SOCIAL SCIENTIST values; their devaluation of the incident of 'sati', the supreme glory of Hindu womanhood, must be stopped. The appropriation of the 'Satisthal' by sword-carrying male proponents of caste-pride was an earlier example of the same kind of phenomenon that is manifested in the taking over of the Varanasi 'ghats' by slogan-shouting protectors of Indian (read Hindu) pride. The thesis, sought to be established through such a demonstration is that there is a strong, consolidated Hindu community in the country threatened by external forces that operate through Trojan horses like Shabana Azmi or the 'westernized feminists' protesting against Rup Kanwar's concremation. They spread confusion and disruption within the ranks, and this is sought to be counteracted by upholding caste/ community/national pride. The violent demonstration thus aims at disciplining the ranks, keeping in check any cropping up of doubts among them and highlighting certain models of behaviour. While the consolidation at the place of Rup Kanwar's murder was largely male, the later incident at Varanasi brought the women's organisations of the Sangh Parivar very much to the foreground. Not only did women leaders come out with statements condemning the film's supposed 'denigration' of Hindu widows, but the ranks were also brought on the streets to demonstrate against the film. Their appropriation of public space, their visibility was very important for the organisations. Scholars who have been studying the rise of the Hindu Right in recent years have been pointing out this strategy of mobilisation of women for sometime. We may perhaps describe this feature as an aspect of the gendering of the Hindu Right's agenda. About the reversal of gender roles that we observe in the course of the Ram Janmabhoomi movement itself, Khaki Shorts and Saffron Flags has this to say: that such foregrounding of women demonstrators 'equips the communal woman with a new and empowering self-image. She has stepped out of a purely iconic status to take up an active position as a militant.'1 But another aspect of this agenda which cannot be overlooked is the way in which this 'communalised female selfhood' as Tanika Sarkar calls it in another article, is itself used to reinforce the same ethos of submission to what is projected as the cultural values of the community.2 A woman who is a 'veerangana' protecting Hindu culture from subversive alien influence, is also, vis-a-vis her own home and community, the bearer and nurturer of the same culture. Some professedly 'anti-secularist' - critics of communalism set up