Reworking Culture Relatedness, Rites, and Resources in the Garo Hills, North East India by Erik De Maaker, New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2022; pp 328, `1,695 (hardcover).
Infrastructure of Injustice: State and Politics in Manipur and Northeast India by Raile Rocky Ziipao, London and New York: Routledge, 2020; pp 202, ₹995 (hardcover).
Tribal peoples in Manipur have been maintaining their commons under customary law. Interacting with outsiders has always led to the contestation of their customs, traditions, and beliefs. Tribal societies continue to administer their villages under customary law on the tenet of equity. Their law has even resisted the policies of Manipuri kings and the British administration. In the present day, tribal customary law stands challenged by the Manipur Land Revenue and Land Reforms Act, 1960.
The state government’s inability to effectively enforce liquor prohibition in Manipur over the last two decades and its need for additional revenue has compelled it to mull over the option to lift the ban on alcohol in the state.
