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this book to preserve the rich heritage and the saga of downfall and rise of my community not only for me but also for my generation and for future generation.
This has been a very rewarding project for me. I have come to know so much about my community. I am thankful to many people without their help I would not be able to finish the project.
I am very much thankful to Ratibhai Chandaria (My brother in law), Keshubhai and Sobhag Dodhia (My two brothers) for procuring various books and articles. I am very grateful to Hansrajbhai Gudhka of London who kindly made available all the 25 articles about Oshwal's history written in Gujarati by his father Somchand Ladha Gudhka, which were published in an Oshwal magazine of Mumbai.
My friend Satish P. Shah, without his inspiration, supervision and very valuable suggestions it would not have been possible for me to complete this project. There are not enough words to express my gratitude to him.
I am deeply indebted to Dr Paul Marett retired professor of History for editing the manuscript and offering many valuable suggestions and comments.
I am thankful to Mayur Gudka for creating the maps and Paresh Shah and Amitabh Sinha for preparing this manuscript ready for printing.
I must admit that by no means this is a complete history. I know there are many heroes, pioneers, community leader, torchbearers and philanthropists besides the people I have mentioned in this book who have done so much for my community. I am unable to mention their names in this book because of lack of information. If in future I am able to get information on these people and if I publish second edition of this book I will make sure that their biographies are included.
