Dust on the Throne

Shortlisted for the Cundill History Prize 2023The story we have been told is this: Buddhism disappeared from the land of its origin by the fourteenth century; British colonial scholars rediscovered it in the early 1800s; its revival occurred in 1956 when Babasaheb Ambedkar converted to Buddhism with half a million followers. All wrong. Dust on the Throne sheds new light on what has long been called India’s modern Buddhist revival.Examining sources in archives and temples across South Asia, Douglas Ober explores Buddhist religious dynamics through the course of expanding colonial empires, intra-Asian connectivity, and the intellectual pursuits of nineteenth and twentieth century Indian thinkers. He recovers the role of lesser known anti-caste activists and Buddhist monastics in the making of modern global Buddhism. We learn of the powerful influence Buddhism exerted in shaping modern Indian history.