Since a large body of modern Indian law is Western, it will not, according to some, further one's understanding of India. Galanter goes on to qualify this statement by arguing that this very fact lends to `Indian law a unique and compelling interest for students of India and of comparative law'. Galanter tries to show the various ways in which a complex body of formal law accommodates and adjusts itself to local conditons to which it is alien. These essays
range over a wide span of normative and structural issues of Indian society, such as equality, hierarchy, secularism, justice and conceptual problems; group membership, panchayat, justice, cast and policies of positive discrimination.