‘The Buddha was a master teacher who catered his message for different audiences,’ says author Douglas Ober

Shortlisted for the $75,000 Cundill History Prize, Dust on the Throne: The Search for Buddhism in Modern India offers a new perspective on the history and revival of Buddhism in India. In an interview, Douglas Ober, an honorary research associate in the Centre for India and South Asia Research at the University of British Columbia, captures the contemporary relevance of the Buddha.

Douglas Ober (Source: special arrangement)

Won’t you agree that Buddhism as a religion may have been rediscovered, but its universal values and morals have remained integral to the country’s culture? Isn’t acknowledgement and acceptance of such values across other religions more important than the spread of Buddhism?