Vol. 14, Part I · pages 246–250

DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES228

DR. AMBEDKAR AND THE HINDU CODE BILL 229 * HINDU MARRIAGES VALIDITY BILL Pandit Thakur Das Bhargava (East Punjab : General): I move : “That the Bill to provide that marriages between Hindus, Sikhs, Jains and their different castes and sub-castes are valid, be referred to a Select Committee consisting of Giani Gurmukh Singh Musafir, Sardar Hukum Singh, Shri M. Ananthasayanam Ayyangar, Shri Deshbandhu Gupta, Shrimati G. Durgabai, Shrimati Renuka Ray, Shri Ramnath Goenka, Dr. Bakshi Tek Chand, Lala Achint Ram, Ch. Ranbir Singh, Shri Mahabir Tyagi, and the Mover and that the number of members whose presence shall be necessary to constitute a meeting of the Committee shall be five.” Sir, in making this motion, with your permission, I will just state what the present condition of the law is. At present in all matters, Hindus, Sikhs and Jains are bound by the Hindu Law. In regard to marriage today according to the terms of the Hindu Law, a marriage between a man and a woman belonging to different castes is not valid except in Bombay where anuloma marriages are allowed but the pratiloma marriages are not allowed. In Allahabad, Madras and Calcutta, the High Courts have been pleased to hold that even the anuloma marriages are not valid. As regards persons belonging to different religions, I should say here also the position is very indefinite. According to custom any marriage is allowed which may not be allowed according to the strict principles of the Hindu Law. For instance, in the Punjab even karvari and chandradari marriages are allowed, and though according to strict Hindu Law marriages between members of different Hindu communities are not allowed, by custom in many places such marriages are allowed. For instance, in Nepal such marriages are held to be valid. In the Punjab, which is not a caste-ridden Province, marriages between the Sikhs and Hindus have been held to be valid not by the courts but by the society in general. Their children have been allowed to inherit and they have been treated just as though the marriages have taken place according to law. As between Jains and Hindus previously no marriages used to take place, but at present the pendulum has swung the other way and marriages take place between Jains and Hindus, especially Jain Aggarwals and Hindu Aggarwals, but it is very doubtful if a Jain Aggarwal could marry validly a Shudra or a Brahman. As regards subdivisions and sub-castes also, before the Act of 1946 was passed marriages between sub-divisions of the Hindu community were declared legal in some places and in others illegal. * C.A. (Leg.) D., Vol. I, 11th February 1949, pp. 419-28.

DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES230 But that is beside the point here. If sub-division and sub-caste is the same, then I am sorry to have used the word “sub-caste” here. The marriage between the members of the sub-divisions of the principal caste have already been legalised. In regard to the rest, for instance, if persons belonging to different religions and different castes want to marry, my humble submission is that according to the present law such marriages are not legal. At present, public opinion clearly demands that this must go and the marriage between persons of different faiths as well as of different castes should be made legal. At present there are many young men and women who want to marry beyond their castes. So far as public opinion goes, I am on sure ground that we are a solid rock of foundation for this measure. Taking it from a national standpoint, may I humbly submit to the House that to resolve the present friction between Hindus and Sikhs in the Punjab and to make them one solidified people if hundred girls of Sikhs and Hindus were married to hundred boys of Hindus and Sikhs, the whole trouble would have gone. In fact, I believe that if the Hindus and Muslims had married with each other, this Pakistan would not have been brought about. If we adopt this inter-marriage as a system among ourselves, I am prefectly sure that all the bitterness between the castes and the bitterness between persons of different faiths would go away. I do not understand why we should not adopt this measure. It may be said that the true principles of Hindus Dharm stand in our way, we are not well advised in adopting contrary measures. May I humbly submit that the first sloka in Mahabaratha begins in this manner that because there are not many Kshatriyas in the land, therefore some Brahmins may be brought and asked to procreate Kshatriyas. All our religion and our Vedic lore do tell us that among Hindus such marriages were not infrequent. As a matter of fact, before the caste system became stereotyped, it can very well be imagined that there was no prohibition among the Hindus for intermarriage so far as caste was concerned. Therefore taking it from the radical point of view, I should understand that there is no special difficulty with regard to this measure. But all the same, the point that I wish to make is that it is an enabling measure. It does not force any person to marry outside his caste. If a person so wishes, if a young man and a woman are so minded, if their parents are so minded, all I want is that the couple should be enabled to marry and their offsprings should be legitimate.

DR. AMBEDKAR AND THE HINDU CODE BILL 231 At present, if a Hindu wants to marry outside his caste, it is not as if he cannot effect his purpose by resort to falsehood. According to the Arya Marriage Validation Act he can very well marry any Hindu outside his caste. Supposing a person does not belong to Arya Samaj, why should he have recourse to falsehood to effect his purpose ? Therefore, the thing which the law should care about is that persons be enabled to do things in a legal manner. I also know that according to the provisions of the Special Marriage Act (Act III of 1872) it was possible for a Hindu to contract a marriage under its unamended provisions provided he declared that he was a non-Hindu while continuing to be a Hindu. A very nice paradox is given in the Hindu Code by H. S. Gour in para 457. This is what it says: “It will thus be seen that the Special Marriage (Amendment) Act has created a paradox. If the Hindu declares himself to be a non-Hindu and marries, he remains subject to Hindu Law. If he does not so declare, he ceases to be subject to Hindu Law, giving rise to a conundrum : When is a Hindu a non-Hindu ? The answer is : When he marries as a Hindu under the Special Marriage (Amendment) Act.” When the Act of 1923 was passed—I have read the proceedings of that time—it appears that Dr, Gour was driven to a corner and he had to accept a situation which would never have been accepted had he been free. According to the Special Marriage (Amendment) Act, the situation is very strange. If a person wants to marry outside his religion, say, a Hindu wants to marry a non-Hindu, then under the Amendment Act, “their previous rights are un-affected to the extent provided in the Caste Disabilities Removal Act.” But yet what happens if they marry ? The disability which they will suffer from, I am going to describe from Gour’s Hindu Law. “Their previous rights are unaffected to the extent provided in the Caste Disabilities Removal Act. They no longer possess the right of adoption. And if the person so marrying is an adopted son, his adoptive father may, if so chooses, make another adoption.” So mat the poor man who wants to marry, his rights as an adopted son go away and his father is competent to have another adoption. Then, “such marriage has the effect of dissolving the joint family.” This is another very great disability. If a person wants to marry a non-Hindu, he must cease to be a Hindu so far as the joint family is concerned. Then, “ succession to their property and to the property of their issue is regulated by the Indian Succession Act.” My humble submission is that there is no reason why we should undergo these disabilities. Why should a man wants to marry a non-Hindu suffer from these things, which go to show

DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES232 that as a matter of fact he must renounce all the laws which are dear to him and which he has inherited from generations. This is a wrong provision and leads to fraud and many other evils. There is no doubt that from the old position the present position is a bit better. I know of cases in which Arya Samajists married before the Arya Marriage Validation Act was passed and for years together they did not declare themselves as husband and wife. They were afraid of declaring, and what would happen to their off-spring ? It may be said that at present the Hindu Code Bill is on the anvil, so where is the necessity for this measure at this stage ? I would beg of you to allow me to meet this point. In the first place, may submission is, I do not know when the Hindu Code Bill will be passed. It is doubtful if it will be passed in this session, next session or some other session. We do not know. Secondly, if this Bill is accepted, it would pave the way for such of the provisions of the Hindu Law as are given there and so it will be a help to passing that law. What would happen to many people who would not marry on account of this law not being there ? Or if a person dies will his rights to property not be affected ? At the same time, if this Bill is not allowed to be passed into law, many cases which could be governed by this law will be governed by the present law and people will suffer. The whole nation shall suffer in so far as we will not be able to make for conditions which would go to solidify the nation and make it homogeneous. It may be said, it is a case of piecemeal legislation. We all know many instances of such piecemeal legislation. We know that we passed in 1946 the Act relating to validity of marriages between subsection of castes and then we passed in Bombay, the prevention of Bigamous Marriages Act; and many other laws have been passed. I do not know of any other objections that may be raised to this Bill. It is a very small measure and this is a one-class Bill. All that it says is that previous marriages will be regarded as valid and in future such marriages will be valid. It does not propose to do anything else. I did not, as a matter of fact, venture to come before the House with a straight motion that it be passed into law because I am afraid it is a convention of this House that all these measures should be taken to the Select Committee. I am anxious that in this session, we should be able to pass this measure into law, so that so far as the public is concerned, they will