For a historical work to be taken seriously � or to be useful � it is obvious that a precise citation of its source should be given for each alleged fact. This first month�s journal, of an enquiry that I recently undertook, showed me that quite a bit of our history is decidedly non-serious.

READ SLOWLY, DON�T SKIP! To appreciate this paper, you'll need to put yourself in the shoes of an investigator, in particular, the reproduced extracts are meant to be perused � if need be, you can magnify them using the magic of Adobe � not omitted (if you do the latter, the narrative may tend to become incoherent). The scenery � i.e., the side-thoughts that occur as one pursues an investigation � is often more enjoyable than the main road, so don�t skip the �Notes� either, their small print does not betoken unimportance, only this scenery status.

All in all, it is like Inspector Grant in Josephine Tey�s delightful detective story, �The Daughter of Time,� only here you are Inspector Grant himself!

The basic facts about the Ghadr of 1914-15 you can easily gather from the web, but (caveat emptor!) don�t buy it all. For example, if a dozen websites tell you Kartar Singh of Sarabha was a student in the University of California at Berkeley before he left to make this rebellion in the Punjab, please don�t swallow it (the jury is still out on this, but U.C. Berkeley administration is positive that no Kartar Singh Grewal/Garewal was a student there). Once you have put yourself in this healthy and sceptical (i.e. scientific) frame of mind, you will, I think, enjoy this historical piece.

And yes, if you find anything at all in it � in the nature of a factual assertion especially � that you find confusing, please don�t hesitate to tell me all about it by writing an e-mail to [email protected] , I�ll respond to the best of my ability.