Vol. 14, Part I · pages 676–680

DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES658 no other suffering is more tormenting than the distress of having a co-wife. Now when the age of renaissance began and the eminent persons of our country began to realize their abject misery then, as a result of their kind efforts, the condition of the women folk was carefully considered over and hence from time to time such revolutionary Bills were passed in this House. At that time our country was in turmoil and then Mahatma Gandhi forced an entry into the social structure of our society. He elevated the women folk to such an extent that they could stand on their own legs. Today a keen desire for securing her due rights has awakened in her heart. The woman of the future will not tolerate this sort of oppression and tyranny lying down as she has been doing till today. She will never tolerate this sort of neglect and disrespect. Therefore, I think this time to be most favourable. The Bill that is before us should be passed in this House with great applause. This Bill is being opposed on many grounds. I have had opportunities to hear such thing here. Obscene and dirty things are said against the women community, they are being stigmatised. Thus a propaganda is made here by giving publicity to such scandalous slurs against the women folk. The people here have come to believe that the right to divorce provided in the Bill would result in the destruction of the structure of our society and our culture would go to dogs. I do not understand how people give rise to such apprehensions and how they resort to such talks. But as far as I have studied this Bill I have not come across anything concerning the dissolution of marriages that can be called an innovation, or anything that has not been allowed and permitted by our sacred texts and holy scriptures. All the conditions that have been laid down for the dissolution of marriages, or in what manner the marriages can be dissolved, or for what seasons divorce can be granted. I think all these conditions do exist in our Shastras. I myself believe in Hindu religion and culture. I am a Hindu woman. Wherein lies the glory and importance of the woman I know that also. For centuries our sages and preceptors, poets and writers have sung songs about the greatness of the Indian woman and have mentioned her in the most glorious terms. I know that all this greatness has not been attributed to female form only, they have sung songs about her noble spirit of renunciation instead. I think that this high ideal is very good for us. Not from today but from ages the Indian woman has been maintaining these ideals and the glorious history of

DR. AMBEDKAR AND THE HINDU CODE BILL 659 her renunciation and ideals will for ever go down in annals of Indian culture and the history of mankind. But in every society it has been found impossible for each and every individual, may be male or female, to live up to the highest of the ideals. Mahatma Gandhi has been acclaimed a superman by the whole world. He placed before us his ideals and though being his followers we ourselves could not live upto them. Similar is the composition of the society as also of the world. If this whole world and our Indian society in particular were to maintain the high standard of ideals then, I think, this very world would become a paradise. Whenever some high ideal is set before the people then in order to create a proper atmosphere for it a number of things have got to be done. Take the case of the Hindu marriage system for instance. At the time of marriage the priests interpret this alliance to be so indissoluble, so everlasting that it would hold good for future births and re-births also. I don’t believe this. Because while on one side according to Hindu ideals we are led to believe that this marriage alliance between a Hindu male and female lasts till eternity, on the other hand in our holy scriptures it has been laid down that according to the philosophy of Karma, this alliance would have continued eternally even if in previous births, the husband may have been a human being or a demon or an animal, but I do not believe in such a thing. What I believe is that marriage is just a compromise for the life time. If our married couples were to hanker upon the legal possibilities regarding the dissolution of marriages then I think that our life would become quite useless. The result of such a state of affairs would be that the people will never be able to raise and maintain happy families. If such state of affairs do exist anywhere, then under such circumstances, there can neither be the evolution of our religion nor the cultural development of our country can take place. If under any circumstances the separation be deemed essential then I think the legal right must lie with the woman. Many defects have cropped up in our present day society. I think instances are not only known to me but all the gentlemen present here must be in the know of them. A husband can marry a second time even when the age of his wife may not be much. On the other hand a woman whose age may only be 16, 17 or 18 years cannot re-marry ; she has not been authorized to get her marriage dissolved. What such a state of affairs results in ? I do not want to go in details. I very humbly beg to submit only

DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES660 so much that such things result in grave disasters. Legally that woman cannot re-marry. Her legal husband has no relations with her. May she lie in the abyss of the society and suffer extreme distress and tribulations, yet the society does not allow her to enter into an honourable remarriage whereby she may be able to support and sustain her children, set up a family and pass the rest of the life in comfort and ease. Under such circumstances I wish that the woman should have this right. I do not wish that this right should so commonly be used that it may create retalliation and every man or woman may begin to think that they can have separation if and when they like. As far as I think this Bill does not provide so much facilities as the people profess. The most outstanding speciality that I can see in this Bill is that in 80 per cent, of our community I have seen that a panchayat is called and separation is effected within a minute’s time. At places and in certain communities even the panchayat does not assemble to give its decision. Males and females are quite free and leaving each other, they can re-marry whomsoever they like. The utmost punishment the community can impose upon them is that they are somewhat chastised or ex-communicated and after giving a community feast, they are again taken back in the folds of the community. The passing of this Bill will highly benefit those communities wherein separation and divorce are considered to be very insignificant things. This Bill will impose restrictions on them also and the greatest benefit that we would have of this Bill is that our backward communities which have no cultural background will become cultured and their moral standard will be raised. This is the most outstanding speciality that I have come across in this Bill. The strongest opposition that is being made against this Bill is I think about the question of the property, for the reason that this Hindu Code Bill seeks to provide the daughter also a share in the father’s property equal to that of the son. A number of different things are being said about this measure. Some hon. Members hold the view that by adopting such a measure the innate affection and natural love between the brother and sister will cease to exist, our heredity and our entire family system will be disrupted. I cannot understand this thing because as we see today, if a person has two or four sons then it is not at all essential that these brothers fight among themselves or kick up disputes. But at the same time we do sometimes hear of such incidents and many instances are before us that such disputes are kicked up and they become deadly enemies. So I think that if

DR. AMBEDKAR AND THE HINDU CODE BILL 661 it be taken for granted for brother and sister also, that after inheriting the property they will also kick up similar disputes then, as such disputes generally take place between brothers also so they do not matter much, Moreover at that time, do the persons who profess the culture to be in danger ever try to proclaim that this inheritance of property kicks up disputes and quarrels among the brothers so it should better go ? Are such disputes in accordance with our culture ? The glory of our religion lies in natural affection, mutual love and in being on good terms with others. This is our culture according to our religion. I see many such instances where the solitary sister has got a deep affection for her brother. Loves are of different kinds, but the love that a sister has for her brother, I think, is so unassuming innate and pure that no other kind of love can stand up to it. Such an affection she bears for her brother. Our existing law provided that the property that was owned by the mother, the stridhana, and the ornaments that the mother possessed were inherited by the daughter. But everywhere it has been seen that the sister has shared the ornaments with her brothers and nobody has ever seen them quarrelling over the division. If the high ideals of our women folk hold good then a sister will always be prepared to sacrifice her all for her brother. There will be very few cases where such disputes will take place. If for the time being it may be taken for granted that such state of affairs will come to pass, still then I will say that this is a grave injustice. I am able to recall the case of our big talukadars where the brothers live extravagantly on the property left by the father. For themselves, they spend such heavy sums on the occasion of Tij and other festivals as might have served the sister for a lifetime. If, however, a widowed sister happens to come and live in that very home, her place is in the kitchen and her lot is none better than that of a cook. In the home where, today brothers enjoy life on the strength of the father’s property, the father’s wealth, in that very home I have seen with my own eyes the sister pining for milk for her young children. She too has the desire that her children should have good things to eat and good clothes to wear and that they should receive good education in the same way as her brother’s sons. But the law has sealed her mouth. She is tongue-tied and dare not give vent to her feelings. I would like, very respectfully, to ask those people, who are opposing it today, whether this is in accordance with the Hindu law and, if so, which school of our philosophy sanctions this injustice shown to woman. Hence, I think that the provision relating

DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES662 to the daughter having a share in her father’s property is very much in consonance with the times and compatible with our faith and culture and I hope it will be considered in a very generous spirit. In opposing this provision, several people have also averred that the idea that a woman should also have a share in her father’s property took birth in the minds of those persons who are imbued with a foreign culture and who have not read Indian literature. I shall not be taking much of your time and should like to tell you briefly that this sentiment finds ample expression in our folk-songs which have existed for the last hundreds of years. This sentiment did not get into our folk-songs at the time of our mothers and sisters but has been there since the times of our grand and great-grand-mothers when there was not even a trace of foreign culture anywhere and when it had not set any kind of seal on our culture. The songs that are sung at the time of marriage in our Province contain this sentiment and I think that such songs are sung at marriages in all Provinces. I do not here want to recite the actual lines of those songs but would briefly like to state that such songs are sung amongst us at the time of marriage, at any rate in our Province with which I am familiar. I have also studied the folklore of some other Provinces where too a similar line of thought exists. We find a very wholesome sentiment forming the burden of these songs. The girl gives expression to her desire to have one-half share in her father’s ‘dominion’. The brother offers her various kinds of temptations, saying he would give her a plate full of ornaments, that he would give her horses and elephants and also enumerates the various articles he would be giving her by way of dowry. The girl replies that if she is destined to acquire all that wealth, it could also become available to her when she goes over to the house of her father-in-law and her husband but that she would rather have her one-half share here, that she has been brought up in this home and that she would like to have a share in the orchard and the tank here. Thus there is absolutely no foundation for the allegation that this sentiment is the product of foreign literature, or foreign education, or foreign culture or that it is a creation of the minds of those persons who have received their education from foreign sources. Our ancient literature abounds in that sentiment and our folk-songs would offer various such examples as reflect that feeling. Nature has made a boy and a girl equal in the eyes of their parents. Then why is it that a boy should have a share in his father’s property