Fencing off BangladeshIndia's 2500-mile border fence is meant to keep out smugglers. But simply living on the boundary is a dangerous business.
In the last six months, more than 50 people have been killed alongside the 2,500-mile barbed wire fence that India is building around its neighbour, Bangladesh. Such incidents are increasing in what is becoming one of the most volatile border areas in the world.
Between 2000 and 2007, more than 700 Bangladeshis and an unknown number of Indians were killed next to the boundaries of the two states. Most deaths occurred at the hands of the Border Security Force (BSF), the Indian border guard corps.
The eight-foot high barbed wire fencing cuts villages in two and divides agricultural lands and markets. It separates families and communities, cutting across mangrove swamps, forests and mountains. When completed next year, the fence will be a huge feat of Indian engineering: longer than the US/Mexico border fence, the Israel/Palestine wall and the old Berlin Wall put together. Optimistically, the Indian government says it will bring a decrease in illegal Bangladeshi immigration, smuggling and terrorism, and that it will also delineate the populations who live alongside it, sorting out "Indians" from "Bangladeshis". This is a poignant issue as communities in border areas in this part of the world continue across into neighbouring countries.
They share linguistic, ethnic and cultural similarities as well as economic interdependence. Consecutive governments in Dhaka have argued that the fence is part of a wider aggressive stance adopted by India to maintain its position as the regional superpower and the rhetoric is an attempt to undermine Bangladesh. They declare that the Bangladeshi border guards, the Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) are frequently thwarting smugglers and would-be immigrants in the frontier areas.
News of deaths in some of the most inaccessible parts of the two countries has surprisingly not resulted in uproar from civil society groups in Indian and Bangladeshi. Last year I travelled to a border village alongside Bangladesh's north-western margin where 16-year-old Hasibul Islam had been shot dead by a BSF guard.
The village he lived in his entire life is surrounded on all sides by lush paddy fields and the fence. The teenager was helping his brothers bring some cattle that they had purchased from their Indian counterparts through the barrier. Delhi refers to this trade as smuggling while Dhaka sees it as legitimate, rendering the animal "legal" or "illegal" depending on which side of the fence one is on. The border guards are instrumental in facilitating the cattle trade. In return they subsidise their salaries from the bribes they are paid. "We cannot do it if the BSF do not give us a line [chance]" said Hasibul's older brother. "We had come to an agreement with one guard who said we could bring the goods in. He had eaten [been paid off] but another, one we didn't know was there ... it was he who fired." The dead teenager's job was to ensure the animals stayed together as they came to the Bangladeshi side, earning him 300 taka (£2) per animal. Today, most of the deaths that take place along the margins of Bangladesh/India are due to BSF guards believing they are being cheated. Since the 1700s cattle have become an extreme source of conflict between Muslims and Hindus throughout the subcontinent. For Hindus, the animal is considered sacred. For Muslims, it is a most valued sacrificial animal. Public discourse in Hindu-majority India is against trading with Bangladesh, conflating nationalistic fervour, anti-Muslim and Bangladeshi rhetoric with the "war on terror". India does provide legitimate export licences but the issue is so sensitive that no one will go through the lawful means to apply for one. Muslim-majority Bangladesh argues that Hindus have traditionally sold their non-productive animals to them. This anger against Bangladeshis buying Indian cattle is in stark contrast to India's beef export market which is one of the largest in the world. As Hasibul's brother says, "The Indians want to sell and we want to buy. This has always been the case."
Since the erection of the fence, Delhi says the trade along the border has finally begun to be curtailed. Hasibul's family, however, believe it just means the system will be adapted accordingly. They say that the barrier has paradoxically made cattle trading a little safer. In the past when there was no barrier, people would run the risk of going into India illegally and procuring the animals themselves. But now they are brought to the gates by their Indian counterparts. Furthermore, it prevents BSF guards from terrorising the villagers; before the fence was built the guards would steal their livestock and walk straight into their homes. Living in a border village involves living with contradictions, conflict, insecurity and loss. Hasibul was entrepreneurial and well liked. He was killed for a mere 1,000 rupees (£12) which is what the guard would have earned himself for looking away. Last year the Indian High Commissioner to Bangladesh stated that those killed "are not innocent but smugglers."
Not only does this imply that the Indian government is out of tune with the borderlands but, more disturbingly, that it considers such extrajudicial killings to be justified. The BSF are nonetheless bolstered by such comments and indeed do kill with impunity despite the agreements local people have with them. Will legalising the trade make living in the borderlands any safer? The villagers I met did not think so. They believed that regardless of what they do or the choices they make, their lives will always be precarious. "This is what life is like for us in a border. This means sometimes we lose our people to bullets." Despite increased fears since the incident, Hasibul's brother continues the family trade. Other than this, and the unknown numbers who illegally cross both ways to visit family members and to work, there is no serious opposition to India's fencing programme. This is because the very thing that the fence is intended to achieve – to cease connections between the people on both sides – is impossible. Life, and death, simply continues in its shadow. |
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