The questions that inspired this study are central to contemporary research within environmental anthropology, political ecology, and environmental history: How does the introduction of a modern, capitalist, resource regime affect the livelihood of indigenous peoples? Can sustainable resource management be achieved in a situation of radical commodification> of land and other aspects of nature? Focusing on conflicts relating to forest management, mining, and land rights, the author offers an insightful account of present-day challenges for indigenous people to accommodate aspirations for ethnic sovereignty and development. Bengt G. Karlsson is Associate Professor in Social Anthropology at Stockholm University in Sweden. He is the author of Contested Belonging: An Indigenous People's Struggle for Forest and Identity in Sub-Himalayan Bengal (Routledge 2000) and two edited books, Indigeneity in India (Kegan Paul 2006) and Human Rights: An Anthropological Enquiry (Earthworm Books 2005).