DR. AMBEDKAR AND THE HINDU CODE BILL 233
feel convinced that we mean business and we want to evolve a classless society. I know what I am saying may not be liked. I was taken to task for expressing such an opinion in the papers an opinion which I read today to the House but in this vital matter, we are not to fear anybody. Mahatma Gandhi has told us we must have a class-less society. This is the right way to have a class-less society. All differences between those people who are opposed to each other from the point of view of social rights, economic rights and political rights, will disappear and we will have one class-less society, if we adopt a measure like this. I would beseech the House to kindly pass this measure in this session after referring it to the Select Committee today.
Mr. Deputy Speaker : Motion moved:
“That the Bill to provide that marriages between Hindus, Sikhs, Jains and their different castes and sub-castes are valid, be referred to a Select Committee consisting of Giani Gurmukh Singh Musafir, Sardar Hukum Singh, Shri M. Anathasayanam Ayyangar, Shri Deshbandhu Gupta, Shrimati G. Durgabai, Shrimati Renuka Ray, Shri Ramnath Goenka, Dr. Bakshi Tek Chand, Lala Achint Ram, Ch. Ranbir Singh, Shri Mahavir Tyagi and the Mover and that the number of members whose presence shall be necessary to constitute a meeting of the Committee shall be five.”
The usual practice is to fix a date by which the report may be submitted to the House. With instructions to report by what date ?
Pandit Thakur Das Bhargava : By the end of this month, say the 28th of February.
Mr. Deputy Speaker : With instructions to report by the 28th of February, 1949.
Shri K. Hanumanthaiya (Mysore State): Sir, I have great pleasure in welcoming this Bill, Pandit Thakur Das Bhargava has advanced very good reasons in support of it. They hardly need any support or addition. Before August 1947, our watch-word was ‘freedom’ and Mahatma Gandhi gave us the phrase ‘quit India’ and after the attainment of freedom, Sardar Patel has given us the word consolidation. He is doing it on the political front and that is the greatest achievement that this country can boast of. ( Interruption ) . And we have to do it also—may I say humbly with all sincerity and not with any levity—on the social front also. The great danger to India is ‘disruptive tendencies’, which are called communal tendencies and the marriage instruction is the bastion which keeps these various differences intact and in perpetuity. This measure in a very humble fashion makes a beginning to abolish those distinctions in times to come and consolidate the Hindu society to begin with. I heartily welcome