ABSTRACT
Marx was writing in a period when the religious establishment was the buttress of the sociopolitical order. A deep antipathy to religion thus characterised his perspective. Marxism relates all aspects of life and consciousness to the material conditions of existence. Marxism as theory and political practice has had a complex trajectory subsequent to Marx. Many key concepts have undergone revision and refinement to address conditions different from those analysed by Marx and Engels. The secularism of the Left is in tension with the outlook of the majority of people in the subcontinent who live and act within a framework imbued with religious modes of knowing and being. The Marxist premise that religion is a distortion of reality has led to a distorted view of religion. As long as there is no openness to contemplating religion, an insurmountable divide will be seen to exist between sacred and secular frameworks.
