The 19th century Bengal Renaissance had been the force behind the influx of Western rationality and thought in India. Fed up with the superstition accumulated over the ages, educated Indians decided to do away completely with religion. It is now fashionable to speak of secular education where the word secular is interpreted to mean devoid of any particular religious beliefs whatsoever. But this apparently neutral stand has often sucked out the life-giving components from culture and education. In the attempt to remove the weeds from a plant, the very plant has been cut down, as it were