The paper deals with the different ways in which 20th century Hindi writers introduced the theme of religion into their work. A selection of authors has been made in order to highlight some important issues connected with religion. As may be expected, basically two points of view are to be found, depending on the ideological stand of the writer – either politically committed or committed to man. Thus, whilst religion is deemed by one author to be a factor which divides communities, it is considered by another to be an important tool for exploring the human soul.
The paper considers mainly the issue of nationalist radicalism and Hindu extremism in India. Inthe independent India, the close connection between politics and religion became a detonating mixture thathas been one of the main reasons for the escalation of some conflicts in that country. In spite of some legislativechanges, inter alia, the 42th constitutional amendment, the Indian state didn’t create mechanisms of separationbetween politics and religion. Moreover, the process has become impossible due to the weakening of theIndian National Congress religious radicals taking the power. The authors illustrate a necessity to split politicsand religion and a danger of the religion politicization with examples of inter-communal violence in differentstates of India. There are some parallels between India and the modern Russia, and negative experiences ofIndia could be useful for Russia who also clashes with challenges of nationalism, extremism and terrorism.