study of dynamics of law and rights in contemporary India”, consisting of cultural anthropologists, sociologists and political scientists. The essays in this book share two points as a common theoretical perspective: first, legal order’s “institutionalization from above” at the macro level and “institutionalization from below” through people’s everyday practices at the micro level meet in everyday life by being mediated with the concept of “rights”; second, in everyday life there are contact zones of these two institutionalizations, a site where we witness social dynamics. This book provides descriptions of social dynamics in contemporary India by analyzing diverse cases with the viewpoint that it is the contact zone that “institutionalization from above” and “institutionalization from below”, mediated by the concept of “rights”, that reflect the ongoing democracy in contemporary India.