When thegods drinkmilk! empiricism and beliefincontemporary hinduism

The permeability of the boundary between religion and politics in India has already been highlighted in many studies. In reality, ever since Independence, the separation established by the Indian constitution between these two central domains of social life has always been rather tenuous. But it is only during the last two decades that a large-scale movement openly questioning the principle has emerged. In effect, political parties appealing to Hinduism have been making a concerted attempt to turn it into the more or less explicit basis for a national state culture. which would replace the purely secular ideals prevailing until now.' The separation between religion and politics is not, however, the most decisive factor in defining our modernity. A more fundamental distinction is the one which has been progressively drawn between beliefs in all their variability on the one hand and, on the other, the scientific approach, which in contrast bases its legitimacy on both its universality and its axiomatic autonomy with respect to all cultural presuppositions.P Yet, in contrast to the connotations generally associated with questioning the distinction between religion and politics, the critique of scientific autonomy in relation to culture or religion today often appears as a 'progressive' cause. An 'objectivist' concept of nature is frequently opposed-in India as elsewhere-in the name of alternative environmentalist approaches, which claim to have their roots in local cultures and practices. This is often the case, for example, when conflicts which raise ecological questions occur, such as the Chipko