Edna Fernandes

When a people die out, can their story survive?

The Two Thousand Year History of India's Forgotten Jewish Community

The Last Jews of Kerala

No other nation has witnessed as much proselytizaton or heard as many war cries in the name of God as has India. Here, there is evidence that every religion can be hijacked by the forces of fundamentalism. Edna Fernandes travels to the country’s recent and past theatres of fundamentalism—from Kashmir and Gujarat to Punjab and Goa—to meet the generals and foot soldiers of communal wars, and lets their rage and rhetoric speak for them. The result is an important and utterly absorbing book about the consequences of prejudice, insecurity and hate.

Holy Warriors

Separated by a narrow stretch of swamp-like waters, and distinguished by the colour of their skin, the Black Jews and the White Jews have been locked in a rancorous feud for centuries. Only now, when their combined number has diminished to fewer than fifty and they are on the threshold of extinction, have the two remaining Jewish communities in south India begun to realise that their destiny, and their undoing, is the same. Living in Cochin alongside this last generation, Edna Fernandes tells their story from the illustrious arrival of their ancestors from the court of King Solomon, through their long heyday of wealth, tolerance and privilege to their present twilight existence, as synagogues crumble into disuse and weddings become a thing of the past, leaving only funerals.

The Last Jews Of Kerala

A timely and insightful book on ISIS--the world's most dangerous terrorist network--by the bestselling author of Holy Warriors. Governments across the world openly acknowledge the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) as one of the greatest terrorist threats in history, greater even than Al Qaeda, which first set light to a global jihad. Never before has there been such a wealth of information, propaganda and counter-propaganda available on the subject, especially on the Internet. And yet, in all the noise, there's confusion. This book draws on thorough research and rare interviews to deconstruct the founding ideology of ISIS and chart its growth: how it recruits, using the Dark Web to indoctrinate the disaffected and the emotionally vulnerable across the world; how it has spread globally, using violence as theatre and making secret pacts with cynical governments; and how it finances itself--through sale of oil, extortion and slave trade. The book also examines how this terrorist state is being dismantled by an unlikely coalition of forces from the Middle East and the West, even as it warns that the nationalist chauvinism and economic protectionism sweeping the world today could provide new fuel to ISIS and its ideology. Rigorous and insightful, The Hollow Kingdom is a necessary read--a compelling mix of research and reportage.

ISIS and the Cult of Jihad

The Hollow Kingdom

Home to all the major religions, India is also, inevitably, host to virtually every type of religious fanatic. No other nation has witnessed as much proselytizing or heard as many war cries in the name of God as India. For centuries, Hindus, Christians, Sikhs and Muslims have waged bloody wars, sought violent conversion and declared jihad against their enemies, as their religions have been hijacked by the forces of fundamentalism. In Holy Warriors, Edna Fernandes travels to the country's recent and past theatres of religious extremism - from Kashmir to Gujarat, Punjab to Goa - to meet the generals and foot soldiers of communal wars who assert their faith in rhetoric and rage. Theirs are stories of bigotry and bloodshed, insecurity and despair, but Fernandes listens with understanding, tolerance and a deft sense of humour, and paints a uniquely vivid and clear-sighted picture of a country divided by dogma.

Edna Fernandes

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