Religion has played a Janus-faced role in historical societies all over the world. Religion, on the one hand, has served as the instrument of fundamentalist forces in religion, strengthening and reinforcing canonical stereotypes. It also has the dubious distinction of providing moral justification for acts of violence and terror in the name of religion. On the other hand, religion, especially spirituality, has also been a palpable phase of liberation theologies, such as Protestantism. It has been perceived as a cathartic force providing openings for voices of dissent and resistance. In contrast to sectarian movements which have been fundamentalist in terms of their ideology and locked in schisms and conflicts with those who worshipped ‘differently’, dissent movements within devotional streams were characterized by the qualities of universalism, humanism and love which cut across communal, caste and gender lines.

Beginning from Marx, the entire Marxian tradition has situated religion within the framework of society. An exemplar of this ideological position in the Indian context is D.D. Kosambi, the doyen of Marxist Indian historians. Many of his essays, such as ‘The Social and Economic Aspects of the Bhagawad Gita’ and especially the sub-essay ‘The Social Function of Bhakti’, reflect the firm location of religion as a socio-economic precipitate and bhakti as a reflection of the feudal order.