We have many beautiful words in the Indian languages that we can draw upon to thank the large number of people who have helped us take this project from conception to creation. This book has grown from the germ of an idea to a volume with over two hundred contributors – each one of whom has, ironically for a keywords volume, left us speechless. Their combined wit, wisdom and, above all, generosity of spirit has been an object lesson in the power of words to constitute communities. In Konkani, the phrase ‘dev borem korum’, literally translated, means ‘may god do good to you’. One of the editors of this book believes this benefic phrase works for both believers and non-believers; the other is more sceptical but both are equally and profoundly grateful. We want to say to all who have helped us ‘dev borem korum’. We thank you for your marvellous contributions, your patience and most of all for your belief in the viability and worth of what we set out to do.
It would be impossible for us to list all those who have made this book possible, so we will mention only those who, at various stages in the life of the book, were involved in tying up stubborn loose ends, foremost among them Gorki Bora and Banasmita Bora. Without them this book might have remained a great tangle of loose ends. Ekta Khemchandani, Nonita Oberoi, Shikha Vats, Priyanka Sharma, Priyanka Verma, Dipti Kulkarni, Manaswita Bharadwaja, Sanchita Sharma and Nivida Chandra all helped give the project a form. Their assistance, across digital space and different time zones, was truly outstanding. It is noteworthy, too, that they were all women, reminding us that in India, women’s names encompass every virtue, such as Ekta (unity), Shikha (peak or high point), Sanchita (collection, a gathering), Dipti (lustrous, shining), Manaswita (mind aspiring, intelligent). The women who helped us were all these things and more: they drew up lists of contributors, prepared Excel monitoring sheets, sent endless reminders, intrepidly helped us convert long biographies and entries into brief bio notes and svelte slim-fit essays and dealt with the disappointments of regret in rishi fashion but celebrated acceptance with Bollywood fervour. Dev Borem Korum to the women who assisted us; they richly deserve every blessing.
Then they were those who were our genies, appearing magically when the going got rough, such as Ramakant Agnihotri, Hoshang Merchant, Antony Arul Valan, Chandrika Pandey, Amit Bhaya and Satish Padmanabhan. All of them made this project happen. Dev Borem Korum to them.
The detailed comments made by the two anonymous reviewers for the book proposal much before it fully came into being were enormously helpful and helped shape our vision for the book. That they were both based in the United States and that both frankly admitted that they were not South Asia specialists was a great bonus because the perspectives offered seemed so clear-eyed and unbiased. One of them wrote at the time with great prescience: ‘Such a volume – with the right contributors and a strong editorial hand – could be extraordinary. It is hard to imagine that it could even pretend to cover the topic adequately. But it could be an interesting spur to conversation, debate, and more research.’ The reviewer was wise. To ‘even pretend to covering the topic adequately’ would be a farce when the topic in question happened to be India. It would be like trying to pour the sea into a pail or balti (one of the material culture keywords in our volume). However, we feel that as far as our contributors go, we have more than fulfilled expectations. The flaws in the text are surely our own and can never be theirs. We are not so sure about those ‘strong editorial hand(s)’, though. Despite genuine doubts on this front, however, we shall keep our fingers crossed about the ‘extraordinariness’ of this book and the promise that it will yield fine conversations and research in the years to come. Meanwhile, Dev Borem Korum to both reviewers.
We would be remiss not to record our gratitude to several institutions where several formal and informal brainstorming, sessions took place, vivacious suggestions were received on what words to include and sage advice given on how to avoid the hegemonic trap of the globally dominant languages. The Indian Institute of Advanced Study, Shimla, hosted one such meeting, as did the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library which supported a fellowship for one of the editors. Their support was invaluable. The IIT Delhi and the CSDS Delhi, our respective home institutions, enabled us to host small informal meetings with groups of potential contributors, many of who contributed substantially to our project. We value their support. Our publishers, Bloomsbury, and our editors, Gurdeep Mattu, Andrew Wardell and Becky Holland, deserve our thanks for believing in this marathon project and urging it to the finish line. Given the fact that India’s verbal zest is infinite, we have already started preparing for next year’s race, such is the energy that we have drawn from our engagement with this volume.
Finally, to our families who offered unsolicited advice and who, for affective reasons, gave us unstinting support, we are truly grateful. Dev Borem Korum.
Rukmini Bhaya Nair and Peter Ronald deSouza Delhi, 1 June 2019