The important role of religious identities in Indian political process is traced to the rise of nationalism through religious symbols, partition of the country and post-independence politico-religious mobilization. In the debate on religion-politics interface, the inner complexity of religious identities is largely ignored by scholars and the debate is focused on the secularism vs. communalism. This paper departs from this tradition and proceeds on the assumptions: (a) that the articulation and expression of religious identities display marked difference among minorities and majority community, and (b) that the articulation and expression of identities is largely shaped by the perception of the socio-political crisis, and the objectives to be achieved. Hence, its political expression is not equally shared by and uniform among the members of same religious community. These assumptions may be tested on the basis of categorization of religious identities into three ideal types: 1. Primordial Religious Identity, largely shaped by historical and cultural claims of religious primacy, irrespective of secular constitutional scheme. 2. Crisis-Generated Religious Identity, which emerges in response to a socio-political crisis and aims at certain higher national goals. The religious nationalism of 19th century and partition politics are the example of this identity. 3. Reactionary Religious Identity, which emerges as a reaction to the perceive fear of dominance of or discrimination by another community. Also, the one form of religious identity may be transformed into another form. Using this framework, this paper throws new light on the interface between religion and politics in India.