3 ms·
An interesting place to try to establish a new state might be some of the weird places that exist due to the ridiculousness of the India and Pakistan border (if
by tzs 3y ago
An interesting place to try to establish a new state might be some of the weird places that exist due to the ridiculousness of the India and Pakistan border (if they still exist--I remember that there was some talk of adjusting the borders to get rid of them).
There are (or were) some places where Indian territory was entirely surrounded by Pakistani territory, and some places where Pakistani territory was entirely surrounded by Indian territory.
But it didn't stop there. There were a small number of cases where within one of those surrounded territories there was an even smaller territory that was part of the other country. E.g., a small Pakistani territory entirely in a larger Indian territory which was entirely inside Pakistan.
Pakistan and India aren't friendly with each other.
So suppose you went to one of those innermost territories and convinced the people there to join you and declare themselves a new independent state. Say some Pakistani territory inside some Indian territory inside Pakistan.
Pakistan can't reach you to kick you out without crossing Indian territory, which India is not likely to give them permission to do.
- throwawaymaths 3y agoThis was east Pakistan, aka Bangladesh (cooch behar enclaves), and that border was resolved recently
- friend_and_foe 3y agoNot entirely resolved. Some enclaves and exclaves were transferred but some still exist. A big issue is citizenship and relocation, respecting peoples prproperty rights and perceived nationality, and this is the most densely populated region on the planet. It's a messy situation along that border, thankfully not one viewed by the governments as contentious or worthy of conflict.
- throwawaymaths 3y agoYeah Iirc the status of the biggest enclaves are still enclaves but that's manageable.
- baybal2 3y ago[dead]
- Analemma_ 3y ago> So suppose you went to one of those innermost territories and convinced the people there to join you and declare themselves a new independent state. Say some Pakistani territory inside some Indian territory inside Pakistan. This wouldn't work the way you imagine. The fundamental reason the India-Pakistan border situation is so dicey is that the "percentage of population which is Hindu vs. Muslim" is a smooth gradient across the area. The British drew an arbitrary line through this gradient as best they could and called that the border, but no line can ever fix the problem entirely. But all the people involved are more loyal to their ethnoreligion than an actual abstract state-- that's the whole reason there's a dispute to begin with-- and proposing a new state based on foreign ideas of libertarianism would not be met with eagerness from anybody.