Arts , Humanities & Social Science

Abstract

A well-being analysis of ethnic people has emerged as a part of the impact analysis of resource-led development on local communities. Indigenous communities globally experience socio-economic and cultural challenges within this resource-led world due to state building and colonial and post-colonial legacies. This article examines the well-being of ethnic communities in Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) in Bangladesh—an ethnic mountainous region with long colonial and post-colonial history—through the Capabilities Approach and Rural Livelihood Framework. Drawing on literature review, this manuscript critically analyzes how dominant development paradigms overlook Indigenous knowledge systems, cultural practices, and spiritual relationships with land and livelihood. By reinterpreting well-being as a relational, culturally grounded, politicized and ‘naturalized’ construct, the text argues for reimagining well-being concept and its frameworks through Foucauldian power and governmentality. The essay will contribute to the future studies on ethnic well-being worldwide.