Cultural Intersections: Buddhism, Empire, and Identity

Ash Sarkar sat down at EartH Hackney with acclaimed historian and author William Dalrymple.

Picking up where they left off last time they spoke on Downstream, Sarkar and Dalrymple had a wide-ranging conversation at the crossroads of empire, resistance, and the long shadows of colonialism.

From the rich histories traced in The Golden Road to the urgent realities of Gaza and the deeper fault lines of South Asia’s past, this was a discussion that cut across centuries—and continents.

Dalrymple brought his signature insight into how East shaped West, asking us to reimagine our sense of where power lay in the ancient world.