Two episodes from the author's fieldwork in South Asia are central to situating this chapter. The first comes from the Indian Himalaya. National Highway 31A connects the Himalayan state of Sikkim with the rest of India. After leaving Sikkim the highway passes through the Darjeeling District of West Bengal. This district has been the site of political action by civil society actors pursuing a separate federal state of Gorkhaland in the hills and those opposing the proposed state. In late January 2010, National Highway 31A was plastered with green, white, and yellow flags (the flag of Gorkhaland) and graffiti in support of different (and rival) political factions, mostly the Gorkhaland National Liberation Front and the Gorkha Jan Mukti Morcha. At the end of the long bridge crossing the Teesta River there is a small market, where vehicles coming from Sikkim, from Kalimpong, and from Darjeeling pass and pause. At this highly visible junction was a small bamboo shelter emblazoned with Gorkhaland tri-colour. Inside a group of six school-aged youths sat under blankets participating in a relay hunger strike for Gorkhaland. Fixed to the shelter were a number of signs, including one that read ‘Gorkhaland is our legitimate demand within [the] Indian Constitution’ and ‘Assam for Assamese, Bengal for Bengalis, why not Gorkhaland for Gorkhas?’ At the front of the shelter seated at a plastic outdoor furniture set sat a group of four men issuing receipts for donations to the cause and making sure no one got too close to the hunger striking teenagers. For their part the teenagers sat using their mobile phones and listening to music.

The second comes from the Bajhang district in western Nepal. In December 2008, the small village of Deura hosted a visit by representatives of West Seti Hydroelectric Corporation Limited, a local company formed in 1997 out of an agreement between the Australian firm Snowy Mountain Engineering Corporation and the Government of Nepal to build a 750 megawatt hydropower dam on the Seti River. The dam was to displace an estimated 30,000 people. After a long hiatus during Nepal's civil conflict, representatives of the hydropower company were visiting the affected area for the first time in over a decade, pending important funding decisions by donors and other investors.