3The overlapping boundaries of caste and regional identities are graphically documented throughout the book. Through the voice of women protagonists, this work succinctly captures the anguish women in Lahaul suffer. Interestingly, it discusses the practice of forced marriage and the trauma and social stigma faced by women who dare to defy these cultural practices. According to Bhattacharya, love is the cardinal theme through which women weave their stories. It reaffirms the self-worth of the narrator and registers her challenge to the caste-based discrimination in the region. Love thus acts as the medium through which women choose to narrate their stories in the midst of violence and discrimination. According to Bhattacharya, this refashioning of love transforms it from an ordinary fact of life into a radical political tool that is relayed to challenge the hegemonic constructions of society. This rendition suggests an epistemic shift from the individual to a community-centred conception of love.

4Using women’s ruminations about love and marriage within a polyandrous setting, the book portrays another idea of love that positions the self within the community. Bhattacharya counterpoises these conceptions to statist views, which regard polyandry and other customary practices as immoral acts. Such a view reflects a deep-seated casteist and patriarchal discourse, wherein women are represented as promiscuous and unruly beings who cannot be protected by the state against any impending violence (p. 49). According to the author, systematic erasure of indigenous practices is conspicuous in the official discourse, which promotes monogamous unions and in turn reinforces sexual and caste domination (p. 101).

5The book provides a gripping analysis of the patriarchal moorings of the state and the tribal community in producing women as unreliable subjects. This is demonstrated by a discussion about the relevance of memory to the violent death of a woman in the official and public discourse. The story of Bina (pp. 107–115), who commits suicide due to her failed marriage with a violent husband, forcibly illustrates this. The book examines the official documents surrounding her death, which transform her death from murder to suicide and finally to an accident. However, by going beyond the official, juridical narrative about her death, Bhattacharya offers a succinct analysis of the memory of the event embodied in the collective memory, which is common knowledge but never openly spoken about. Comparing these divergent death-related narratives, the book documents the shifting contours of memory reinforced by normative codes of gender and sexuality that are perpetuated by both the state and the tribe at large.

6Weaving multiple stories and life experiences, the book sets out to recover women's memories that have been suppressed in Lahuali society. Bhattacharya argues that memories of caste violence are not chronologically patterned but are loosely woven upon multiple nodes of experiences, which produces an alternative mode of knowledge. The book emphasises the processual aspect of memory, noting the intersectional marginality of the women of Lahaul who navigate within structures of tribe and caste. The author argues that memories are intentionally recollected by the women to combat the deliberate forgetfulness of their public representatives, be it the state or tribal leaders (p. 141). By documenting the counter-narratives embedded in women's lived experiences, the book attempts to outline the role of remembering, which aims to transform vulnerabilities into acts of resistance.

7The book effectively documents the anguish, the pain and the remorse that the women endure in their everyday lives. These are not just qualms and complaints: lurking within these narratives are experiences of love that have been reconfigured as forms of resistance against systemic domination. Bhattacharya offers a fascinating account of the contestations and collusion of the oppositional patriarchies of state and tribe in reinforcing marginalities and perpetuating gendered violence in the region. This compels us to rethink the categories of tribe and caste through the lens of gendered violence and invites us to accompany these women in their everyday struggles. With its astute handling of the subject matter, deep ethnographic insights and unflinching commitment towards a gender-just society, the book is likely to stir the interest of academics and activists alike. It will be of immense value for scholars of gender studies and for those exploring the contested nature of social identities and categories in South Asia.