ABSTRACT
The expressions of faith and the consequences of belief thus straddle the social and the extra-social, that which is knowable by means of a pre-existing cognitive frame, and that which may be described as exceeding its parameters. The forms taken by faith are socially and culturally marked. The awareness of how fear, greed, attachment and rage can structure our perception of reality makes us recognise that the work of social. Secularism was increasingly being revealed as a thin gloss willed into existence by non-communal lawmakers, philosophers and social activists. In the wake of the Ram Janmabhoomi controversy, secularism seemed impossible to posit even as a goal. It had become a dream destroyed by the political Right—Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, Vishwa Hindu Parishad, Bharatiya Janata Party. These events raised many questions about the nature, genealogy and history of secularism in India.
