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Overall, there are three main contributions—theoretical, methodological, and empirical—that make this book original and the argument compelling. Theoretically, it goes beyond current theoretical formulations of state–poor relations in India, which continue to pit the engagement of the poor and historically disadvantaged against their wealthier, more educated counterparts—it is said the two exhibit significantly different ways of “being political” and engaging with the state (Chatterjee 2004). To borrow Harriss’s (2005) phrase, the poor in India are typically left with politics of the “dirty river kind” and their principal means of exercising influence over decisions that affect their own lives is through local politics, rather than directly or through legal institutionalized channels. Dichotomies such as civil and political society, formal and informal institutions, legal and illegal practices are enmeshed in our understanding of state …