Abstract:-

The principal motivation is to investigate the role that strong cultural links play in bridging country divide between people across the borders in neighbouring countries and, correspondingly, whether the lack of such links open up divide between residents in the same country. Fertility rate was chosen as the key behavioural outcome for the comparisons. The partition of Bengal into West Bengal (in India) and East Bengal (Bangladesh) provided the opportunity to examine the issue given the strong cultural links between the people on both sides of the border. In the period between the last two Censuses (2001-2011) the fertility rates in the border districts of West Bengal and Bangladesh have moved much closer to one another than the non-border districts, thus providing strong evidence of the role that cultural synergy and a shared language can play in bridging country divide. This is confirmed formally by the results of estimation.