z:\ ambedkar\vol 08\vol8 04.indd MK SJ+DK 1 10 2013/YS 13 11 2013 240
240 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
IV
To what length this concern for the conservation of their forces can lead the Hindus and the Musalmans cannot be better illustrated than by the debates on the Dissolution of Muslim Marriage Act VIII of 1939 in the Central Assembly. Before 1939, the law was that apostasy of a male or a female married under the Muslim law ipso facto dissolved the marriage with the result that if a married Muslim woman changed her religion, she was free to marry a person professing her new religion. This was the rule of law enforced by the courts, throughout India at any rate, for the last 60 years.*
This law was annulled by Act VIII of 1939, section 4 of which reads as follows :—
“The renunciation of Islam by a married Muslim woman or her conversion to a faith other than Islam shall not by itself operate to dissolve her marriage :
Provided that after such renunciation or conversion the woman shall be entitled to obtain a decree for the dissolution of marriage on any of the grounds mentioned in section 2:
Provided further that the provision of this section shall not apply to a woman converted to Islam from some other faith who re-embraces her former faith.”
According to this Act, the marriage of a married Muslim woman is not dissolved by reason of her conversion to another religion. All that she gets is a right of divorce. It is very intriguing to find that section 2 does not refer to conversion or apostasy as a ground for divorce. The effect of the law is that a married Muslim woman has no liberty of conscience and is tied for ever to her husband whose religious faith may be quite abhorrent to her.
The grounds urged in support of this change are well worth attention. The mover of the Bill, Quazi Kazmi, M.L.A., adopted a very ingenious line of argument in support of the change. In his speech† on the motion to refer the Bill he said :—
“Apostasy was considered by Islam, as by any other religion, as a great crime, almost amounting to a crime against the State. It is
*The earliest reported decision was that given by the High Court of the NorthWest Province in 1870 in the case of Zabaroast Khan vs. His wife.
† Legislative Assembly Debates. 1938. Vol. V. pp. 1098-1101.