Vol. 14, Part I · pages 376–380

DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES358 This opposition that has reared its head and which is similar in character as before, has resorted to many devices. It has resorted to various types of tactics. The House is aware of the fact that the Governor-General’s name was used and this was found to be a fraud. Only two or three days ago in a newspaper in Calcutta I saw the name of Shyama Prasad Mookerjee after that of two or three other well-known oppositionists and I was a bit surprised until I saw in small brackets the words “(of Uttarapara)”. Sir, it was obviously intended to mislead, and if questioned they would have pointed out “of Uttarparah” These are the devices, these are the tactices that are being used by the opposition. As you know, we do not question those who have genuine differences of opinion. But this type of tactics that are employed today……………. Mr. Naziruddin Ahmad: On a point of information, is it not Dr. Syama Prasad Mookherjee ? Shrimati Renuka Ray : No. It was not the Minister of the Central Cabinet. I do not know which Shyama Prasad Mookherjee he is. Mr. Naziruddin Ahmad : I thought the description was “Dr. Shyama Prasad Mookherjee, President of the Hindu Mahasabha”. Shrimati Renuka Ray : That is not so. It was “of Uttarapara”. Such are the tactics adopted by them that even Mr. Naziruddin Ahmad is taken in by them. The orthodox opposition has found its greatest champion from amongst the members of a community which recognizes the daughter’s rights of inheritance. It is extremely surprising that the honourable Mr. Naziruddin Ahmad would deny to his Hindu sisters the rights that his own women have. I would further say that there are some people who have asked “How is it that telegrams, circulars, and posters are being displayed by the opposition all over—at least in Delhi—and that M.C.A’s are being flooded with wires ; and how is it that those who are in support of the measure do not do the same?” Sir, those who support this Code are also representatives of social welfare organisations; they are people who work for the good of this country. Today when there is a national emergency in regard to any funds that they have, they would not consider it right and proper that they should use such funds in sending wires and letters when they can be used for the rehabilitation of refugees. One wire to M.C.A’s in this House costs Rs. 165. With that money for three months a refugee woman can be given vocational training for rehabilitation. Do you want that these wires should be sent

DR. AMBEDKAR AND THE HINDU CODE BILL 359 to you ? I think it would be wholly wrong for such a procedure to be adopted. If we have not issued posters and circulars and wires it does not mean that the demand for the changes does not continue to exist. I will not go into great detail on the provisions of the bill after the brilliant and masterly analysis of the Honourable Law Minister. It is quite unnecessary. Unity is something we desire in this country, and a uniform and comprehensive Code of law for Hindus who are the majority in the country is surely a necessity in that case. Turning to monogamy I would like to ask, is there any one in this House or in the country who would contemplate with equanimity the fate for his own sister or his own daughter of being the first wife of a man who has married again. It is true that polygamy is not very customary : It is on the whole rare in the country. But in recent years we have seen that polygamy has become more frequent, and to the eternal shame of Indian womanhood. There have been women who have knowingly and willingly agreed to become the second wives of such men. I do not think that I need elaborate the point that law must come forward to redress the grievances and the miserable plight of the women who are first wives of such men. Turning to inter-caste marriage and sagotra marriage, when in the Fundamental Rights of our Constitution we say that all discrimination on account of caste and sex and other such things should go, surely inter-caste marriage which is a permissible measure will be only the very first step towards it. Mr. Deputy Speaker: Caste can go; how can sex go ? Shrimati Renuka Ray : I said ‘discrimination on account of caste and sex’. Mr. Deputy Speaker: The honourable Member may go on. Shrimati Renuka Ray : Turning to the divorce provision in this Code, I concede that these are restricted conditions. The home is the nucleus of society and I do believe that the primary reason for marriage is that it is for the protection of children and as such divorces should not be allowed on flimsy grounds, but for genuine cases of hardship we have to provide. Since 1943, when the Marriage Bill was first introduced, I have had scores of letters and scores of people have come to me with their daughters who have shown to me how grave and how terrible is the hardship which the women do suffer. Unless there is such a provision, both for men and women, it will not meet geneuine requirements.

DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES360 Sir, let me dilate for a moment when I speak on this point, because the opposition about which I spoke have been going round telling many women who do not understand law or the provisions of a Code, that their own women were trying to bring in laws by which they will be divorced. They do not realise that it is only a permissive measure, that it is only the aggrieved person who can claim divorce, and for whom alimony is provided. These things are not mentioned. At hundreds of public meetings these matters were brought to me and I had to explain the point, and I think the women Members of this Assembly can also say the same thing. Turning to the joint Mitakshara family, I do not think there is any need for me to add one word to what the honourable the Law Minister has said on the subject. It has been fully amplified by him. So far as the daughter’s right of ineritance is concerned, it is the focus of the opposition. It is only natural because that alone proves that it is not bigotry so much, not blind prejudice so much, but it is the vested interests that are up in arms. The honourable the Law Minister has already spoken on this point, but I should like to say one or two more things. The economic status of a woman can only be established by the recognition of the daughter’s right to inheritance. It was a point that was brought up by my honourable Friend Sheth Govind Das yesterday. He said—I do not know how far he believed in it—he said. “Why should we have inheritance ?” Certainly, I do agree that a time will come and must come—if we want and believe in equality of opportunity for all, if we believe that disparity of wealth shall go—a time must come when inherited property must go out. But until such time, if there is a difference between the daughter and the son, then that difference means a difference in the status. It is the daughter’s status that has to be recognised; she as a daughter, as a woman, is a natural heir. It is not merely from the theoretical point of view that I mention this. We are dealing with intestate succession and it is far more natural that a father will not disinherit his daughter, than a father-in-law would, in spite of what my honourable friend Pandit Bhargava said. A woman’s rights in the joint family, which in years gone by may have served a very useful purpose, have not under the existing conditions been so sure in recent years. My honourable Friend Sucheta Kripalani made a point yesterday which I would like to endorse. Those women or men who are social workers know that an analysis of the inmates of rescue homes in this country will go to prove how many of these women are those who have been 4 P. M.

DR. AMBEDKAR AND THE HINDU CODE BILL 361 turned out of the joint family. Without having the training to earn their own living, turned out of their homes, these women have been forced to live a life of shame. That is a question which the Hindu society must face. I am sure those who propounded the Hindu laws would never have contemplated such a state of affairs. Women are the mothers of the race. No race can advance till its women can be responsible mothers and conscious citizens. There has been a good deal of propaganda done about educated women. A handful of educated women, it is said, want this Hindu Code or want this very halting and mild measure of reform. Sir, so far as women are concerned, it must be a handful because after all the educated element of this country is 15 per cent and the women who are educated are about 3 or 4 per cent even now. So, so far as the women are concerned it must be a handful, but behind them are, not today only but from decades past, the large mass of enlightened and progressive men who stand behind them. It is not the women of this country who alone are responsible for the fact that there is no suffragette movement, no feminist movement in this country—it is because their champions have been enlightened men, for decades past. Today the same state of affairs exists and I am sure that the majority in this House are also behind us. It is not a demand from the educated women of this country but a demand from all those who want that India shall progress. For, without women becoming conscious citizens taking the rightful place in society, it is not possible for us to progress. Sir, it is well-known that slaves have resisted when the Shackles of their slavery were removed. It is a fact serfs have objected to freedom. What is more, coming to our own country, it was held by the British that it was only the wretched Congress agitators who wanted freedom but that the mass of the people were quite willing to remain in the pathetic contentment of thraldom. If you speak today of pathetic contentment amongst the women, it is true, it is perfectly true that many women are not yet conscious. But is that a reason that you will not awaken them, that you will not make them conscious, that they should not become equal with men in the joint enterprise that is before us today of building a new India in an atmosphere of freedom ? I ask, is there anyone who feels that it is possible to go ahead without the women of this country ? Before I conclude, I will say a word or two about what my honourable Friend Pandit Thakur Das Bhargava has said : I must say that I could not quite follow him. This morning he called into question

DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES362 the competency of the Legislature, and in the afternoon just before he sat down he said that he………………………. Pandit Thakur Das Bhargava : I never questioned the competence of this Legislature. Shrimati Renuka Ray : So, I suppose what he said last is what goes. He spoke a good deal about the eleven notes of dissent. But as he knows and as the House knows, many of these notes of dissent were on minor issues and such notes of dissent are usually attached to all Bills and it does not mean therefore that a Bill should be recirculated. This morning Pandit Bhargava said that two wrongs do not make a right when he said that this Constituent Assembly obviously is not fitted to draw up the Constitution of India. I wonder, considering that it is such a wrong thing, how he remains in that wrong Assembly. I am not going to contradict him or speak again on all that he has said this afternoon, because I think it was very ably answered before he ever spoke by the Honourable the Law Minister and Pandit Bhargava contradicted some of them himself. There is one last point that I would like to make. The cry has been raised that Hindu society is in danger because of this mild, halting measure of reform. I too think that Hindu society is in danger. It is in very grave danger—danger from those who would bind and fetter it; danger from those who would not allow out-worn customs to be changed but would allow them to choke up the life-blood of our society. If those who today appear to be so concerned about Hindu society would give a little thought, they would agree with what the Honourable the Law Minister said, namely, that you must repair if you want to survive. I do not know who has given a prerogative to some people to stand up for Hindu society. I do not consider those who wish to bind and fetter Hindu law which has been changing with changing times throughout the centuries to be the exponents of Hindu society and Hindu law and those who wish to improve it and bring it back once again to the culture and heritage of our forefathers as people against it. I think it is those who would bind and better it who are not the friends but the enemies of Hindu society. If Hindu society is to regain all that it has lost during the many years and the many centuries of decadence when Hindus were slaves, it has to come in line with the atmosphere of freedom that prevails in this country today. Men and women have to come forward equally to work for the country and there cannot be equality if there is no equality in the social laws