According to conventional belief, Buddhism vanished from the country where it originated between the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. It was largely lost until British colonial researchers rediscover it in the early nineteenth century. According to legend, it underwent a complete resurrection in 1956 when Dr. B.R. Ambedkar, an Indian constitutionalist and forerunner of civil rights, converted to Buddhism alongside 500,000 of his Dalit supporters. An entirely fresh viewpoint on what has long been referred to as India's current Buddhist renaissance is offered by Dust on the Throne. Douglas Ober investigates Buddhist religious dynamics through the course of expanding colonial empires, intra-Asian connectivity, and the intellectual pursuits of nineteenth and twentieth century Indian thinkers through a thorough analysis of various materials held in archives and temples throughout South Asia. Dust on the Throne recovers the integral role of lesser-known Indian anti-caste activists and non-Indian Buddhist monastics in the making of modern global Buddhism. Ober also accounts for the powerful influence Buddhism exerted in shaping modern Indian history.