itself of undertaking this responsibility (Smith, 1963: 348–349). The proposal however was turned down by Prime Minister Nehru and also by the Constituent Assembly as indicated by Article 28 of the Constitution. PART III Voices in favour of introducing religious education in the curriculum continued to be raised after the promulgation of the Constitution by people like John Matthai, S.R. Das, C. Rajgopalachari, Rukmini Devi Arundale and Dr. Sampurnanand (Smith, 1963: 349–350) but found formal expression in The Report of the University Education Commission of 1950. The commission was chaired by Dr. S. Radhakrishnan. It is interesting to consider, by way of background, the reasons adduced for keeping the study of the religion out of the educational system from a purely educational point of view. This reason isexpressed well in the report of the Education Commission of 1882 which observed that: 'The declared neutrality of the State forbids its connecting the institutions directly maintained by it with any one form of faith; and the other alternative of giving equal facilities in such institutions for the inculcation of all forms of faith involves practical difficulties which we believe to be insuperable' (Mahadevan, 1971: 282). The shift in the perspective brought about by independence is reflected in the following words of the Radhakrishnan Report, so to say: 'India is the meeting place of the great religions of the world and will play an increasingly prominent role in the religious life of mankind and Indian students should have an idea of India's role in the world' (Mahadevan, 1971: