Vol. 14, Part I · pages 586–590

DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES568 * HINDU CODE— contd. Mr. Deputy Speaker: We will now proceed to the further consideration of the Bill to amend and codify certain branches of Hindu Law, as reported by the Select Committee. Shri Mukut Bihari Lal Bhargava will resume his speech. Shri R. K. Sidhva (C. P. and Berar : General): Before we proceed to the further consideration of this Bill, we would like to know what is going to be the programme in regard to it. Will it go on indefinitely ? I would request that by common consent some time-limit may be fixed on the speeches of members so that as many members as may be possible to be accommodated may participate in the discussion. Mr. Deputy Speaker : I may inform the House that this is an official Bill and they have provided for two days. The Speaker has not concern with it. Pandit Mukut Bihari Lal Bhargava (Ajmer-Merwara): Sir, I have to resume my unfinished speech on the Hindu Code. But before I do that, Sir, I have respectfully to draw your attention to the declaration that was made by the Hon. Prime Minister on the opening day of this momentous session. Sir, the Hon. Prime Minister was pleased to characterise this measure as a piece of simple and essential legislation. I respectfully protect that the measure that is for consideration before the House is not a simple one. I may also be permitted to point out that some of the opposers of this Bill have been accused by the Hon. Prime Minister of adopting delaying tactics. Those are well conversant with this Assembly and the proceedings that have taken place here will readily recognise that this measure has not at all been sufficiently discussed this vital measure which affects the life and death, as I would say, of the Hindu society has been on the anvil of this legislature for only a very short time. If you refer to previous occasions when social legislation like the Sharda Act and the Hindu Women’s Rights to Property Act was brought before this legislature, you would find what an amount of controversy they raised. Compared to those Bills, this Bill is enormously of great importance. It affects the entire structure of Hindu society. This Bill, Sir, if placed on the Statute Book—people may differ with me, the Hon. Prime Minister may differ from me, * C.A. (Leg.) D., Vol. VI, Part II, 12th December 1949, pp. 464-91.

DR. AMBEDKAR AND THE HINDU CODE BILL 569 but I do feel so—will result in the utter extinction of the Hindu society, not in the sense that thirty million Hindus will cease to exist, but that the distinctive features and characteristics of the Hindu society will cease to continue. This is not a simple measure. But the fact is that this Bill aims at the utter demolition of the entire structure and fabric of Hindu society. It aims at changing the law of marriage, the law divorce, the law of adoption, law relating to minority and guardianship, the Law of the Hindu joint family, the law of succession and everything that constitute and what remains of the features of Hindu society. The very foundations not only of one pillar but of all the pillars on which the Hindu society rests, are shaken. Therefore, Sir, it is but neat and proper that we as legislators, we who are the guardians of the interests of the people should discharge our duty to the best of our ability and see how far the measure that we are considering is wanted by public opinion in the country. To characterise this measure as a simple piece of legislation is, I respectfully submit, not fair. My further submission is that if it is not proper to characterise it as a simple piece of legislation, it is still more unbefitting to characterise it as an essential measure. What is the need, I respectfully ask, for this measure ? What will happen if this Bill is deferred and not brought on the Statute Book till the new legislature, the sovereign Parliament to be elected in free India on adult franchise is elected ? Is there any malady from which the Hindu society is so vitally suffering that if a few months pass without this Bill being placed on the Statute Book, the whole society will crumble ? I submit that in no sense of the term is it essential. We can very well afford to wait for one or two years more. The Hindu society which had successfully stood the test of centuries, the clash of many civilisations, the clash of foreign aggression and had been subjected for centuries to political subjugation can very well survive without this piece of legislation for a year or two more. Sir, if we wait for . . . Shri S. Nagappa (Madras: General) : Sir, on a point of order. The hon. Member is casting aspersions on the House when he said that this house is not competent to deal with this matter and that we should wait till a new house is elected. Mr. Deputy Speaker: There is no point of order in what Mr. Nagappa has said.

DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES570 Pandit Mukut Bihari Lal Bhargava: Sir, in spite of the interruption of my hon. Friend, I must assert that this house as at present constituted, is thoroughly incompetent to deal with a measure of this vital nature. The question is . . . Mr. Tajamul Husain (Bihar: Muslim): On a point of order, Sir. It has been decided by the Chair that this house is competent to deal with this Bill. After that ruling, can any hon. Member question whether this House is competent or not ? Mr. Deputy Speaker : There is no harm. It is a ruling of the Speaker that this House is competent to deal with this Bill, and according to this, Bill is being pursued. If the hon. Member wants to raise other questions, or raise other reasons, other than legal technicalities, it is open to him to do so. But I would advise the hon. Member that this point has been raised by almost every one of the previous speakers and it has almost become state. Pandit Mukut Bihari Lal Bhargava : Sir, it is only the interruption of my friend here that provoked me to make that remark, I do not question the constitutional power of the Legislature to pass this vital measure. But the question is one of propriety. Can you usurp the functions of a full-fledged legislature, can this House which was specially brought into existence for the particular purpose of drafting the Constitution of India, do that? Therefore, I submit apart from the constitutional aspect of the question, apart from the point of legal power of this Legislature, it is a question of propriety, and propriety is of immense importance. And I feel that I have the right to assert, in spite of the interruption of my learned friend and those with him, that this House must think thrice before dealing with a measure of this vital importance. And my submission is that this measure is not essential and this Government need not have a declaration of a nature to make this question an issue of confidence before the House. The question has to be dealt with a calm mind, and we have to take into consideration the devastating effect that this measure will have upon the entire structure and fabric of Hindu society. Now, coming to my speech from the stage I left it, I was dealing with the question of innovation that has been introduced in this piece of legislation, namely, the bringing in of a daughter in the rank and file of simultaneous heir with the son. My respectful submission was and is, that this innovation is wholly uncalled for, and that this innovation will demolish the entire structure of Hindu society. Let

DR. AMBEDKAR AND THE HINDU CODE BILL 571 me ask, how this is possible. What is the real state of Hindu society ? The difference between man and woman, the difference between the son and daughter, this is inherent in the very situation. The son has to remain all through his life, from his inception to his death, with the family in which he has taken birth. The daughter has to go a stranger’s family. What are the consequences resulting from this inherent situation ? The Hindu law givers, the persons who gave us the scriptures, were they so degraded, were they so opposed to the fair sex that they did it only with a view to inflict an inequality or an injustice ? I respectfully submit that this is a wrong reading of the entire scriptures and the Hindu Law. In fact, if the right of inheritance to the patrimony is given to the daughter, I shudder to think of the consequences. The Hon. Dr. Ambedkar, the Law Minister, in his speech remarked, if a Hindu has twelve sons and one daughter, and if on his death his property could be divided into twelve shares, what heaven will fall if instead of twelve it is divided into thirteen shares ? I respectfully ask the Hon. Law Minister to take the opposite case, where a person has got one son and twelve daughters. What will happen in that case ? The Honourable Shri Jagjivan Ram (Minister of Labour): Thirteen shares. Pandit Mukut Bihari Lal Bhargava : Is a family house to be divided into thirteen shares ? Sir, think of rural India, do not think of urban India, with people living in palaces, but think of rural India where a family has got a very small house. If on the death of the father, his house is divided into thirteen portions, and the twelve sons-in-law are to be accommodated in that house, what will happen ? And Sir, under the law as it is proposed to be made, it is open to the daughter to marry any person she likes, even if she takes courage to enter into marital contract with a non-Hindu she has no bar, and that is not a disqualifaction for inheritance. What will be the result ? The result will be that every house, and every family will be reduced to a family of feuds in which there will be quarrels and worse still— murders too. Therefore, Sir, I respectfully submit that when you are making a law you are not to take into consideration only a concrete example of the character to which the attention of the House has been drawn by the Hon. Law Minister, but you have to take into consideration every imaginable case, and it is on that footing that you have to frame the law.

DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES572 Why this inferiority complex about the status of the daughter in Hindu society ? I protest against its very implication. In fact, the daughter in Hindu society has got a very exalted and elevated position. Her marriage into a stranger’s family does not cut of her connections with the natural family of the father. On every occasion, on occasions of births, deaths, marriages and other occasions she has to come and perform certain essential ceremonies, and on those occasions the Hindu family has to make presents to the daughter. The daughter’s relations with her natural family continues all along. If she gives birth to a child, her brothers have to give her presents. Sir, I may further venture to assert that on the occasion of every marriage in the sister’s family, the marriage of a male or female child, the brothers have to make presents. Presents are so essential on every occasion. That being so how can it be said, Sir, that the daughter does not get anything from the property ? My submission is that the whole mental outlook with which this question is approached is diagonally wrong, if you consider it from the criterion of Hindu civilisation and Hindu ideals and ideas. Of course, if your criterion is not indigenous, if it is not Hindu, not Indian, but anti-Indian and anti-Hindu then of course, you must take the opposite view. Now let us consider what is the result of giving a share to the daughter in the family patrimony. You can see the Muslim family. The inevitable result of giving this share in the patrimony would be that marriages between cousins will be absolutely common, and sooner or later marriages even within prohibited degrees will come into existence, whether you like it or not. This is what the inevitable consequence would be. If you trace the history of the daughter’s share in patrimony, in so many countries, in Egypt, in Greece, in Rome or under Islamic law, you will come to the conclusion, and the only conclusion, that if a share is to be given, then, you must necessarily widen the scope of the right to contract a marriage with first cousins. So far as the Hindu point of view is concerned, that would be a calamity which no Hindu family can tolerate. I now proceed to the other point. Do you think, that by providing in this piece of legislation that a daughter has an equal share with the son, you will be carrying out what you intend to do, that is to say, you will be conferring any rights to property on the daughter ? I respectfully submit, Sir, that it is not. On the other hand, you will be letting loose and creating scope for so many evils. Under the law 12 NOON