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Acknowledgments
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Ahmedabad has been my second home for almost half a century. Many of the central actors in this book are friends and colleagues. My sense of gratitude to all of them is overwhelming. I hope they feel that this book repays in small part all that they have contributed over the years to the book and to me personally. Even before I embarked on my first trip, in 1964, I had been prepared for my studies especially by Profs. Ainslee Embree at Columbia University and Stephen Hay at the University of Chicago. When I returned to Chicago, Profs. Barney Cohn and Brian Berry helped me to process and build on what I had learned. In India, Dr. Olive Reddick, Director of the Fulbright Office, made the fateful decision that Ahmedabad would be my posting. R. P. Sharma came out from Delhi from time to time to check that all was proceeding properly. (On later trips, Pradeep Mehendiratta, Director-General of the American Institute of Indian Studies, was my shepherd through the bureaucracies.) Of the young Fulbrighters in that first voyage, some have remained lifelong colleagues and friends, especially Richard Schiro and Philip Oldenburg (and, later, Phil’s wife, Veena). Similarly, among my colleagues and friends at H.K. Arts College, 1964–66, several remain among my closest friends. From the faculty: Jayant Joshi and, later, his wife, Neela, and their entire family—parents, children, and grandchildren ; Ilaben Pathak and her family. Bharat Bhatt, a geographer at HK who soon left for study in the States, taught me about the tensions between the two experiences. From among the students: Bension Agarwarkar, and his family, continue as close friends, and Sudhir Khandekar and M. G. Hiragar as memorable from the classroom and continuing as friends. I became, and, thankfully, remain a part of the extended family of Burhan and Iqbal Siddiqui, in whose home I lived in 1965–66, including parents, children , and grandchildren. In their home I experienced an Islam of love, as they actually lived their faith. Prof. Varis Alavi and his family opened additional windows into more Westernized and academic perspectives on Islam, and on Gujarati literature. Nirubhai Desai and his wife, Nirmalaben—freedom fighters , socialists, political and social activists—welcomed me into their family as well, and their children and grandchildren continue in my circle of friends. Esther David introduced me to two communities in Ahmedabad—artistic and Jewish—and her son Robin and his wife, Raheel, guide me today through the world of Ahmedabad journalism. Dwijendra Tripathi always chuckles as he reminds me that he and I both arrived in Ahmedabad for the first time x Acknowledgments in 1964—he to become professor and, later, dean at the Indian Institute of Management. His family and circle of friends and colleagues have always welcomed me warmly. Father Joseph Heredero coached me then on the workings of Indian politics, and continues to do so even now. He found for me at St. Xavier’s College my first Gujarati teacher, Prof. Chimanbhai Trivedi, and my first Gujarati coach, P. D. Chavda. Later teachers have included Prof. Raymond Parmar, also of St. Xavier’s, who has welcomed me to his home and family, and Prof. Arvind Bhandari of Gujarat University, met most recently, in 2009. Father H. and Raymondbhai—through their discussions and their lives—have also offered different and fascinating perspectives on the Christian community of Ahmedabad. Harinarayan Acharya, General Secretary of the Ahmedabad Millowners Association, opened the doors and the archives of the AMA’s headquarters, built by LeCorbusier, and invited me to tea and conversation in his office more often than I can remember. Years later, I introduced him to my children as “my Ahmedabad grandfather.” As I studied Ahmedabad’s textile industry , Arvind Buch, general secretary of the Textile Labour Association (TLA), gave me personal insights into the workings of Ahmedabad’s most important Gandhian institution. S. A. Kher at Calico Mills and Chandraprasad Desai at Arvind Mills guided me on management perspectives. On subsequent trips, B. K. Majmudar, at ATUL products, enhanced that perspective, and unveiled to me his remarkable balancing act between industrial management and socialist politics. Dinkarbhai Trivedi owned and managed Ahmedabad’s remarkable New Order Book Store, with its superb collection of older treasures, and kept me alert to the books I needed to read. Two Western academics I met in India on that first trip also became dear friends as well as perceptive guides, John Wood of the University of British...