Afrin, Shadia2026-09-022026-09-022026-08-252026-08-25http://hdl.handle.net/1993/40046Indigenous land dispossession in the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) of Bangladesh has been shaped by a long history of colonial governance, state-led development, settlement programs, militarization, and, more recently, tourism development. Focusing on the Mro community’s resistance to the proposed Marriott hotel and resort on Chimbuk Hill, I examine how historical and contemporary experiences of displacement, land loss, unequal power relations, and political influences shape Indigenous resistance to development. Rather than treating the Marriott conflict as an isolated land dispute, I situate it within the Mro community’s longer experiences of dispossession in the CHT. Using a qualitative research approach, I draw on academic scholarship, historical and legal documents, human rights reports, media coverage, and Indigenous advocacy materials. My findings show that the conflict is about more than opposition to a luxury hotel; it reflects broader concerns about ancestral land, livelihood, cultural continuity, and meaningful participation in decisions about development. Mro protests and advocacy demonstrate how resistance has also become a way of asserting their relationship with the land and challenging unequal decision-making. From this analysis, I develop the concepts of “normalization of loss” and “resistant continuity.” The first describes how repeated dispossession makes the threat of future land loss increasingly familiar, while the second explains how memories of those losses can strengthen collective resistance rather than produce acceptance. Together, these concepts show how the Mro struggle over Chimbuk Hill connects past experiences of dispossession with present demands for land rights, recognition, and greater control over their future.engMroChittagong Hill TractsIndigenous resistanceland dispossessiontourism developmentMarriott resort