The reportage is even-handed and responsible and even delightfully witty. Fernandes's asides are precise and wicked. Above all, she offers a valuable reminder of the dark side of the economic miracle that is modern India -- Naseem Khan * Guardian *
As fair and objective an assessment of the perils that lie ahead for India as any that I have ever read. It is a must-read for all of those who wish the country to prosper as a secular democracy. A powerful book -- Khushwant Singh
This impressively researched and lucidly written book travels quickly beyond many banalities about India today. Anyone interested in exploring the complex appeal of religious extremism in half-modern societies should read it -- Pankaj Mishra
This is an amazing book, incredible. Anyone interested in religions and how they get on - or don't - should get hold of it. I'm telling you, it's a compulsive read. -- Nihal * BBC Asian Network *
This energetic account of religious violence and prejudice in India is witty, informative - and disturbing. Purity and impurity, rather than good works and sin, would appear to constitute the dominant polarity in religious consciousness on the Subcontinent. But one faith's purity may be another's filth... Holy Warriors sets out to explore the conundrum: what exactly is the relationship between fanatical religious observance and sectarian violence in modern India? The book opens with a brief consideration of Partition, the carnage that accompanied it and the unhappy irony that it did not produce clear and separate national identities for Pakistan and India... After the grim facts, Fernandes tells of her own trips to these troubled areas and her long interviews with many of those involved in the violence: victims, police chiefs, religious leaders, politicians (but not the killers). Her travelogues are attractive; she is a witty caricaturist, and a stubborn interviewer... often fun, always informative, Holy Warriors is a useful introduction to the sectarian divides of contemporary India. -- Tim Parks * Telegraph *
An entertaining and insightful thematic travelogue, a tour of Indian flashpoints. * Economist *
In Holy Warriors, the British-Indian journalist Edna Fernandes offers and insightful analysis of religious fundamentalism, combining solid research with bold investigative reporting... Fernandes's survey is brave, enlightening and sobering, a must-read for anyone interested in modern India. -- Jean Hannah Edelstein * Observer *
Edna Fernandes meets extremists of every faith, and paints a vivid portrait of a country so often divided by dogma. * Traveller *
