Vol. 14, Part I · pages 471–475

DR. AMBEDKAR AND THE HINDU CODE BILL 453 Mr. Naziruddin Ahmad : I submit that the entire legislation began with a blunder and it proceeds from blunder to blunder until we come to a capital blunder, namely the present Bill. I submit that the mistake first arose in the year 1937. The mistake arose there and I shall show at once that one mistake led to another mistake and that mistake led to other mistakes and all these mistakes led the Select Committee and then ultimately ( Interruption ) I ask Shri Krishnaswami Bharathi in all seriousness, should I be disturbed like this ? Mr. Chairman : If the honourable member addresses the Chair, I think the disturbance will be much less. Mr. Naziruddin Ahmad : Sir, I submit, you will be pleased to consider that in the year 1937, a Bill was passed into law and that is the Hindu Married Women’s Right to Property Act, 1937. That, I submit, was a hasty legislation. It contained within itself ill-digested, little understood law that has led to all this trouble. In fact the author of the Bill was Dr. Deshmukh. So, Dr. Deshmukh—I am happy to find it is not our present Dr. Deshmukh—unconcentously with the bona-fide belief of doing good to Hindu society, introduced that Bill. The effect of the Bill was to introduce some change in the law of Succession in the compact series. According to Hindu Law, as I have understood it, when a man dies, his heirs are son, grandson and great, grandson, In the presence of the son the grandson by a pre-deceased son inherits— the grandson represents his deceased father and takes his father’s share. So in this way the son. grandson and the great-grandson in three generations inherit the property. Dr. Deshmukh was enthused with the idea that the widow must be given a definite status and a definite right. So he made the widow of the propositus a share-holder, and not only the widow of the propositus, but the widow of a deceased son, the widow of the deceased grandson and the widow of a deceased great-grandson. They were also included within the ambit of the shareholders. That, I submit was most ill-considered, although the author was imbued with the highest sense of patriotism and welfare of the community I submit, that this was then .................. The Honourable Shri K. Santhanam : Would my honourable friend like me to inform him that this Bill was actually accepted by the late Sir N. N. Sircar, who was the greatest authority on Hindu Law ? Mr. Naziruddin Ahmad : I am in a position to show, although not only he, but mere was a time when I also accepted it. ( Interruption ). I beg to submit that I am in possession of the House.

DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES454 Mr. Chairman : The honourable member is going into the history of the amendments to Hindu Law. Mr. Naziruddin Ahmad : I submit that the Hindu Married Women’s Right to Property Act was the first mistake and I shall show that this contained within it seeds of other blunders culminating in the present Bill. Shrimati G. Durgabai : That was a serious reflection of the legislature then existing. Mr. Naziruddin Ahmad : I submit that the mistake was admitted by that legislature itself and I can quote passages that that legislature admitted that mat was a mistake. ( Interruptions ). Mr. Chairman : Order, order. Mr. Naziruddin Ahmad : I submit, I should show how the mistake came about. In fact in providing for the widow of the propositus of the deceased son, grandson and of the great-grandson, the position of the daughter became absolutely uncertain. Nobody knew what the position of the daughter was at that time under this Act. The Honourable Dr. B. R. Ambedkar : An undertaking was taken from my friend Dr. Deshmukh by Sir N. N. Sircar that the Government will support the measure only if he agreed to drop the word daughter and he promised that he would drop the word ‘daughter’ Mr. Naziruddin Ahmad : I am as much familiar with the history of that law as the Honourable Dr. Ambedkar. Mr. Chairman : Is the honourable member going to take more time ? Mr. Naziruddin Ahmad : Yes, Sir. Mr. Chairman : In that case, he may resume his speech later and we may now adjourn. The Assembly then adjourned till a Quarter to Eleven of the Clock on Thursday, the 3rd March, 1949.

DR. AMBEDKAR AND THE HINDU CODE BILL 455 * HINDU CODE— contd. Mr. Deputy Speaker : I have to inform honourable Members that the following dates have been fixed for receiving nominations and holding elections, if necessary, in connection with the following Committees, namely :— Date for Date for nomination election 1. All India Council for Technical Education 2. Committee to review the working of the 2-4-49 5-4-49 Railway Convention. The nomination for these Committees will be received in the Notice Office upto 12 Noon on the date mentioned for the purpose. The elections, which will be conducted by means of the single transferable vote, will be held in the Assistant Secretary’s room (No. 21) in the Council House between the hours 10-30 a.m. and 1-00 p.m. HINDU CODE— contd. Mr. Deputy Speaker : The House will now proceed with the further consideration of the following motion moved by the Honourable Dr. B. R. Ambedkar on the 31st August, 1948, namely:— “That the Bill to amend and codify certain branches of the Hindu Law, as reported by the Select Committee, be taken into consideration.” Pandit Lakshmi Kanta Maitra (West Bengal: General): Sir, before you call upon my honourable friend Mr. Naziruddin Ahmad to continue his speech, I feel constrained to bring to your notice once again the irregular manner in which this motion is being brought to this House from time to time. I think very few of us knew up till yesterday that this Bill was coming up again for consideration. As a matter of fact the House was under the impression that so heavy was the pressure of urgent government business that no day could be found for it; in fact several Members of this Parliament who came over here to participate in the deliberations on this subject went back under the impression that this matter was not going to be taken up again in this session. I can particularly mention an honourable Member, Pandit Govind Malaviya, who came over here and who wanted to speak for a very long period of time, and when he was assured that the matter was not coming up........ * C.A. (Leg.) D., Vol. III, Part II, 1st April 1949, pp. 2211-43.

DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES456 Several Honourable Members : Assured by whom ? Pandit Lakshmi Kanta Maitra : Most people knew. It was not a case of ordinary business of this House. No single Member of Government stands, up and says. “I give you an assurance that this will be discussed”. Nothing like that. Everybody got the impression from Party talks and elsewhere that the matter was not going to come up at any rate in this session. ( Interruption ). That being so, if it is taken up now it will be showing very scant courtesy to the House. I feel this Bill is of such a controversial nature that I do not think that you should allow this Bill to be proceeded with in the way in which it is being done repeatedly in its different stages. Sir, it is for you to consider the point of view which I am placing before the House. The House is attenuated, and because the whole Budget discussion was over most Members were under that impression—and quite reasonably. When they had no idea of the change suddenly to spring a surprise by bringing in a motion like this at this late stage, of the session, is, I think, hardly fair. An Honourable Member : We want your decision, Sir. Mr. Deputy Speaker : But there is no point of order here. Shri Mahavir Tyagi (U.P. : General): But then I want information as to how long the discussions are proposed to be held. There are friends in my Province who had requested me to inform them when the Hindu Code Bill comes for consideration. I could not inform them because, I did not know whether the Bill will be considered only for today or for tomorrow or any other day or till the end of the session. So, Sir, will you now be in a position to tell the House how long we are going to discuss this Bill so that it there is time for them to come, I might inform them. Mr. Deputy Speaker : I am in full sympathy with what Pandit Maitra has said, but I do not find any way out of it. As far as I am aware—I have been here for a number of years in this Assembly— when any matter of such importance where a number of people are interested, comes up, the agenda for the next week would be at least read out on the previous Friday. I have been accustomed to some procedure. Evidently it was not expected that there would be time for this Bill, but it was put in when one day was extended and time found for today and tomorrow. That is why previous notice could not have been given. I believe the honourable Members would try to take as good advantage of it as possible by sending telegrams, etc.

DR. AMBEDKAR AND THE HINDU CODE BILL 457 and get other Members. Therefore, so far as Mr. Tyagi is concerned, if he thinks that other Members outside are interested in the proceedings, I may say that the proceedings will be broadcast, this evening or tomorrow morning and then they will come to know of it. An Honourable Member : How can they come tomorrow? Mr. Deputy Speaker : They can come by aeroplane! It is not for the Chair to decide how they can come. All that I can say is that on an important matter of this nature, certainly Government must have given proper notice; it is not as if Government could lose sight of this important matter. The general public is interested, a large number of the Members from the Provinces and States are not here. Even it they were here, it cannot be expected that everybody should be expected to read all the books and carry all the information for use at a moment’s notice. These are the disadvantages but I am sure the honourable Members will try to do as best as they can of the opportunity. Nobody can guarantee how long the discussion will go— it may conclude this evening or go on till tomorrow. Shri T. A. Ramalingam Chettiar (Madras : General): What is the programme for this Bill ? Mr. Deputy Speaker : It is entirely in the hands of the House. I do not think we can have a cut-and-dried programme. It is for the House to see whether it is necessary to continue discussion, and if there is sufficient debate to close it as early as possible. Shri Mahavir Tyagi : Sir, I will put the question the other way round. May I know if there is any other Government Bill for the rest of the Session or this Bill is the only work before us, so that I can make out how long this Bill will go ? Mr. Deputy Speaker : As the honourable Member will see from the Order Paper, there is so much other work. This no doubt happens to be the first Bill for the day but tomorrow other Bills will come which are on the list. We need not spend any more time on this question. Mr. Naziruddin Ahmad. Shri B. Das (Orissa: General) : Will you please fix a time-limit for speeches ? Mr. Deputy Speaker : I cannot fix any time-limit on a controversial matter of this kind. I shall try, so long as I am in the Chair—certainly the Speaker will do it better—to see that repetition is avoided. That