This work investigates the historical evolution of state power in the Bastar region and the corresponding patterns of resistance from local populations against colonial and post-colonial authority. Nandini Sundar, an anthropologist specializing in Indian social history, utilizes extensive archival research and ethnographic fieldwork to analyze the shifting dynamics of governance. She argues that the transition from indirect colonial rule to the modern Indian state has consistently marginalized indigenous communities by restricting their traditional access to land and forest resources. The book provides a critical framework for understanding how sovereignty is constructed and contested in peripheral regions.

Scholars in the fields of South Asian studies and political anthropology frequently cite this text as a foundational analysis of state-society relations in tribal India. Readers often note the academic density of the prose, which provides a rigorous examination of complex administrative and social shifts over time.