Becoming Organic

Abstract

This book has come into being slowly-among people who, in their different ways, have each supported and enabled its work, and in places where I have been given the space and time to explore, reflect, converse, and write.I am above all thankful to the many people in Uttarakhand who assisted with and participated in my research. They include the residents of Asanpur and Nagthari, the staff of the Uttarakhand Organic Commodity Board, the Uttarakhand Seed and Organic Certification Agency, the company I refer to as Hira Foods, the Dehradun State Archives, and National Archives, and the many more individuals who took time to meet and speak with me. In Asanpur, Sandeep Rawat and Usha Devi, and their daughter, Nisha, welcomed me into their home and facilitated my research in their village. I am especially grateful to Rawatji and Amrita Devi in Nagthari, who treated me and my family as their own and continue to do so to this day.In pursuing the doctoral research on which this book is based, I could not have hoped for two more remarkable co-chairs, Michael Dove and K. Sivaramakrisnan. They are scholars whose deep intel-