New Delhi, Jan. 24 -- Sonia Faleiro's new book, The Robe and the Sword: How Buddhist Extremism Is Shaping Modern South Asia, examines the increasing use of violence in word and deed by Buddhist monks in Sri Lanka, Myanmar and Thailand. There are many and various religious groupings across the world that support nationalist aggressions against minorities in their own countries, but the Buddhist case is presented as especially disturbing because the common perception of Buddhism is as a religion of non-violence. Pankaj Mishra's insightful blurb nails the nub of Faleiro's inquiry, pointing to "...the social-economic shifts that make even an ancient spiritual tradition devoted to renunciation hospitable to modern fanaticism." Faleiro provides...