Green Potential in the Global South: The Phulbari Movement in Neoliberal Bangladesh

Check out this chapter by Nikhil Deb (CASAS member) & Avijit Chakrebarty, part of the Palgrave Studies in Green Criminology book series.

Abstract

This chapter analyses the Phulbari Movement, the largest ever anti-mining resistance in Bangladesh, and which forced the government to jettison a multi-billion dollar open-pit coal mining project in Phulbari, a region known for its significant ecological diversity. The proposed project would have affected a hundred villages, impacted Indigenous communities, dispossessed hundreds of thousands, harmed the environment, and distressed thousands of acres of fertile land. Drawing on land dispossession and environmental justice scholarship and analysing data from documents, reports, published interviews, and the first author’s direct observation of several movement activities, this chapter demonstrates the ways in which a successful grassroots mobilisation creates a new kind of politics by turning against the so-called development promise of extractive industries. The chapter advances our understanding of the process of and fight against marginalisation by underscoring how local communities mobilised themselves against neoliberal market forces attempting to destroy their livelihood and the environment. The chapter thus holds implications for scholars and policymakers discussing green potential in the global South.

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