Acknowledgments

The research and writing of this work has occurred on three continents and in eight cities, beginning in 1986 and ending in 1995. Along the way I piled up many professional debts, but none more substantial than that owed to Walter Hauser, save for whose selfless guidance over the course of the 1980s I would not have had the great good fortune to become a historian of India.

The book itself benefited from the discerning eyes of teachers, colleagues, editors, and others. In addition to Walter Hauser, these include Richard B. Barnett, William B. Taylor, R. S. Khare, Tessa Bartholomeusz, Christopher V. Hill, Rosemary Hauser, Philip Lutgendorf, Romila Thapar, Lynne Withey, Barbara Howell, Bruce Masters, Ann Wightman, Richard Elphick, Jennifer Saines, two anonymous readers for the University of California Press, and Mark Pentecost, copy editor for the Press. I am grateful for their many contributions, textual and otherwise, whether in the doctoral thesis stage, while transforming the thesis into a book, or while preparing the manuscript for publication. Portions of chapters were presented at public lectures and seminars. These occurred at the University of Virginia, the University of California at Berkeley, North Carolina State University, Wesleyan University, the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London, and the University of Pennsylvania; related papers were also presented at regional and national meetings of the Association for Asian Studies. My thanks to those who made these occasions possible and to those who attended and offered their reactions.

For their help during the research and writing, I wish to acknowledge the following: Shaibal Gupta and the A. N. Sinha Institute for Social Studies in Patna, for providing the necessary institutional affiliation; Surendra Gopal and Hetukar Jha of Patna University for their kind hospitality, and the latter in particular for allowing me to consult his collection of the Patna District Village Notes during the untimely closure of the local record room; my research assistants, S. K. Pathak, Ram Prasad Shrivastav, and Ejaz Hussain; Dr. A. P. and Mrs. S. P. Bakshi, for welcoming us to Patna; Mira and Suresh Prasad Shrivastava, our hosts in Arrah; Sukirti Sahay, for assisting in the translation of Bihari passages; K. S. Chalapati Rao and Bhupesh Garg of the Institute for the Study of Industrial Development, New Delhi, for introducing me to the Institute’s digital map-making technology and allowing me to construct a base map for the present work; Philip McEldowney of Virginia’s Alderman Library and Stephen Lebergott of Wesleyan’s Olin Library, for providing books and references at short notice; the U.S. Library of Congress foreign book acquisitions project, and of course the American taxpayers who fund it and, on occasion, me. I am particularly indebted to Kailash Chandra Jha, formerly of the U.S. Library of Congress in New Delhi, now with the American Embassy, for his invaluable help over the past thirteen years.

The research was funded by a grant from the U.S. Department of Education, with additional research and writing support from the Social Science Research Council and the American Council of Learned Societies, for all of which I am grateful. Thanks are owed as well to Dr. Uma Das Gupta, regional director of the U.S. Educational Foundation in India, who did so much to make our stay in Calcutta both comfortable and enjoyable, and to Dr. Pradeep Mehendiratta of the American Institute of Indian Studies for facilitating the complex logistics of research approval from the Government of India. I wish to acknowledge the support received from the directors and staff of the Bihar District Record Rooms (in Gaya, Patna, and Arrah), the Bihar State Archives in Patna, the National Archives in New Delhi, the National Library in Calcutta, and the Oriental and India Office Collection of the British Library in London. Of course, none of the above-named individuals or institutions are in any way responsible for errors, omissions, or misinterpretations herein.

Finally, family and friends have sustained me over the past decade of research and writing. I can only offer in return my love and gratitude, and pray that Rosemary and Walter, Kailash and Abha and Sona and Rumki, Pete and Gary and Sheila and Sarah, Quatro and Joan and Collin, Helen and George, Jennifer and Pearse, and my parents will forgive my sentimental need to single them out in particular.

Vijay Pinch
London
13 July, 1995