No matter whether you look at economics, culture, business, language or politics, there are aspects of India that are uniquely bizarre or out of the world. But sometimes, even The India Expert has to raise its eyebrows, as we did when we came across this entry about “enclaves” in The Economist
“These are like islands of Indian and Bangladeshi territory surrounded completely by the other country’s land, clustered on either side of Bangladesh’s border with the district of Cooch Behar, in the Indian state of West Bengal. Surreally, these include about two dozen counter-enclaves (enclaves within enclaves), as well as the world’s only counter-counter enclave—a patch of Bangladesh that is surrounded by Indian territory…itself surrounded by Bangladeshi territory.”
You can read the entire article here.
The business takeaway in the story is the hopeful news that India may finally resolve the border dispute with Bangladesh. That will make it easier to deal with the two more intractable problems with China and Pakistan. China claims all of the Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh. In Ladakh (Jammu & Kashmir) a huge swath of Indian territory is occupied by China. Pakistan and India both claim all of Kashmir, which is currently split between the two. If these conflicts go away, India will suffer less distractions and its economy will grow faster. People who live in these border states will benefit greatly. So the Bangladesh situation may be a small but important step in the right direction.
Last updated: December 26th, 2025
