The obvious answer is of the British Forest Acts, the Criminal Tribes Act, grazing taxes, and land settlements. But from our Raika *re* in Rajasthan, I say the worst law was the one that made a fence a legal truth. It turned our *oran*, our sacred grazing commons, into "waste land" on a map, ready to be sold or closed. My grandfather's herd starved not for lack of grass, but because a *babu* in an office drew a line that a *pagri* could not cross.
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