232 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
that as a matter of fact he must renounce all the laws which are dear to him and which he has inherited from generations. This is a wrong provision and leads to fraud and many other evils. There is no doubt that from the old position the present position is a bit better. I know of cases in which Arya Samajists married before the Arya Marriage Validation Act was passed and for years together they did not declare themselves as husband and wife. They were afraid of declaring, and what would happen to their off-spring ? It may be said that at present the Hindu Code Bill is on the anvil, so where is the necessity for this measure at this stage ? I would beg of you to allow me to meet this point.
In the first place, may submission is, I do not know when the Hindu Code Bill will be passed. It is doubtful if it will be passed in this session, next session or some other session. We do not know. Secondly, if this Bill is accepted, it would pave the way for such of the provisions of the Hindu Law as are given there and so it will be a help to passing that law. What would happen to many people who would not marry on account of this law not being there ? Or if a person dies will his rights to property not be affected ? At the same time, if this Bill is not allowed to be passed into law, many cases which could be governed by this law will be governed by the present law and people will suffer. The whole nation shall suffer in so far as we will not be able to make for conditions which would go to solidify the nation and make it homogeneous.
It may be said, it is a case of piecemeal legislation. We all know many instances of such piecemeal legislation. We know that we passed in 1946 the Act relating to validity of marriages between subsection of castes and then we passed in Bombay, the prevention of Bigamous Marriages Act; and many other laws have been passed. I do not know of any other objections that may be raised to this Bill. It is a very small measure and this is a one-class Bill. All that it says is that previous marriages will be regarded as valid and in future such marriages will be valid. It does not propose to do anything else. I did not, as a matter of fact, venture to come before the House with a straight motion that it be passed into law because I am afraid it is a convention of this House that all these measures should be taken to the Select Committee.
I am anxious that in this session, we should be able to pass this measure into law, so that so far as the public is concerned, they will