Secular and Democratic Education reasons. First, the perpetuation of the political and social power of the elite was to a great extent linked with the continuation of the system and secondly, the political decolonisation did not coincide with the decolonisation of mind. The Indian intelligentsia continued to live in a colonial mental ghetto, thereby falling an easy prey to neo colonial theories and intellectual practices. The education system, therefore, lacked the necessary intellectual authority to democratise the content of education. The democratisation of education fundamentally draws upon these three As: Access, Autonomy and Authority. Developing a system of education based on these principles is now facing a major threat from two sources, communalisation and globalisation. Given the demographic profile and the cultural configuration of India, a democratic and national system of education cannot but be secular. Any departure from the secular ethos will be detrimental to the well being of the republic. The recent attempts by communal forces to saffronise education spell danger to democratic polity and society. The Rashtriya Swayam Sewak Sangh (RSS) almost from its inception identified education as an area of special attention. It followed a strategy of catching the cadres young through ideological work and providing facilities for physical training. In an article entitled, 'We and Our Students', M.S. Golwalkar outlined the Sangh educational perspective. He proposed a system of education that is fundamentally religious in character, with emphasis on tradition, discipline and military training. The RSS has been engaged in implementing these ideas by following two strategies: one, infiltrating the existing educational institutions and second, organising a network of schools of its own. During the last two decades the Sangh Parivar has made major gains in both these areas. The access to power in some states and in the centre has provided the possibility of controlling the educational institutions and of revising the curriculum in consonance with the perspective of Hindutva. In Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh where the BJP has been in power, efforts were made to recruit its cadres to all schools and colleges. Recently, Murali Manohar Joshi, the Minister for Human Resource Development has set aside all past practices to fill the governing councils of various research organisations with saffron clad academics, even if some of them have taken a liking for the colour only very recently. More alarming development is the hurry in which the Parivar has