It is a commonplace in Acknowledgments to assert the collective nature of the undertaking and in my case this is especially appropriate. Before work began on this project, my career had been spent entirely in the field of British history and particularly in the field of the histories of British industrial relations and trade unionism. In fact, this book began as a legal and social history of English arbitration practices during the nineteenth century. However, as that research proceeded, I continually found references, and very numerous ones at that, to the Indian panchayat, which I found both odd and intriguing. As the work evolved, it became apparent not only that the archival and secondary sources on the panchayat were plentiful, historically significant, and underutilized, but also that I would have to learn the vagaries, disputes, and critical issues confronting historians of British imperialism as well as historians of South Asia. I was incredibly fortunate to find that the community of South Asianists was invariably generous with their time, advice, expertise, and friendship. I will thank them more fully in a moment, but I would first like to express my profound gratitude to those institutions and agencies that provided the funding necessary to undertake and complete this project. Particularly at this time, when support for the humanities is disappearing and the requirements for gaining such support are most often premised upon “measurable outcomes,” I was indeed fortunate to receive support from the US National Science Foundation, the US–UK Fulbright Commission and the University of Leeds, and the Ford Foundation at Jawaharlal Nehru University. The grant from the US National Science Foundation, SES-0849571, provided support for my first lengthy research trip toMumbai and thus laid the foundation for this work. The US–UK Fulbright Commission and the University of Leeds, and the Ford Foundation at Jawaharlal Nehru University provided the time, space, and financial support necessary to complete the manuscript. Without the support of all of these agencies and institutions, this work could never have been begun, much less completed.