The present author has had the advantage of Neel and Raju in one important respect which is that he happens to be writing at a time of an extraordinary efflorescence of scholarship on many subjects that touch upon the experiences of the Ibis community. He has therefore been able to draw upon the work of a great number of scholars and experts, among them the following: Ravi Ahuja, Robert Antony, Patricia Barton, Pradeep Barua, Alan Baumler, Chris Bayly, Jack Beeching, David Bello, N. Benjamin, Gregory Blue, Timothy Brook, B.R. Burg, Antoinette Burton, W.Y. Carman, Annping Chin, Lorenzo M. Crowell, John C. Dann, Santanu Das, Mary Des Chene, David Deterding, Frank Dikotter, Stephen Dobbs, Jacques M. Downs, Hal Empson, Peter Ward Fay, H.G. Gelber, Durba Ghosh, L. Gibbs, Jos J.L.Gommans, Nile Green, Raffi Gregorian, D.A. Griffiths, Amalendu Guha, Deyan Guo, David Harris, James Hevia, Susan Hoe, Edgar Holt, James W. Hoover, Laura Hostetler, Paul Howard, Ronald Hyam, Raphael Israeli, Hunt Janin, Graham E. Johnson, John Keegan, David Killingray, B.B. Kling, Elizabeth Kolsky, P.C. Kuo, Haiyan Lee, Peter Lee, Philippa Levine, Heike Liebau, Elma Loines, D.N. Lorenzen, Julia Lovell, Joyce Madancy, Rachel P. Maines, Keith McMahon, Glenn Paul Melancon, Steven B. Miles, James H. Mills, Yong Sang Ng, David Omissi, C.J. Peers, Douglas M. Peers, Roger Perkins, Glen D. Peterson, William R. Pinch, Rajesh Rai, John L. Rawlinson, Stuart Reid, J.F. Richards, Derek Roebuck, Franziska Roy, Kaushik Roy, Geoffrey Sayer, Narayan Prasad Singh, Jonathan Spence, Peter Stanley, Heather Streets, Paul A. Van Dyke, Bob Tadashi Wakabayashi, Frederick Jr. Wakeman, Erica Wald, Arthur Waley, Betty Peh-T’i Wei, Channa Wickremesekera, Lawrence Wang-chi Wong, Don J. Wyatt, Anand Yang, Tan Tai Yong and Yangwen Zheng.
The author would like to express his gratitude to all the above-named for they have each opened a window into the world of this book. He would be remiss however if he did not acknowledge the special debt that he owes to the work of the following: Seema Alavi, Joseph S. Alter, Amiya Barat, Dilip Basu, Kingsley Bolton, Hsin-Pao Chang, Tan Chung, Amar Farooqui, D.H.A. Kolff, Thomas W. Laqueur, Lydia Liu, Matthew W. Mosca, Jean Stengers, Carl A. Trocki, Madhukar Upadhyaya and Anne van Neck.
The author has been fortunate also in being able to avail himself of the help and guidance of a number of other scholars, students and independent researchers; he would like particularly to record his gratitude to the following: Shahid Amin, Clare Anderson, Prasenjit Duara, J. Daniel Elam, Dilip Gaonkar, Shernaz Italia, Ashutosh Kumar, Rajat Mazumder, Robert McCabe, Ashim Mukherjee, Dinyar Patel, Rahul Srivastava, Mihoko Suzuki and J. Peter Thilly.
To everyone named here the author extends his pranaams and salaams, while exonerating them of any culpability for whatever is objectionable or blameworthy in this account, the responsibility for which he claims solely for himself.
As to his family, immediate and extended, to thank them would be absurd since it is their shared history that has made possible this telling (which, needless to add, has as yet scarcely begun …)