Vol. 14, Part II · pages 286–290

1066 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES can never lose its reality, just as gold can never turn into a stone ; it can only become refined gold. So please allow gold to become more refined and let them have time to understand what divorce actually means. Do not give rise to a dispute here. Those who favour such reforms are at liberty to make use of the Civil Marriage Act, and have the facility of divorce under that Act. You ask how those people, who are not married under the Civil Marriage Act, can have the benefit of divorce. I give you a suggestion in order to find out a way for them. Allow them to get their marriages registered under the Civil Marriages Act so that they may also have the benefit of having divorce, if they so desire. In this way they can have a wider door open for the fulfilment of their wishes. Shri R. C. Upadhyaya : What do you suggest if the husband favours it and the wife does not ? Shri Bhatt: The wife listens to the words of her husband. She still considers her husband “ God’ at home, notwithstanding the fact that she may be an educated one. But that does not mean that Hindus consider their wives as their serfs. She is the mistress of the house and a Devi. These are the words which are used for her. I do not believe that Hindu society is so degenerated as to consider its womenfolk as serfs. If anybody has any such impression, he should wash it off. I say even in those sects which are called backward, women are mistresses of their homes and their men do only what they direct them to do. In Rajasthan and other places there are several social customs which are included in the Shastra and that Shastra is known as the Doshi Shastra. People do every thing in the manner in which the old ladies advise them to do. If a pandit makes a mistake while performing a sacramental marriage ceremony, it is at once pointed out with the help of songs as to where he has committed mistake. If there would be any mistake in the Saptpadi etc. we at once come to know with the help of the songs as to where the mistake has actually occurred. In this way, all those customs go on with the help of the songs not be presumed that women are not honoured in Hindu society. A drunkard might be a good man, a great man or an educated man but in spite of all that he is a drunkard. It only intoxicates a man, what else can be the effect of the drink. Whether a drunkard is from a backward class or from a higher class he or she is nothing more than a silly person. Shri R. C. Upadhyaya : What should be done for them ?

1067 DR. AMBEDKAR AND THE HINDU CODE BILL Shri Bhatt: Only the next day that intoxication would go by itself and everything would be all right. You do not know that that becomes their habit. All of us have a number of habits good and bad, and so far as in toxication is concerned I have come across a number of people who take two or three bottles of whisky at a time and still do not subject themselves to intoxication. The Hon. Doctor might be remembering that there used to be a number of persons in the Bombay Bar Council who could not argue their case in the courts unless they had taken one or two pegs. Mr. Chairman : May I know on which provision of clause 2 the hon. Member is speaking ? Dr. Ambedkar : We are discussing Evacuee Property Bill. Shri Bhatt: Sir, I should be excused, there has been a little digression. But I would like to remind you that some of my friends talked about it. What I was submitting was that nobody stated that you were only bringing any deterioration or improvement in the Bill by keeping or not keeping any provision of monogamy in it. What is the necessity of imposing legal restraints on it ? If you are bent upon imposing them we would have no objection, but then please impose it on all sections of the population of the country, because the Muslims too then would not feel about it. They too would agree that it is a good thing and that as such it should be applied to them as well. As Sarda Act has been applied to one and all, similarly its application too should be extended to all sections of the population. So far as divorce is concerned it is already prevalent in the Muslim community. Hence my request is that whatever legislation you like to make, it should be applied to one and all. Nobody should be excluded from its application, it should apply to Indians generally. I admit that you have come up to appreciate us and to accommodate our viewpoint. You have become so much accommodating now that you have realized the position. And now if you do not want to do anything, at least please do one thing. Take out the marriage and divorce clauses from the original Bill, pass them as a separate law and make it applicable to all the Indians. If you would do that everybody would be happy over it, would praise you and would say that you have really done a brave deed. All opposition would go automatically ; it would vanish and people would say that the Government have taken the right step which gives them the maximum satisfaction. Although that would not be complete satisfaction, yet that would be the maximum under the

1068 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES present circumstances. So please adopt this course after taking into consideration the present day situation. When you would proceed to do it, you would come to know what more should it contain and what more improvements you ought to bring in it. ( Interruption). Hence I request you to look towards them as well so that you may come to know where exactly the shoe pinches. The wearer knows where the shoe pinches. At that time you would come to know that the opposition is very strong. Several sister would come here, would entreat you and then you would come to know about the real position. Several other people too would come here and you would come to know the extent to which this measure would be opposed. But I say do not mind the opposition from whatever quarter it may come. Wait for sometime and then as the Sarda Act was passed by the Government without caring for any opposition, similarly pass a law which may apply to one and all. There is no question of time in it. Prepare a new draft Bill and when we meet in February next, put it before the House. Shri Syamnandan Sahaya : It would be the month of Phagun. I think that would be the opportune time. Shri Bhatt: Yes, it would be the month of Phagun. But whatever month it may be I most humbly put forth my suggestion. I do not say all this simply by way of a joke. It would certainly benefit the whole of India. Why do you benefit a few selected Hindus only, benefit the whole nation. Send your invitation to all and make this law a perfect one. With these words, Sir, I request the Hon. Minister to think over my suggestions. Last of all I appeal to you that this is not the opportune time to go ahead with this legislation. Stop there, it would bring no harm to the country, it would only bring cheers to the Government. Sir, I have certainly taken much of your time, but I did not make an effort to prolong my speech in any way. I would request the Hon. Minister who is the representative of the Government here, to consider our humble but plain request so that it might bring glory to our Government. *Sardar B. S. Man : Sir, I thank you very much for calling me to explain my position. I have moved an amendment that the Sikhs be absolved from the operation of this Bill and that the Sikh community be not brought into the (315 PSD) orbit of this Bill. I would have very much liked to have *P.D., Vol. XV, Part II. 18th September 1951, pp. 2835-40.

1069 DR. AMBEDKAR AND THE HINDU CODE BILL moved an amendment not embracing simply our community in terms of Sikhs, or Hindus or Muslims ; but looking at the main clause as it has been framed, I was forced to use this word. I would have very much preferred to have used a territorial term saying that the Punjabis be absolved, or certain agricultural classes be absolved. But, since the framers of the Bill themselves have used the word Hindu, Jain, Buddhist and Sikh, I have moved an amendment in these terms. In fact, I have an amendment to clause 1 that the operation of the Bill be not extended to Punjab and P.E.P.S.U. I base my arguments not on narrow communal or religious grounds. I shall come to that later. I do not minimise the fact that this attempt to bring the Sikhs under the domain of Hindu Law will savour of bad political communial taste. The other day, the learned Doctor cited a case to show that the Sikhs have all along been governed by the Hindu Law. With all apologies to him, I may point out that the law that he has cited was confined to the non-agriculturist properties. The Sikhs mainly comprise agriculturists. In fact the agriculturist Sikhs comprise 95 per cent. of the Sikh community. When you have to discern clearly and generalise in this way as to what law applies to them, you have not got to see that commercial classes of the Sikhs, the khatri Sikhs or other Sikhs who are resident in the cities, but you have got to look to the main community, the agriculturist Sikhs and see what their laws is. And I can cite not one, but innurable cases. I can cite case after case to prove that in the Punjab the agricultural Sikh, along with other agricultural classes were all along governed by a secular law—and here incidentally it was an advance far ahead of what is proposed in this Hindu Code. So, I say we are there absolutely governed by a secular law. There we have got a uniform law for the agriculthral population who form the bulk of the population. We should not look at the law governing the microscopic minority of the people. We have to look at the law that prevails among the main bulk of the population, the main bulk which in this case forms about 95 per cent. of the population there. There, as I have said, we have an advanced law, that whether he be a Muslim or a Hindu or a Sikh, we are governed so far as succession to property is concerned, by one common law, and that is the customary law. But here you are bringing forward this Hindu Code and so I confront you with the statement that we have got one common, uniform law which cuts across all communities and all narrow communalism in the Punjab. But by this measure you are trying to introduce for the first time communalism in the Punjab. ( Interruption). Yes. The customs are 1 P.M.

1070 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES there and they are due to the long usages which have been recognised. Various attempts have been made to over-ride customs ; but all this is is bad and it wiill be a bad policy and quite definitely an ill-advised policy, to promulgate laws from the top and then within these fifteen days change the entire structure of society there which has come through for a very long time and which has imbibed in itself the wisdom of the ages and the spirit of the time. I am mot saying that because a particular law has been laid down by a particular old Brahmin and so it cannot be touched or changed. I am not basing my argument upon that sort of sanctity. I only say that the custom has come down to us and it has developed, due to the lack of rigidity it has imbibed into itself certain practical usages, usages very useful to the genius of the people there. I will come to this part later on. Here I only refer to it to say that custom over-rides the written text. The custom in the Punjab has been there and is still the law there. Apart from that, I shall prove also that my customs are far more advanced than this retrograde step that is now being proposed. They are much more advanced in many respects. I ask that the Sikhs be absolved from this Bill, for this reason also. It will surprise hon. Members, as it has surprised me, that all along, since the introduction of the Hindu Code Bill in this House by Mr. Mandal—in fact though Dr. Ambedkar is trying to improve upon that Bill, nevertheless he is carrying Mandal’s baby—since the introduction of the Bill up to now, there has not been a single Sikh Member on the Select Committee. Dr. Ambedkar : Giani Gurmukh Singh ? Sardar B. S. Man : No. No Sikh opinion has ever been consulted on this vital question. Nor has there been appreciable agitation among the Sikhs because we were told that the agricultural property will be an exception under this Hindu Code Bill and this led to a sort of indifference among the Sikh community towards this Bill, 95 per cent. of the population thought that this Hindu Code Bill was not going to touch them in a vital way. Shri A. C. Shukla : Have the Sikhs passed any resolution against the Code in any of their conferences ? Sardar B. S. Man : I can speak for the Sikhs much better than the hon. Member. There are a few ladies here and on such a vital matter as this they are consulted and listened to and their advice is accepted. But in this House we are seven Members of the Sikh community and