Mines and signs: resource and political futures in Bangladesh

Abstract

In Bangladesh in 2007‐8, speculation about an energy catastrophe thrived alongside utopic visions of democracy. Two events consolidated the despair and hope for collective national futures: a movement against possible coal mines in Phulbari in the northwest and a nationwide political emergency. They are the focus of this essay. By bringing resource crisis and political crisis together, I argue, at one level, that resource and democracy have become two exemplary sites of thinking towards the future, and, at another, that the gaps in their varied imaginations are potential sites of politics. Drawing on my ethnography of the anti‐mining protests in Phulbari, I analyse the relationship between signification and anticipation in Bangladeshi politics. In so doing, I identify those emergent political moments that challenge the anticipatory politics of the state and the energy company.