Legal Grounds: Natural Resources, Identity, and the law of Jhakhand, this volume discusses the ways in which natural resources are conceptualized in the law as individual property, common property, or available for commercial exploitation. Focusing primarily on issues specific to the state of Jharkhand, it raises wider questions about colonization and globalization, the difference between law and practice, customary and written laws, and interpretation based issues in rights over natural resources. Jharkhand provides an ideal location for the discussion of these issues, as it has a large tribal population, and is increasingly becoming a space where traditional/ tribal rights are in conflict with modern/ state and development based rights.
Chapters 1-3 examine different aspects of land rights - the struggle to acquire land, keep it, get it restored, and cultivate it. Chapter 4 looks at the counterfeit legal methods used to grab land. Chapters 5-8 discuss laws and policies related to forests, water and mining, both conceptually and practically.