It is a matter of immense pleasure and satisfaction for me to place before the readers-The Jats: Their Role and Contribution to the Socio- economic Life and Polity of North & North-West India, Vol. II, which enshrines 46 research articles presented in the National Seminars organized under the aegis of Centre for Research and Publication of Suraj Mal Memorial Education Society, New Delhi.

To achieve the objective of the Society, we felt the need for digging out the past history of the Jats based on historical data. The society moved in this direction by reprinting the classical books of K.R. Qanungo (History of the Jats), Desh Raj (Jat Itihas) and Raja Mahendra Pratap (My Life Story and Reminiscences of a Revolutionary) so, as to make these books available to the reading public.

Then the publication of the following historically important well- researched works was undertaken-Girish Chandra Dwivedi (The Jats: Their Role in the Mughal Empire), Upendra Nath Sharma (Maharaja Jawahar Singh aur Unke Uttaradhikari) and Ganga Sagar the verses of Jat Sant Ganga Das.

This volume contains the papers presented in two National Seminars on the topic, The Jats: Their Role and Contribution to the Socio-economic Life and Polity of India successively organized by the Centre for Research and Publication of Surajmal Mermorial Education Society on 14-15th February, 2004 and 30th April and 1st May, 2005. Selected papers from both the Seminars have been arranged thematically dealing with history and culture of different regions in a chronological pattern. It will give a glimpse of the Jats history and culture to the readers.

The Volume II is a step forward than the Volume I (2004) in the direction of more illumination of various facets of the role and contribution of the Jats as the papers have been presented on interdisciplinary aspects by the learned scholars. The area covered by the papers is far-wider as it encompasses not only North-Western India but also Persia and other Arabian territories.

A capsule study of the themes of the papers is attempted here to give an idea of the subject to the readers.