ABSTRACT
Culture suffers, religiosity declines and, because of the global ambitions of modernity, there is a challenge to the uniqueness/specificity of our cultural identity. Secularism, particularly its militant brand, derives its strength from science——the most dominant and successful ideology of our times. Secularism, does not permit differences (in terms of one’s politico-economic rights) based on one’s religious identity. Divergent religious communities can coexist only when there is a consensus, a shared practice, a way of seeing that asserts fundamental unity amidst differences. Religion is thought to be sacred for man’s spiritual salvation. The real danger of science to religion, however, was rather in the increased prestige of science and the decline in the intellectual prestige of religion. Religion expresses man’s utter helplessness, his infantile desire for protection, his inability to see the world as it is. The emancipatory potential of true religiosity is nothing new to India.
