The Robe and the Sword

“Sonia Faleiro is a master of narrative reportage, illuminating every topic she touches. This book that connects colonial fault lines, broken economies, the scourge of Islamophobia, and extremism is one that only Faleiro can write. Pay heed: it is the story of our broken world.” —Fatima Bhutto, author of The Hour of the Wolf and co-editor of Gaza: The Story of a Genocide “With sharp insight and deep humanity, Sonia Faleiro’s The Robe and the Sword traces the long and uneasy bond between Buddhism and political power, offering a vital portrait of how faith, identity, and resistance are being redefined across the region.” —Thant Myint-U, author of Peacemaker: U Thant and the Forgotten Quest for a Just World and The Hidden History of Burma: Race, Capitalism, and the Crisis of Democracy in the 21st Century “With intellectual resourcefulness and rigor, Sonia Faleiro describes one of nationalism’s most insidious and least-noticed mutation. Briskly and accessibly, The Robe and the Sword charts the complex social-economic shifts that make even an ancient spiritual tradition devoted to renunciation hospitable to modern fanaticism.” —Pankaj Mishra, author of The World After Gaza “Sonia Faleiro’s The Robe and the Sword is a must-read piece of the puzzle of rising religious and ethnonationalism worldwide. This meticulous reporting and analysis offers a sorely needed broad take on Buddhist extremism’s impact on some of the world’s most vulnerable people. Faleiro is one of our best journalists and thinkers. Unflinching in pursuing narratives that disrupt our established ways of seeing, she insists that we enlarge our field of vision to see the critical historical and contemporary connections beyond national borders.” —V.V. Ganeshananthan, author of Brotherless Night