Discuss the main features of the land-boundary agreement between India and Bangladesh.

The legal chain. The Indira-Mujib Agreement of 1974 settled the boundary in principle. Bangladesh ratified promptly; India could not, because ceding territory required a constitutional amendment. The Protocol of 2011 completed the details and the 100th Constitutional Amendment Act of 2015 gave effect to both.

The three components.

• Exchange of enclaves — islands of one country's territory entirely surrounded by the other, a legacy of pre-colonial princely arrangements. India transferred 111 enclaves of about 17,160 acres to Bangladesh and received 51 enclaves of about 7,110 acres, ceding more than it gained.
• Adverse possessions — areas administered by one country but legally belonging to the other, regularised in line with actual occupation.
• Demarcation of the remaining undemarcated stretches in three sectors, completing a boundary of about 4,096 kilometres.

The human settlement. Roughly 37,000 enclave residents, who had lived without schools, health care or documents because neither state could administer them, were given a choice of citizenship.

Significance. A rare boundary dispute settled entirely by negotiation and domestic law; it removed a standing irritant and supported cooperation on connectivity and energy. Read with the 2014 maritime arbitration, it makes Bangladesh the neighbour with whom India has settled both land and sea frontiers.