Escalation of Indian Surveillance in the Indo-Bangladesh Border | Arup Kumar Sen

The recent change in the political regime in Bangladesh has escalated Indo-Bangladesh border surveillance in West Bengal. Reports carried in The Indian Express bear testimony to it: “Tension has been brewing in the Indo-Bangladesh border area in West Bengal for the last few days over attempts by villagers to erect fences in some areas…Villagers in Mekhliganj (in Cooch Behar district) …began fencing parts of the boundary of the lone Bangladeshi enclave of Dahagram- Angarpota. According to the villagers they were erecting the fence with the help of BSF to prevent cattle from Bangladesh from grazing in their fields and eating up crops.” (January 12, 2025) In fact, the border residents have got themselves involved in the surveillance measures initiated by the Indian State.

A recent report on border surveillance in West Bengal observed: “The Border Security Force (BSF) has implemented a hybrid approach, combining traditional techniques with state-of-the-art technology, to secure the porous, unfenced India-Bangladesh international border and effectively combat potential intruders, smuggling and human trafficking…And night vision cameras, motion detectors, and improvised alarms are some of the equipment that are being deployed to enhance surveillance and deter illegal crossings in the border area.” (The Indian Express, January 9, 2025) To put it in the words of a senior official: “BSF’s South Bengal Frontier, which guards 913 km length of the international border between the two neighbours, extensively uses electronic surveillance in cohesion with conventional methods like sentry posts and foot patrolling…” (quoted in ibid.)

Such escalation in border surveillance on the part of the Indian State has embittered India-Bangladesh diplomatic relations. In a very recent official press release (January 12, 2025), the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Bangladesh, expressed “deep concern” to the High Commissioner of India over the recent activities of the BSF of India along the India-Bangladesh border. It is reported in The Hindu (January 12) that “the development came hours after Dhaka alleged that India was trying to construct fences at five locations along the Indo-Bangla border, in violation of a bilateral agreement.”

In the past, frequent clashes between the BSF and the Indian border residents took place due to coercive methods being used by the former in the border villages to ensure surveillance and border control. One might reasonably ask in this connection, why the villagers are now acting as foot soldiers of the Indian State in border surveillance. It is difficult to answer this question without ethnographic research. It seems that anti-minority violence unleashed in Bangladesh in the wake of change of its political regime is acting as a catalyst in propagating anti-Bangladeshi feelings in the border villages in West Bengal.