………256 Table 7.4.4 Bangladesh-India Trade Data ………………………………………………………..258 Chart 7.4.1 Commitment and distribution of Indian aid to Bangladesh ……………………… 252 Chart 7.4.2 India-Bangladesh Trade Chart…………………………………………………………254 Chart 7.4.3 India-Bangladesh Trade Chart…………………………………………………………257 Chart 7.4.4 Bangladesh-India Trade Chart……………………………………………………… 258 vii Contents Introduction……………………………………………………………… 1 Chapter 1………………………………………………………………… 5 Literature Review Chapter 2 ……………………………………………………………….... 22 Theory Chapter 3………………………………………………………………..... 66 Methodology & Methods Chapter 4………………………………………………………………… 121 Territorial Disputes in International Law Case Study Chapter 5………………………………………………………………...... 141 History, Origin, and Context of the India-Bangladesh Land Border Dispute Chapter 6…………………………………………………………………. .164 The India-Bangladesh Border Conflict and its Management in the Context of India-Bangladesh Relations (1971 - 2015) Chapter 7………………………………………………………………........193 Evaluation of India-Bangladesh border dispute and its settlement Conclusion………………………………………………………………… 264 References………………………………………………………………… .278 Appendices…………………………………………………………………..307 viii Introduction This research focuses on interstate border dispute management by exploring the case study of the India-Bangladesh border dispute management, looking at specific aspects of land border disputes. It also explores the politics of this dispute settlement. This is not a study of international law but rather of the politics of international law. Drawing on a version of the critical theory approach which problematizes the politics of international law, it asks how a partial border dispute resolution between India and Bangladesh became possible and how and why it proved difficult in and after 1974 up to 2015. It suggests that the interaction between law and politics is a major underlying cause of the patterns in that resolution. Aims and objectives 1. Critically analyse and assess the practice of Bangladesh and its neighbouring states on the settlement of land boundary disputes in the light of the principles and political practice of the international law of conflict management. 2. Explore how the management of border disputes can be explained with particular respect to Bangladesh’s external relations (regarding Bangladesh’s relations with India), drawing on Martti Koskenniemi’s (2005, 2011) version of the critical theory of the politics of international law. 3. Critically evaluate the management of this dispute. Theory and Methodology The particular theoretical approach used in this research has been taken from critical theory. The major tasks of critical theories are exploring the “ideologically distorted subjective situation of some individual or group” (Sumner, 2003, p. 4) and understanding the hidden forces which created that situation and emancipation. Critical theory also works with the concept of ‘reconstruction’, which is one of the most important concepts in the methodological understanding of critical theory. This concept points towards a methodological direction of critical theory which Strydom and others characterised as ‘reconstructive explanatory critique’ (Strydom, 2011, p. 136). This dimension of ‘reconstructive explanatory critique’ is a significant characteristic of critical theory, according to Strydom (2011). This defines the specific Critical Theory of International Relations approach which this thesis uses. The research begins by problematising ‘inter-state territorial conflict management’ and its conceptual structure of language, process and policy, which allows it to demonstrate an initial reconstructive explanation of the chosen topics. In doing so, it