Communalising Gender Engendering Community-Women, Legal Discourse and Saffron Agenda

Women, Legal Discourse and Saffron Agenda Ratna Kapur Brend a Cossman The relationship between discourses of secularism and equality, between religion and women are "mutually constituting. Communities are defined in and through the identity of women, while women are defined in and through the identity of their communities. If is within this context of mutually constituting discourses that Hindu fundamentalists are engaged in discursive struggles to particulate the meaning and identity of both community and gender. Legal discourse is important in this overall discursive strategy of reconstituting women Introduction THE discourses of democracy and fundamental rights have become powerful weapons in the hands of Hindu fundamentalists to further their Hindutva campaign. Secularism, in their hands, has become a way of challenging the identity of minority communities. Equality has become an implement for reinforcing dominant Hindu norms, and attacking the 'other for violating these norms. In this paper, we explore the way in which these concepts of secularism and equality have become the site of a contest for meaning, as Hindu fundamentalists seek to redefine these concepts in accordance with Hindutva's vision of the relationship between religion and politics and of the role of women in Indian society.