Paper short abstract:

The paper focuses on the energy nexus around a nuclear power plant in the hinterlands of south India. Boyer's Foucaulidan 'energopower' need be further qualified to taken on board instances of direct or authoritarian government in what I have called the raw politics of energy.

Paper long abstract:

The paper focuses on the energy nexus around a nuclear power plant in the hinterlands of south India that has been under construction since 2002. In the process, the state has intensified its presence in the region through extra policing, paramilitary, and attendant development projects including the building of more roads, hospitals and schools. Such recent phenomena have met with an ambivalent if not outright hostile reception among local communities. Dominic Boyer discusses how 'electropolitics infuse governance' (2015: 534) with reference to the term 'energopower'. However, he overlooks the fact that in the postcolonial context, we have a case of modern governance entwined with more direct and authoritarian government that follows on from colonial regimes. Accordingly, Boyer's 'energopower' need be further qualified: from Foucauldian notions of governance that corresponds most closely with Boyer's energy politics to more direct government in what I have called the raw politics of energy.