Wives as doorways of citizenship: Indo-Bangladesh enclaves and the repositioning of gender relations

Enclaves are small fragments of land owned by one country, inside the geographical boundaries of another country ( van Schendel, 2002 ). The country inside which the enclave resides is called the host country. There are more than two hundred geopolitical enclaves in various continents across the globe. India and Bangladesh share the largest group of enclaves in the world, a historical legacy that had retained its existence despite Partition during Independence in 1947 and the later fragmentation of Pakistan to form Bangladesh in 1971. There are about a hundred thousand people living inside these enclaves, with no access to either basic fundamental rights or any form of formal livelihood. However, what sets these enclaves apart is the unique role women play in mediating the interaction of the enclave residents with their host countries. Drawing on empirical research, this chapter explores this dynamic and asks what happens when women are the mediators of citizenship for the rest of the community? The enclaves between India and Bangladesh provide a unique case study for such a situation. Did their access to citizenship alter the position of these women within the family? This research found that for women who have been born in India and have been married into the enclaves later in life, their access to state resources becomes a crucial enabler. This analysis is significant because being based on the socially and politically excluded community at an international border area where women have such a unique position, it extends our knowledge of the gender-citizenship duality