Chaos and danger
When Sudhir decides to go and live in community with a gang, he is risking his life to venture into chaos. He experiences the visceral fear of real danger. Urban gangs don't exactly have a reputation for open-minded, trusting relationships with newcomers, and Sudhir's intentions are unusual; if he is thought of as a government spy, he would likely be executed. The imagery of danger and risk dominates the entire account.
Crime and business
The criminal underground is shown through the lens of business. Business is an organized attempt to make money, and the legal efforts are largely known. But in the criminal underground, organizations of gangs agree to make money in an essentially similar way, except they offer products that are illegal: sex, guns, and drugs. This underworld economy combines the two imageries of crime and business, because that is exactly what gang operations accomplish.
The law and government
Sudhir gets a taste of the complex relationship between gangs and the government of the land. The police are essentially perceived as antagonists. The gangs see themselves as essentially removed from the law because of chronic oppression and disenfranchisement from opportunities; these gang members are essentially anarchists forming small local governments and existing under the government's authority in a nefarious way, trying not to get caught. This makes for a very paranoid, aggressive imagery.
Authority structures
The quality of the title scene is the most revelatory of the entire book. When Sudhir is the gang leader for a day, he gets to sit at the oval office of a gang operation. He sees the role for what it is: a role of power in a structure of authority. He has his finger on several buttons, so to speak, and he plays government roles in an local economy of competing gang operations. For instance, he learns about a council of gang leaders who keep the peace, and he sees the gang members below him as employees in a business operation, and he sees the real economic aspect of gang power (cash flow, profit margin, etc.). The insight is that gangs operate with an essentially similar authority structure to other types of business institutions.
