Animal Enthusiasms Life Beyond Cage and Leash in R... - (Acknowledgements)

Acknowledgements
This book would not have been possible had it not been for the enormous
support and kindness of all the South Punjabi animal keepers and their fam-
ilies. I thank them warmly for their hospitality, and for allowing me to travel
with them over the course of my fieldwork while sharing ideas and opinions.
For ethical, legal, and cultural reasons, I use pseudonyms for most animal
keepers and try to hide the identity of their families. Still, the detailed ethno-
graphic description I present is not entirely cryptic, and I request the reader to
share in the ethical responsibility of respecting the privacy of local people. My
greatest debt is to two female Research Assistants (RAs) who helped me gather
the perspectives of South Punjabi women. Although I cannot name them,
I want to acknowledge their determination, hard work, and superb assistance.
Many people in the village helped me meet the animal keepers and accom-
panied me to different animal competitions. For this I thank Muhammad
Ajmal Phull, Junaid Iqbal, Mian Khalid, Nazar Waqas, Agha Hussnain,
Mian Ayaz, Homayun Phull, Muhammad Mahfooz, late Muhammad
Masood, Nadeem Khalid, Waqas Shoaib, Maqsood Ahmad, Murad Joiya,
Milad Joiya, Mahar Ghullam Abbas, Hafiz Masood, Afzal Phull, Faiz Amin,
Asif Raza, Khuda Bux, and Khizar Hayat. I am also grateful to the staff of
two Non-Government Organisations, police officers, lawyers, veterinarians,
politicians, and others at my research site who were kind enough to offer me
their time and shared their views.
At the Australian National University, my greatest debt is to my teacher
Copyright © 2020. Taylor & Francis Group. All rights reserved.
and advisor Assa Doron for his kindness, critical insight, and for the gen-
erous amount of time and attention he was able to give to this project. I am
grateful for his patience with my earlier drafts and for his advice on personal
and professional matters throughout the journey of completing my doctoral
degree. When things became difficult for me at a personal level, it was always
his kind support, understanding, and encouragement that pushed me toward
the completion of this book. I am indebted to Kirin Narayan, who always
had a gracious smile for me and encouraged me to add beauty to my writing.
While attending her course on “Ethnographic Writing” and co-authoring an
article on shauk, I experienced the possibility of feeling alive in writing. It was
in her house, in the company of her two beautiful cats, Chunni and Munni,
Kavesh, Muhammad A.. Animal Enthusiasms : Life Beyond Cage and Leash in Rural Pakistan, Taylor & Francis Group, 2020.
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Acknowledgements xi
that I started reworking my PhD dissertation into a book manuscript. I am
also greatly indebted to Natasha Fijn who, as a friend and an advisor, opened
the door for me to understand the more-than-human world. Her insightful
comments, excellent guidance, and suggestions have been greatly valuable to
this project.
I would like to show my gratitude to other people who provided their
useful comments on earlier drafts of this project. I am particularly thankful
to Matt Tomlinson, Philip Taylor, Kuntala Lahir-Dutt, Andrew McWilliam,
Andrew Kipnis, Alan Rumsey, Lacy Pejcinovic, Thuy Do, Maxine McArthur,
and Owen Bullock for their insights into earlier versions. I am grateful to
Kenneth George, Dipesh Chakrabarty, Robin Jeffrey, and Jürgen Wasim
Frembgen for suggesting useful literature for this project, and to Mark
Mosko, Kathy Robinson, Shameem Black, Meera Ashar, Margaret Jolly,
Trang Ta, and many friends and colleagues for offering valuable advice during
seminars. I am indebted to Naisargi Dave, Tanya Jakimow, Eva Nisa, Joseph
Alter, David Howes, Laurian Bowles, Beth Uzwiak, Fouzieyha Towghi,
Keith Barney, Luca Tacconi, Patrick Guinness, Kama Maclean, Tom Cliff,
Caroline Schuster, Francesca Merlan, and David Macdougall for their enor-
mous kindness. I also thank Ursula Sims-Williams from the British Library,
and the staff of the SOAS library for their assistance in scanning and sending
rare Indian manuscripts on pigeons. I am obliged to Ms Karina Pelling and
her CartoGIS team at the Australian National University for producing maps
for this project. I am highly thankful to Samina Choonara who, as an excel-
lent scholar of Pakistan’s history and culture, provided her highly critical
comments and important edits.
I would like to express my deep gratitude to the Australian Government’s
Endeavour Award for its generous financial support for my PhD project.
The School of Culture, History, and Language at the Australian National
University helped me in various ways to meet my study expenses, sometimes
offering a fee waiver and fieldwork support grant, and at other times pro-
viding assistance in obtaining rare books from international libraries. I am
highly indebted to the School Director, Simon Haberle, the School HDR
administrators, Jo Bushby and Etsuko Mason, and other staff of the School,
including Kirsten Farrell, Gouri Banerji, Joshua Burgess for always providing
timely support. I would also like to acknowledge other grants that helped me
at different stages of this project, these include: Australian Anthropological
Society Postdoctoral Fellowship, Raymond Firth Award by the Australian
National University, South Asian Research Institute’s (SARI) Student
Support, Robin Wood Award by the Australian Anthropological Society,
ANU Student Leader Scholarship, ANU Postgraduate and Research
Students’ Associations’ Award, Quaid-i-Azam University Student Aid, and the
Australian Network of Student Anthropologist’s Conference Support Grant.
I have presented parts of the book at many conferences, seminars, and
workshops over the last few years and have received helpful criticism and
comments from a wide variety of scholars at Wollongong University,
xii Acknowledgements
University of Sydney, University of Adelaide, Fatima Jinnah University
Rawalpindi, and at various colleges in the Australian National University.
Parts of the book have been published; an earlier draft of Chapter 1 appeared
as “From the Passions of Kings to the Pastimes of the People: Pigeon
Flying, Cockfighting, and Dogfighting in South Asia” in Pakistan Journal
of Historical Studies, and portions of Chapter 4 were published as “Dog
Fighting: Performing Masculinity in Rural South Punjab, Pakistan” in
Society & Animals, and as “From Colony to Post-Colony: Animal Baiting
and Religious Festivals in South Punjab, Pakistan” in David W. Kim’s edited
book Colonial Transformation and Asian Religions in Modern History, CSP
Newcastle.
I wish to thank Rebecca Cassidy, Garry Marvin, and Radhika Govindrajan,
the editors of the book series Multispecies Anthropology: New Ethnographies,
for their close reading, comments, and support. This book has also bene-
fitted immensely from the extremely valuable and insightful comments from
reviewers. I am also grateful to my editor, Katherine Ong at Routledge for her
expert advice, and to Kangan Gupta, for her tremendous support.
My friends in Australia have helped me with their encouragement, ideas,
and support on many occasions. I am grateful to Syed Shah Faisal and
Daisy Bhabi, Abdul Razaque Channa, Muhammad Adeel, Tayyaba Malik,
Zaime Bujor, Mukesh Tiwari, Milad Ketab, Omar Pidani, Fitrilailah Mokui,
Neal Chen, Sarita Dhounchak, Colum Graham, Helen Abbott, Joyce Das,
Umar Assegaf, Myra Mentari, Erlin Erlina, Sacha Cody, Fina Itriyati, Nita
Sebastian, Ruhan Shahrir, Mayank Khanna, Sherman Tan, Isabela Burgher,
Sana Ashraf, Eleonora Quijada, Shamim Homayun, Mariko Yoshida, Benny
Tong, Khurram Aftab Kiani, Zoe Hatten, Valerie Mashman, Benny Tong,
Gita Nasution, Xeem Noor, Karen Hansen, Maria Ortega, Kimlong Chheng,
Elvin Xing, Mizan Rahman, Tony Jefferies, Charlotte van Tongeren, Lina
Koleilat, Justin Lau, Annie McCarthy, Bethune Carmichael, and Mark Jones
for helping me in countless ways. Some friends read parts of this book and
provided invaluable comments. I would like to offer my gratitude to Alexandra
McEwan, Kathleen Varvaro, Simon Theobald, Julia Brown, Nonie Tuxen, Jo
Thurman, Ben Hegarty, Justine Chambers, Poonnatree Jiaviriyaboonya, Said
Alvi, and Fay Styman for thoughtful and constructive feedback on my writing.
I am extremely grateful to people in Pakistan for their generosity and

support. My friends Ishaq Isra, Salman Ijaz, Muhammad Sadiq, Aurangzaib
Buzdar, Safdar Klasra, and my college lecturer Mukhtyar Shah inspired the
interest in studying Saraiki culture. Sayed Tahir Parveez, Hafeez-ur-Rehman,
Waheed Iqbal Chowdhry, Aneela Sultana, Meena Zulfiqar, Sufyan Abid,
and especially my graduate supervisor, Tariq Mehmood, encouraged me to
explore anthropology further. I would also like to thank other people at the
Department of Anthropology in the Quaid-i-Azam University, including
Anwar Shaheen, Sadia Abid, Rao Nadeem, Inaam Laghari, Anwaar
Mohuddin, Sajjad Haidar, Ilyas Bhatti, Waqas Saleem, Ikram Badshah,
Muhammad Sajjad librarian, Rafique Sahib, and Tabbasum Rehmani
Acknowledgements xiii
for their continuous kindness and support. I cannot thank my friend and
mentor Muhammad Bilal enough for encouraging and supporting me in so
many ways. His advice and guidance has always been a source of intellec-
tual and personal nourishment. Other friends in Islamabad, Imad Mastan
Khan, Ajmal Khan Kakar, Salman Shah, Zubair Ahmad, Tariq Rahim Shah,
Aisha Farooq, Muhammad Ali Durrani, Ambrin Sharif, Habbat Kibzai,
Rashid Kazmi, Mehr un-Nisa, Adnan Jameel, Hassan Mahar, Ghazanfar
Ilyas, Muhammad Majid, Muzammal Bilal, Nizam ud- Din, Maria Ali,
Waqas Badshah, Nadia Khaliq, Asim Hussain, Javeed Bhutto, Hamasa
Tariq, Akram Ali, KD Baloch, Raza Hayder, Mahar Akmal, Rabia Naseer,
Mumreez Khan, Mehwish Rasheed, Abida Zafar, Awon Muhammad, Afreen
Athar, Sherbaz Khan Baloch, Ahmad Raza, Sara Yousaf, Qamar Zaman
Bodla, Saiqa Ashraf, Umar Draz Virak, Adnan Mughal, and Rehman Malik
have been a source of great ideas and inspiration.
My family has been a source of endless love, support, and encourage-
ment, particularly my parents-in-law, Shehzad Akhtar Raja and Nazneen
Shehzad. My mother, as a single parent, has always provided her care, love,
and affection, and her presence in my life is a blessing and a source of motiv-
ation. I owe a great deal to my brother, Arshad, who raised me like a father
since I was two years old, and ensured that I receive the best education pos-
sible despite financial troubles and mounting debt after the passing away of
our father. I would also like to thank my other siblings for their love and
sustained support.
My lovely wife, Zara, has supported me in so many ways. She patiently
read many drafts of all the chapters, gave me constant feedback, and always
pushed me to explore my limits. As a friend, she has provided companionship
and advice on a daily basis and helped me overcome numerous difficulties.
My daughters Serosh Zaynab and Hoorain Aisha are a blessing for me and
keep me going. Their every breath is a source of comfort to me and their every
act brings great joy. I want to live and die watching you healthy, happy, and
shining.

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Acknowledgements

I am extremely grateful to people in Pakistan for their generosity and

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