Vol. 14, Part I · pages 441–445

DR. AMBEDKAR AND THE HINDU CODE BILL 423 money and just as one feels relieved as soon as that trust or deposit is made over to his rightful owner. So do I feel today having made over Sakuntala to her husband. ( Interruption ) Not in these days of law of limitation but I am talking of those days. “Nyasa ”, means a deposit, trust. If my honourable friend Dr. Kamath wants further interpretation, I am perfectly willing to give that outside the Chamber. Shri H. V. Kamath : But I am not a doctor ? Pandit Lakshmi Kanta Maitra : More than a doctor: you are doctor, philosopher, lawyer, and legislator. I have great respect for you ; you are a nice chap and above all a great patriot. Sir, that is the conception of girls. So, if the Hindu law-givers did not give them a right of ownership equal to that of the son in the family, it was not because of any aversion, not because of any dislike but because of the simple reason that the girl is made for her husband’s family; she is not to become a part and parcel of the family where she is born. That is the whole thing. And therefore no question of injustice or inequality arises. I do not know of any school of Hindu law prevalent in any part of the country where a daughter has been given a distinct share equal to that of the son in the property of her father. Shri A. Karunakaran Menon (Madras : General): It exists in Malabar. Pandit Lakshmi Kanta Maitra : I am glad that in the South they have got so many things. Sreematty Annie Mascarene (Travancore State): In Travancore too, sons and daughters share equally. Pandit Lakshmi Kanta Maitra : I am grateful for this information but all such information emerges from the South ; and if my friends from the South . . . Shrimati Hansa Mehta (Bombay : General): Are they not Hindus in the South ? Pandit Lakshmi Kanta Maitra : Yes, but if they are proud of all that in the South, let them not deny us our legitimate right to feel proud of our manners and customs in the North and North-east. That is my humble submission to them. I do not like this type of argument. Because some order of succession, some order of inheritance prevalent in Bombay or some other part has been found suitable there, therefore it must be bodily transplanted into Bengal and elsewhere

DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES424 regardless of all considerations whether it is a plant which can grow and thrive in that particular soil. If a particular institution has been found to work very satisfactorily in the South, it must be allowed to work there ; But if it is not found suitable for the soil of the North or the soil of the East or the soil of the West, I do not see any reason or justification for forcibly transplanting it there. In fact my one very serious objection to the Hindu Code is this: for this craze for theoretical uniformity you ignore completely variety; you have got these things in this part and those things in that part: that itself shows that in this vast country of ours, peculiar social manners and customs have developed according to the needs of particular places or areas. They must be left undisturbed. In clause 7, however, the Bill provides an overriding power by which all usages, immemorial customs which have the sanction of law should be scrapped. I think it is clause 7. An Honourable Member: It is clause 4. Pandit Lakshmi Kanta Maitra : I will take it on my friend’s authority. Sir, this in my opinion, is highly objectionable. Clear Proof of usage out-weighs the written text of Law. This is a well established dictum. There are diversities of customs and manners because of the diverse needs of the people that compose this vast continent. And therefore: Veda vibhinna Smritayah vibhinna, Nasau munir Yasya matam Na Bhinnam. Dharmasya Tattwam Nihitam Guhayam. , Mahajano yena Gatah Sa Pantha An Honourable Member: Let us all be mahajans. Pandit Lakshmi Kanta Maitra: Mahajan does not mean a moneylender. That is the most unkindest cut of all. That indicates the depth to which society has fallen. We cannot think except in terms of rupee or dollar or shilling or pence. Mahajan has been variously interpreted : as great men; or majority of men. Take it in whatever sense you like. , Veda khila Sadachar Swashya cha Priyamatmana, Yasmin Deshe Yadachara I do not want to weary this House with a lot of other quotations but this is such a subject that I cannot altogether avoid it if I am to convince honourable Members of the justice of my contention

DR. AMBEDKAR AND THE HINDU CODE BILL 425 based on Hindu shastras. I have to make myself clear before the House. It may reject what I say ; it does not matter; but I represent a constituency—not a purely territorial one—but the constituency of a vast body of men and women who believe in Hinduism and Hindu Society governed by the injunctions of Hindu sages of old. Sir, I represent for the time being the views of that constituency. It is true that I have been returned to this Constituent Assembly by indirect election—with four or five votes only, but I may assure the House that I have fought some of the most contested elections in the country from some of the most important constituencies. Immediately before coming to this Constituent Assembly I was representing the city of Calcutta in the Central Legislature. Before that, I was representing the Presidency Division composed of several districts with lakhs and lakhs of people, and the Presidency Division is admitted to be one of the most cultured divisions in India. I know the people. I know their pulse. My native town is a famous seat of ancient classical learning. It is my district Nadia, in Bengal, that gave the new schools of Smritis, Tantras, Nyaya, Baishnava Philosophy etc. I am not digressing but I shall be failing in my duty to the inheritors of this great culture if I did not try to place before the House their views and ideas with regard to these matters of the Hindu Code. I owe it to myself and to my community to give my views so that judgement may not go against us by default. Any way, Let me hurry on. I have shown you the place, the honour, which our Shastras have given to our women. The famous queen Indumali was dead and King Ajah was bemoaning her death thus : Grihini Sachiva Mittah Sakhi Priya Shishya Lalita Kalavidhan, Karmia Bimalkhena Mritywui Harata vade King Na Ma Hritam “Oh ruthless God of Death ! What have you not taken away from me ? What mischief have you not done to me ? By one blow, you have taken away one, who was my Grihini—you know what Grihini means, the queen of the house—who was my Sachiva—Sachiva means Minister. She was my minister. Not only was she the queen of my family but my minister, my bosom friend in privacy and my devoted playmate in love.” That, Sir, is the position which our womenfolk used to occupy in our society. Therefore, it cannot be said that out of sheer greed, grouse, animosity or jealousy or whatever you call it, the womenfolk has been relegated to a position of interiority. If she has not been given a distinct

DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES426 status in respect of inheritance co-equal with the son, it is because she is meant for some other family than her father’s and that the property is to be settled with the persons who will keep up the family, who will maintain the lineage and preserve the sanctity of the family traditions, manners and customs and who will continue the practices and the ceremonies of the family. As soon as a girl is married she becomes integrated into another family ; and according to the Hindu conception the status of a wife in the husband’s family is a most respectable status— far more respectable than the status of the girl in her own father’s house. I will again quote Kalidas’ Shakuntala. When Queen Shakuntala could not be recognised by King Dushyanta, who said: “ I do not remember to have married you.” Thereupon Shakuntala was exhorted by the Rishi to remain in her husband’s House even as a maid as that was a more honourable position than to be in her father’s place. The Honourable Shri N. V. Gadgil: That is how men behave ! Shri M. Tirumala Rao (Madras : General): He was suffering from loss of memory. Pandit Lakshini Kanta Maitra : No, he was not suffering from loss of memory. It was because King Dushanata was under a curse by which he was to forget everything connected with his marriage; not that he was guilty of a deliberate moral lapse. Amazing ignorance ! Shri B. N. Munavalli (Bombay States): What an excuse ! Pandit Lakshini Kanta Maitra : I am not the author of Shakuntala. Call it an excuse or whatever you like, I do not mind. But I quoted Shakuntala because its author Kalidas is a world Poet commanding respect all over the world : and notwithstanding all your disparagement of Shakuntala, it will remain the ideal literary master-piece of the world for all time. There ought to be some limit to which disparagement of our national institutions, culture and traditions can be tolerated. Mr. Chairman, I am reminded of a very famous passage in Plato— I cannot recall his words exactly now—but he said, in effect: “Anybody who is false to his nation’s traditions, to his glorious heritage and culture is a traitor and is a person who should be given capital punishment”. I do not understand the patriotism of those, the nationalism of those, who have nothing but contempt and jeer for anything that is their ancient culture and heritage. Shri H. V. Kamath : You have misunderstood. Nobody is against our ancient cultures.

DR. AMBEDKAR AND THE HINDU CODE BILL 427 Pandit Lakshmi Kanta Maitra : We might differ on many matters in connection with this Code, but nobody’s purpose will be served— neither mine, nor yours—by trying to belittle our great ancient sages. They are not coming here for applause. They do not care for your radio propaganda and newspaper Hashes. They did what they considered to be in the best interests of the Community. If today you are going to make a daughter co-equal with the son in regard to inheritance, I am afraid a good deal of complications would arise. When the girl knows that she is getting a share in her father’s property, when her brothers know that their sister is a co-sharer and as such the property will pass off to some other family with her marriage, whose interest would it be to marry off the girl’? I want to know. Shri H. V. Kamath : Her own. Pandit Lakshmi Kanta Maitra : My honourable friend says it will be the girl’s own interest to marry as quickly as possible. I feel, Sir, that such a girl will find many a pitfall lying about her way. Shrimati G. Durgabai: You distrust her ? Pandit Lakshmi Kanta Maitra : Not a question of distrust. The Hindu sages have provided that marriages should be negotiated in the best interests of the pair by the guardians of the pair. Shrimati Renuka Ray : What did Shakuntala do ? Pandit Lakshmi Kanta Maitra: I know that Shakuntala did not marry that way, but my friend and sister’s interruption reminds me of a story. A man had the Mahabharata and the Ramayana recited in his house for six months. Thereafter he asked his daughter. “You have heard the story. What is the lesson you derive ?” “Well,” replied the daughter, “from the Mahabharata I learn that I can have five husbands as Draupadi had five husbands.” From the whole of the Mahabharata this is all that she learnt. Enquired about the lesson she derived from the Ramayana the daughter in law replied, “It is very clear. As soon as my husband dies I can be married to my husband’s brother.” “You know what happened after Ravana died, his widow Mandodari married his brother Bibhisana.” Sir, according to Hindu Law there have been several systems of marriage. There was the Gandharva form of marriage for which we have not provided here, though we have the provisions in the Code for Civil Marriage to cover all manner of such cases. So, I say that in an ordinary Hindu house-hold, under this codified Hindu Law, you are going to bring about a change in the relationship between the various members. Is this going to make for the sweetness of relationship or peace in home life?