INDIAN STATE, SOCIAL CLASSES AND SECULARISM 65 generation of the purchasing power of 850 million people of India can make India stand against western capitalist countries. Sukhamoy Chakravarty refers to this fact while observing that: Looking back, it seems to me that while our achievements during the last thirty years of planning have by no means been insignificant in the area of agricultural production, industrial diversification and technological acquisition, we have not been able to make a major impact on the lives of the vast mass of our people.23 The growth model of development requires some important shifts to generate rural employment, income distribution and amelioration of the deprived masses so that they actively participate in the process of economic development. This shift in the strategies of Development Model will ensure relative autonomy of the Indian state in the post-cold war phase of western capitalist hegemonism. A democratic, representational, secular, capitalist, federal, reformist, modernist and anti-imperialist state of India is confronted with multi-dimensional challenges based on caste, community, language, region and the politics of the bullet has emerged as an important factor in different parts of the country. Inter-religious, inter-ethnic, inter-caste, inter-tribe, infra-ethnic, intra-caste and intra-tribe conflicts have taken violent forms and some parts of India have witnessed ethnic cleansing. The North-East India is involved in intertribal and infra-tribal violent confrontations, Punjab and Kashmir have witnessed violent inter-religious and secessionist movements and it has led to the migration of populations. The Indian state has created more battalions of para-military forces and it has modernised its police forcees to deal with emerging social conflicts in different parts of the country. A study conducted by the Government of India observes that: With the ever increasing threats to internal security, the job of the policeman has become highly stressful and hazardous. Consequently, the number of police personnel losing their lives on duty has considerably increased since the Hot Springs incident of 1959.24 The study reveals that during 1961-62 to 1970-71,1,543 policemen died while on duty, in 1971-72 to 1980--81, the number of such deaths went up to 3,352 and in 1981-82 to 1990-91, it increased to 7,714. During just five years i.e., 1987-1992, 5,283 police personnel lost their lives while on duty.25 If on the one hand, policisation of the Indian society has rapidly increased, on the other, democratic elections have been regularly held in India. This is the social dialectics of India. The democratic state of India has witnessed caste, class, inter-religious, ethnic and regional challenges, and it has also