Dartmouth Events

Announcing the third book event in Fall 2024 on South Asia-related topics held by Dartmouth College. 

Conversations on South Asia Series  

Douglas Ober, “Dust on the Throne: The Search for Buddhism in Modern India”, Nov. 12th, 12:15 PM - 1:30 PM (EST). 
 
The South Asian Studies Collective at Dartmouth invites you to a captivating Zoom book event featuring author Douglas Ober. Received wisdom has it that Buddhism disappeared from India, the land of its birth, between the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, long forgotten until British colonial scholars re-discovered it in the early 1800s. Its full-fledged revival, so the story goes, only occurred in 1956, when the Indian civil rights pioneer Dr. B.R. Ambedkar converted to Buddhism along with half a million of his Dalit (formerly "untouchable") followers. This, however, is only part of the story. Dust on the Throne reframes discussions about the place of Buddhism in the subcontinent from the early nineteenth century onwards, uncovering the integral, yet unacknowledged, role that Indians played in the making of modern global Buddhism in the century prior to Ambedkar's conversion, and the numerous ways that Buddhism gave powerful shape to modern Indian history.

Through an extensive examination of disparate materials held at archives and temples across South Asia, Douglas Ober explores Buddhist religious dynamics in an age of expanding colonial empires, intra-Asian connectivity, and the histories of Buddhism produced by nineteenth and twentieth century Indian thinkers. While Buddhism in contemporary India is often disparaged as being little more than tattered manuscripts and crumbling ruins, this book opens new
avenues for understanding its substantial socio-political impact and intellectual legacy.

📚 Book Spotlight: “Dust on the Throne: The Search for Buddhism in Modern India” by Douglas Ober
📅 Date: November 12th, 2024
⏰ Time: 12:15 PM-1:30 PM EST
📍 Virtual Zoom 
💻 Register Here: https://dartmouth.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_B4dheWVFQ9ypfqxUsZuZFQ

🎙️Speaker
Douglas Ober, Lecturer in History, Fort Lewis College and Honorary Research Associate in the Centre for India and South Asia Research at the University of British Columbia

🎙️Commentators
V. Geetha, Editorial Director, Tara Books

Christopher Queen, Lecturer on the Study of Religion and Dean of Students for Continuing Education (retired), Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Harvard University

Moderator
Reiko Ohnuma, Robert 1932 and Barbara Black Professor of Religion, Dartmouth College

Sponsored by the Department of Asian Societies, Cultures and Languages (ASCL) and the Bodas Family Endowment for South Asian Studies at Dartmouth College. 
 
QR code (leads to registration form) on the poster.