India on the Threshold of the New Millennium great deal of confusion has been created by referring to his assertion in the 1920s and 1930s that religion could not be separated from politics. But by religion in this assertion Gandhiji meant not formal religion or customary religion but that religion which underlines or transcends all religions. He uses religion to mean ethics, morality and dharma or the moral code which guided a person's life. When he said that politics cannot be separated from religion he meant that politics should have a moral foundation. Later, when communalism began to grow in the late 1930s, he realized that the communalists were utilizing organised religion and were appealing to a particular system of religious belief, to propagate their politics. He then opposed the mixing up of politics with religion and repeatedly advocated their separation during the 1940s. For example, he said in 1942: "Religion is a personal matter which should have no place in politics" and in 1947: "Religion is the personal affair of each individual. It must not be mixed up with politics or national affairs". He repeated this statement in his prayer meetings umpteen number of times. He also opposed religious teaching being introduced in educational institutions. It is well known that Marxists and many liberal nationalists have a different understanding of religion than that of Gandhiji. But that is a different terrain. Certainly expulsion of religion from personal life is not a necessary condition for the defence of secularism. Religion as such is not responsible for communalism, nor does secularism require a struggle against religion. It is the intrusion of religion into secular fields that has to be opposed. And in this Gandhi is one with us.