This paper analyses the changing patterns of political ideology and economic thinking in India post-1985 and traces the main causes of the re-emergence of the importance of religiosity, with the influence gained by both Hindu and Muslim extremist groups, constituting a combined threat to the mostly tolerant environment that had prevailed since independence. The paper also looks at the changing economic philosophy embraced by successive governments, as prior to that juncture the Nehruvian pattern of socialistic economic management had allegedly retarded industrial and social development. It ends with suggestions for political and economic reform measures, which could end the present economic deprivation and exclusion of the vast majority of the Indian populace.
