ABSTRACT
Religion has always been a looming presence in understandings of Indian politics in the colonial and postcolonial periods. Much scholarly time and trouble has been spent examining the way religion operates, and what its presence means for the development of Indian political structures. The classic dichotomy between the religious and the secular spheres underpins this concern. This is particularly so, of course, in recent times, as the polity has come to be dominated increasingly by forces claiming to represent specifi c religious identities. The state election result in Gujarat late in 2002, for example, was proclaimed a victory for Hindutva, for ‘Hindu-ness’ and the ‘Hindu community’ as it has been invoked by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its allies. It was another nail in the coffi n of the secular polity.
