ABSTRACT
Religion has played an important role in the political evolution of modern India. Hindu reform movements, while regionally based and disruptive of Muslim-Hindu harmony, nevertheless prepared the way for national self-consciousness. Such important nationalist leaders as Tilak and later Gandhi drew their inspiration from religious faith. Religious appeals and symbolism popularized the Congress’s message. Eventually it was on the basis of religion that the Subcontinent was divided when the British departed in 1947.
