DR. AMBEDKAR AND THE HINDU CODE BILL 277
So far as I have been able to study this subject, I do not think that there is any subject in the Hindu Law which is so complicated, so intricate as the women’s property (An honourable Member: “As the woman herself ”) : As the woman herself. If you ask the question, what is stridhan, before answering that question, you have to ask another question and find an answer for it. You must first of all ask, ‘is she a maiden’ or ‘is she a married woman’. Because what property is stridhan and what property is not stridhan depends upon the status of the woman. Certain property is stridhanam if she has obtained it while she is a maiden; certain property is not stridhan if she has obtained it after marriage. Consequently, if you ask the question what is the line of inheritance to the stridhan, you have again to ask the question whether the stridhan belongs to a maiden or the stridhan belongs to a married woman. Because, the line of succession to the stridhan of a maiden is quite different from the line of succession to the stridhan belonging to a married woman. When you come to the question of succession to married woman’s property, you have again to ask the question, does she belong to the Bengal School or does she belong to the Mitakshara School. If you ask the question whether she belongs to the Mitakshara school, you will never be able to find a definite answer unless you probe further and ask whether she belongs to the Mithila School or the Benares School or some other School. This is a most complicated subject. At the same time, I should like honourable members to bear two things in mind. One is this : so far as women’s property is concerned., generally speaking, it falls into two categories. One category is called her stridhan and the other is called widow’s property. The latter property is property which she inherits from a male member of her family, and according to the existing law property which she owns only during her life time and subsequently that property passes to the reversioners of the male heir. That is the position.
Therefore, so far as women’s property is concerned, we have two different sorts of inheritance and two different sets of property, stridhan property and widow’s property. The heirs to stridhan property are quite different and distinct from the heirs to the property she inherits from a male member. The question, therefore, we have to consider in codifying this particular branch of the Hindu Law is this. Are you going to maintain the two principal divisions which exist at present, namely, stridhan property and widow’s property? Secondly, are you going to maintain the double line of succession; one line of succession