Identity, Freedom and Citizenship: Enclaves Peoples’ Experiences of Belongingness

Abstract

To identify nationality, although living in a globalized world, legal attachment to land is essential for securing fundamental human rights. Attachment to the land shapes one’s identity of nationality. Since the six decades, the people of Chhitmohals (enclaves) along the India-Bangladesh border lived without formal state recognition and identity. Although these lands legally belonged to their respective states, the residents were effectively stateless. As a result, the inhabitants of Chhitmohals endured prolonged statelessness. In 2015, Bangladesh and India resolved this issue by exchanging enclaves, granting the residents a new identity, greater freedoms, and the hope of a more dignified life. This article explores the identity, freedom, and politics of belongingness experienced by the former enclave residents. It also examines the role of land attachment in shaping state identity. The article has used participatory approach, intensive interview, FGD, case study and life history method as well. The finding of the article focuses on statelessness of the enclave people as well as identity that coined with livelihood that will contribute in the academic arena of state, statelessness and belongingness.