An extensive project that has gone on for more than a dozen years owes its completion to many. I thank all my colleagues and students in the Department of English, Jamia Millia Islamia, who participated enthusiastically in the project and were co-travellers with me in this long journey. Thanks are also due to Professor Sabiha A. Zaidi, director, Jamia’s Premchand Archives and Literary Centre, who placed the entire holding of the archives at my disposal and lent me some very valuable books. Shazia Alvi and Umaima at Zakir Husain library, Jamia Millia Islamia, were particularly helpful in tracking rare journals, newspapers and manuscripts. I would also like to place on record my thanks to the staff members of the Sahitya Akademi library and the Nehru Memorial Museum library for their help. Moazzam Sheikh, librarian at San Francisco public library, gave me important information about the holdings of Urdu journals in Pakistan and the USA.
Among the experts associated with the project, I recall with gratitude the advice given me by Professor Alok Bhalla and Professor Malasri Lal. Several writers-in-residence at Jamia interacted with the translators and advised them. Some of them also translated a couple of Premchand stories at my request. I would like to specially mention Anjum Hasan, Robert Rosenberg, Farzana Doctor, Annie Zaidi, Lakshmi Holmström and Mini Krishnan. The editorial team at Penguin led by Ambar Sahil Chatterjee and consisting of Arpita, Paloma, Shreya and Shanuj is thanked for its patience, rigour and painstaking attention to detail. And finally, a big ‘thank you’ to my ardent foot soldiers—Shailendra, Sarfaraz, Kalyanee, Sarah and Naseeb—who helped me in reading the proofs most diligently and meeting the punishing deadline that Penguin Books had set for me.