4 SOCIAL SCIENTIST very much evident both in The German Ideology and The Critique of Hegel's Philosophy of Right. In a letter to H. Starkenburg on 25 January 1894, Engels wrote : Political, juridical, literary, artistic, etc., development is based on economic development. But all these react upon one another and also upon the economic basis. It is not that the economic condition is the cause and alone active, while everything else has a passive effect.3 (emphasis added) Despite this early recognition of the importance of superstructure, the dialectic of intra-superstructural relations has been a relatively neglected area of Marxist concern, particularly so with respect to the Indian context, both historical and contemporary. In the present political climate when the Indian bourgeoisie is gearing up to fabricate an ideological structure through the effective use of state apparatuses at its command, it is important to be alive to the social and political consciousness it is likely to engender. The rather rapid development of the state controlled media and the modernisation of administrative infrastructure are important links in the process of bourgeois hegemonisation. Politics apart, what are the ways and means for developing a counter hegemony, given the resources of the state the bourgeoisie commands? It is a question which demands immediate attention, as the bourgeois cultural and ideological onslaught is being currently mounted on an unprecedented scale. My intention in referring to these theoretical and practical questions, it should be evident, is not to dwell on them as such, but to indicate the context in which I locate the cultural-ideological struggles in colonial India which form the central concern of my lectures. It also has important political implications to which I hope to come back for a more detailed consideration at the end. RATIONALISM AND THE CRITIQUE OF RELIGION In holding that the criticism of religion was the beginning of all social criticism, Marx indicated the connection of religion with social structure and state. Also implied in this statement is the ideological implications of religion which was forcefully articulated in the oft-quoted epigram—religion is the opium of the people. Marx, however, did not use it in contemptuous condemnation like his friend, Moses Hess, who bracketed religion with opium and brandy. His emphasis was on its ideological character and the reasons for being so. Religion to him was 'the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, the soul of a soulless environment.'4 The oppressed, therefore, took refuge in religion which by providing 'illusory happiness* and consolation helped them to put up with their misery. More importantly, religion also helped them to explain and legitimise the conditions of their worldly existence and consequently, as French materialist d' Holback stated, it prevented them from thinking about