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ac k now l e d g m e n t s I have dedicated this book to my eldest maternal uncle, Chandrahas Hiralal Shah, professor of agricultural economics, spiritualist, guide, and friend. Motamama, as we affectionately call him, who mingles the Gita and Marx, prefers peanuts to almonds—“the food of the common man”—and reminded me that, “Even the Buddha was not always the Buddha.” I cannot overestimate what it has meant for me to be close to him in Boston all those years, and what a profound effect he has had on my scholarship, and my life. This book owes a great deal to two of the most brilliant thinkers of our time, the Dalit scholar and literary critic D. R. Nagaraj and the Brazilian Marxist literary critic Roberto Schwarz, both of whom move seamlessly and artfully between the politics of narrative and the world outside, in the realms of caste and class, the indigenous and the classical, and the delicate dance between freedom and constraint. Their writing on the complexities of the vernacular and the spaces of the poor casts its shadow over the work of this book. As D. R. Nagaraj says, there are historical beginnings, but there are also metaphorical births. My sincere appreciation goes to two former professors at the University of California, Berkeley—Vasudha Dalmia and Karl Ashoka Britto—with whom I learned to read the literary line and many other kinds of texts. I also wish to thank here Ngugi wa Thiong’o, my first teacher in all things radical, for our earliest conversations on caste and race. Two brilliant readers read every word of this manuscript as well as the tens of thousands that were discarded: Elaine Freedgood and Rajeswari Sunder Rajan. Elaine’s comradeship in every intellectual endeavor has moved me, quite literally , towards many possibilities, and Raji’s dedication to this project and the course of my career has been unflagging. Acknowledgments x Books grow in the small increments of conversation and argument and this one was no different. My thanks goes to those who have been supportive and challenging along the way: Helen Southworth and Jini Kim Watson are colleagues, neighbors, and more importantly, true friends; Simon Gikandi, Martin Harries, Maureen McLane, and Robert Young, all of whom, in one way or another, hastened the emergence of this book. There have been many readers and thinkers who have generously shared their observations, insights, and expertise : Vipul Agrawal, Dora Ahmad, Haytham Bahoora, Rashmi Bhatnagar , Laura Brueck, Joseph Fracchia, Maggie Gray, Sujata Mody, Shalini Perera, Alok Rai, Krishnendu Ray, Naomi Schiller, Gayatri Spivak, and Thuy Linh Tu. I would also like to mention two friends without whom I simply would never have been in a position to move forwards: Sangita Gopal and Mona Chopra, both intellectual confidantes , and sisters. The completion of this book would not have been possible without the generous support of the Humanities Initiative Fellowship at New York University. My editor Helen Tartar’s commitment to the project was unfailing, as were Edward Batchelder and Tom Bishop at Fordham University Press, and Tim Roberts at the Modern Language Initiative, in their effort to see this book through publication. Leigh Raynor’s detailed work helped to produce the manuscript. I also thank two wonderful anonymous readers who took the project of reading with utmost seriousness and provided deliberative and incisive comments. I would like to acknowledge my colleagues at NYU for a most supportive and stimulating environment in which to begin, and end, this project. Finally, and always, family. There are some debts so vast they strain the imagination. We have never been alone. Thank you to my parents for their consistent and unspoken tree-like support, which has seen me through the most challenging times, and the deepest joys. My younger brother Parag is surely the first person to “cite” my work in an attempt to persuade a childhood teacher. My sister has been a mother to my son, and Taimur, a father. And to Tejas, my heart. An excerpt of chapter 2 appeared in Modern Language Quarterly (Fall 2012). An excerpt of the Epilogue appeared in South Asian Review (Spring 2012). A portion of chapter 5 appeared in the journal PMLA (Spring 2011). I appreciate the permission to reproduce them here. ...

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