Fragile Ensouling: Reading Connolly in Pakistan and Bangladesh

This paper explores William Connolly’s understanding of the world in The World of Becoming and The Fragility of Things empirically, through ethnography. I discuss how “becoming,” which was central to the way I envisaged re-opening the conversation on religious violence in Pakistan, has a dark side in relation to climate change in Bangladesh where the focus on adaptation without considering the consequences of adaptability may be productive of a destructive plasticity. Drawing on Connolly’s concepts of teleodynamism, self-organizing forces and fragility I posit the concept of “ensouling” as a way to mitigate the excesses of becoming within the context of Bangladesh.