Why India Has This Narrow Corridor 

The most chicken-neck of all chicken-necks ever

Watching from the city of Siliguri, in Siliguri, myself being the 3rd generation of one of those Refugees who lost most of their belongings in East Pakistan and moved to India. There are millions and millions like me, and most of them have created everything almost from scratch over the next 2 generations.

0:32 "only 32 million" which is more populous than a majority of nations haha. Just goes to show how populous India really is.

As a north east Indian, it is overall a very accurate video. Minor details here and there are off, but it doesn't matter in the grand scheme.

A few mistakes in the video: 1. The Radcliffe Line actually refers only to the line that partitioned Bengal and Punjab provinces, not the whole India-Pakistan border. Also, Indian Punjab consisted of present day states of Haryana and Himachal Pradesh states at the time as well. So the Radcliffe Line does not cover the border between India and Pakistan south or north of Punjab, like the border between Sind province (ceded to Pakistan, today Sindh) and the Bombay Presidency (today Gujarat in that area) and the Rajputana Kings (today Rajasthan). The Rajputana Agency for example is a collection of a few dozen kingdoms that functioned as Princely states under the British Raj, and each individual King had the option to join India or Pakistan after the British left. Since the Radcliffe line only covered Punjab and not the Rajputana Agency, Pakistan had infact tried to make deals with the Rajput Kings to cede to Pakistan, and even almost managed to get the kings of Udaipur and Bhopal (part of the Central India Agency, CIA Kingdoms) to join them before India intervened. It didnt matter that these were Hindu kings ruling a Hindu majority kingdom, they could still join Pakistan if they wanted. Read about the discussion between the King of Udaipur and Pakistan for more interesting info here. In the same logic, Jammu and Kashmir also was not part of the Radcliffe line, and both sides were free to discuss and make deals with the King, as at the end of the day, the King was the rightful sovereign of the land who could decide the future of his kingdom. 2. The Ahom Kingdom did not outlast the Sikh Empire in Punjab (2nd Anglo Sikh War) or the Gurkha Empire in Nepal, but your map showed like all of India under the British before Assam lol. 3. The real reason for the thin corridor is not because India somehow acquired far away land, but that East Bengal was partitioned out of India as part of Pakistan, and hence that created the weird shape of India in the east that remained. Also, Assam was also partitioned, the only province other than Bengal and Punjab, and the Sylhet district became part of Pakistan (today Bangladesh). Other than these 3 provinces, the remaining 9 provinces were given either entirely to India or to Pakistan. Also, other than the roads and railway through the Siliguri corridor, there are now roads and planned railways that will connect West Bengal to Tripura through Bangladesh, as well as the waterways of Bangladesh being open to Indian ships now that can enter Assam and Tripura through the rivers.

What’s more, for a while there were even small bits of India completely surrounded by small bits of Bangladesh completely surrounded by India. That, and we needed a land corridor connecting WB to Assam. And we let them get Rangpur and Sylhet; the exodus of Sylheti Hindus (that area went from nearly half Hindu to Hindu-free) to Assam has been a source of ethnic tensions for a while.

If there are 2 fish fighting in a pond, be sure that the British passed by.

Actually the siliguri corridor shouldn't have been that narrow. There was a tehsil ( thana) called - " Panchagarh" in the corridor area. The thana was 52% 🕉majority under jalpaiguri district -72%🕉 hindu according to 1941 census. But surprisingly this hindu majority area was awarded to East Pakistan during 1947 partition. Now the panchagarh district 🇧🇩 is 97% muslim

The 20 km gap is called the Siliguri corridor. And im happy that ill be landing right in the middle of Siliguri corridor in 3 months. Real exciting 😁😁😁

Fact that might be important idk: Due to ethnic lines, the Indo-Myanmar border is pretty much open and it's called Free Movement Regime But due to the chaos over in Myanmar, the Central Government decided to scrap it Wasn't popular throughout NE India iirc

Radcliffe was only chosen because he never visited India: both sides wanted someone who had never visited because they felt they would draw a fairer border. There is a fair argument that he was pressured to ensure Karachi went to Pakistan but otherwise he didn't seem to play favourites.

Thank you for speaking about our history! ~a person from North East India

Bangladesh mentioned 🗣🗣🗣🗣we are making greater Bangladesh with this one

BANGLADESH MENTIONED 🗣🗣🐯🐯🐯🐯🐯🐯🐅🐅🐅🐅🐅🐅

To be fair to Radcliffe even if an Indologist had carefully constructed how India would be partitioned it still would have been a shit show and resulted in the same fighting we see today.

one correction at 8:00 : while Khasi used to be written in the Bengali/Assamese script, it is now almost exclusively written in the Latin Script.

*Khanubis knows how to boost 📈 his views* 🇮🇳😉

Thank u for coming thru with answer to a question I have always wondered

3:43 correction here, by the 1820s british control didnt include punjab, that took 30 more years.

Assam and Sikkim make the best tea in the world!

Great video. Fully appreciate it. I wish you had included the 1905 partition of Bengal also.

You don't understand how happy we are to be mentioned in an international RU-vid channel's video 😂

5:00 but it actually went opposite way Hindus has been 2nd class citizens in india

I'm from southern part of West Bengal but i have lots of friends from siliguri.

Do you have any information on @SpaghettiRoad? He hasn't showed up anywhere online for over two years now and he said he was your videographer. Let me know if you have any info about him, we're all worried for him.

Great video.

Please show the correct Map of India...

watching from Jalpaiguri, the main old town of the region, 45 km from the corridor. partition resulted 5 Thanas of the district going to Then East Pakistan

that is a very well presented video

That's my hometown Siliguri. Fascinating to see a video about this beautiful and interesting stretch of India which connects North Eastern States to the other parts of India.

"why so skinny" plays to the people there too... 💀

7:07 actually there are 2 different railway lines that pass through the region, one through Siliguri junction(in Northern Siliguri), the other through NJP junction(in Southern Siliguri), there are connection between the two junctions through the city, which also has in parallel the track of Darjeeling himalayan railway line. Also, both railway and road connection to the North east have significantly increased in recent times, due to the doublification and electrification of railways and widening, making of new highways, building tunnels and bridges throughout the North east. Also, while most of North east is still pretty green, the capital cities are pretty much urban places, Guwahati, the capital of Assam being one of the larger cities in India. Also, while the Siliguri corridor is not considered the part of North east being part of West bengal, geographically, demographics wise and culturally the 4 districts of West bengal have more similarities with the North east than the rest of west bengal or rest of India.

Most interesting video, mate! Please, take my like.

I have been to this area many times, as its a ritual for bengalis to visit Darjeeling 😂 Silliguri, Darjeeling and Kalimpong are very beautiful places.

Hello, I believe there is an error in your statement at 8:12 regarding Meghalaya having the largest percentage of Christians among Indian states, with 75% of its population being Christian. This is incorrect, as Nagaland and Mizoram have higher Christian populations, both exceeding 90%.

Always happy to see a KhAnubis video and learn about things I didn’t know that I wondered about. 😊

Will you be able to do a video on the languages spoken in Pakistan and which language families it originates from.

7:24 To be fair, there _are_ Austronesian languages in that highlighted area; The Cham languages of southern Vietnam and parts of Cambodia.

Wrong map, if talking about a country that is not yours, show proper respect

The video is a good starter for understanding the northeast but it has more complex situationships with the rest of India itself. One being the hordes of immigration to the small northeast states by Bangladeshis over Bengal partision, Myanmar refugees from the myanmar conflict. The demographic changes is a huge crises here, second, lack of parliament representation and overall negligence by Indian government. Third, each states having their own conflicts within and insurgency, which was borne out of various reasons, annexation of independent princely states by Indian union after colonial independence. My dtate Manipur had its darkest periods of annexation and being humiliated by Indian union since 1949. We truly never belong to India and have shared sentiments with other northeast states too, that we should have freedom from India as a whole

Correction at 5.55, the punjab state depicted in the video was actually larger in size that what was shown. This also encompasses HP and Haryana, which were seperated in 1966 to become their own state.

Your pronunciation of the names of places is actually impressive! 😮

That shoutout to Odd Compass reflected the class of this video creator

Great video, nicely explained but a small issue, u used a wrong map of India. India still has the ladakh region which is apperently not shown in the map u used. i hope u look into it from next time. anyways i enjoyed ur content.

Correction: Sukaphaa dies in 1268, not 1286

Thumbnail quote courtesy of India's grandmother.

The "Isolated Region" is getting a $ 3.5 Billion Dollar Semiconductor Plant and Mass Infrastructure Projects

It sounds like you are pronouncing the name of the country as "meow- mar." 8:59

Thats sikkim

Assam, Manipur and Tripura. Oh from where do I know these from...

Nothing like a Khanubis video on a Sunday morning.

Good video. Also correct the map or blur Kashmir if you cant find the correct one.

Wow

In partition period it was known as East Bengal and its name was changed to East Pakistan in 1956 when Pakistan became an Islamic republic from British dominion

Make video on manipur kangleipak kingdom ❤

And I happen to live in that place. ✌🏼

ehen travelling around silliguri you encounter a huge military presence because of the vulnerability of the area

Living In Jalpaiguri, Near NH-31D , apart from minor details here and there! That's accurate!

I knew about the existence of this corridor before watching the video, but not much about the people who live east of it. My knowledge of southeast Asia is unfortunately lacking. Thank you for teaching me just a little bit more! God be with you out there, everybody. ✝️ :)

YOU ARE RIGHT

Watching from Siliguri ✌️

The fact that he has to call colonies "factories" bc of the YT algorithm annoys me to no end...

8:25 bro i think you got something wrong there .90%+ of the population of both Mizoram and Nagaland are Christians too. why aren't you mentioning them?

If India just reincorporated Bangladesh back into their country there wouldn't be a problem.

The thumbnail killed me😭

the northeastern states have a special status which places much of the decision making in the local administration's hands, thus negotiating for development becomes more difficult as the majority of the population still prefer living a traditional life.

What actually surpises more is that after 1971 victory India could have negotiated with Mujib for widening of Siliguri corridor ( in exchange for some lands ) as well as the Return of POK. My Opinion , 1971 was a grand wasted Potential and Final chance for India to regain what it lost before. All because of the shortsightedness on top.

I'm surprised this video includes the Manipur violence, never seen any foreigner talk about it.

Here in Nagaland we speak Nagamese as a common language not Ao .Ao is a tribe name and here we have more and 17 tribes with our own native language.

ah

When was Nepal under British occupation. Why you are showing nepal under British flag 😂

India even planned to dismantle parts of Nepal to extend the Chicken Neck corridor.

Northeast India is one of the most diversed region in Asia(World). There are have more than 220 ethenic languages & ethenic groups. Love from Northeast India❤️

Northeast India is comprised of vastly smaller states than the western part of the county and has a distinct regional culture? Oh my God, that’s Indian New England

6:27 It's called Chicken's neck because chickens are easy to grab by their necks and choke. Basically how they're butchered for meat too.

@3:40 Let me correct what the Brithish got from the skirmish of Plassey was 3 villages in the south Gobindapur, Kharragpur and Jadavpur not the entire province mate.

As a mizo myself the way u say Mizoram is kinda wrong

Well India doesn't need to only depend on the siliguri corridor to connect the NE to the mainland. India has made deals with Bangladesh for right of way.

Use correct map of India😊

8:19 this mountains i see clearly from my village because my hometown is with indian border but there are no walls just some pillars

I live in this place

I live 30 km away from chicken's neck

I'm early idk what to say

Wrong Info, Meghalaya isn't the most Christian State. I think it's Nagaland or Mizoram.

North East is connected to India through siliguri corridor is because of British

partition of sylhet is literally forgotten it just lost in the pages of history books

5:00 projection

My hometown is located near the indian border in bangladesh my side is with meghalaya although there are many people the area is so remote

India would've lost it , they still have something because of their genius diplomacy. The British plan was to keep both India - Pakistan in two parts .

I am from the region LES GO

You are showing Indian map in an incorrect way. What lack of rack of representation? They have same or more rights than many Indians

3:45 why would you include Nepal there??

I am from this chicken neck corridor, Jalpaiguri,west Bengal, India. My home is right in the middle of it😅.

Is this another presenter?

Because it looks like someone leashing a dog and it looks funny

Because in the near future that will be a new country

I'm from Europe and I remember talking to a Northeast Indian girl, she said "no one in my family has ever married someone even from the mainland, let alone outside of India" the Northeast and the rest of India are just truly different entities

Is this just a coincidence? Or you really heared the news and uploaded the video on the same day.

Me if Meghalaya is mention in any video : **dies of happiness**

Thats Bangladesh. Its actually more developed as a country compared to neighborhoods