ABSTRACT
Based on a study of the 2013 controversy over the War Crimes Tribunal in Bangladesh, this chapter argues that despair, instead of being an anomaly, is inherent to modern forms of popular sovereignty and a widespread political affect in mass democracies. Although the affective landscape of the Shahbag movement has been understood most commonly in terms of nationalist passion, this chapter focuses on the sense of despair felt by some of its activists. One major source of this feeling has been the powerful opposition between atheist bloggers on one side and Islamists/extremists on the other. Exploring the public controversy around the death of a blogger, this chapter explores how such ideological cleavages rested on the body. The physicality, irrationality and overall make-up of so-called religious affect became a marker of distinction between the protesters and their ideological opponents.
