310 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
An Honourable Member : It is compulsory.
The Honourable Dr. B. R. Ambedkar : No compulsion.
Mr. Tajamul Hussain : No compulsion, either would do.
Shrimati Sucheta Kripalani : If I am wrong, Dr. Ambedkar will correct me. It has been put there as a safeguard; that is all.
We come to the question of inter-caste and sagothra marriages. I was hearing my friend who preceded me. I do not know how we can wax eloquent over the objection to sagothra and inter-caste marriages because I find a very large number of such marriages taking place in the society. If we did not have such marriages it was all right, but when a very large number of such marriages are taking place, either we compel them to have irregular marriage or we drive them out of the Hindu fold or we make them go somewhere or they have to go to the civil registration office and get it done. When it is there, why not accept the fact ? When it is a practice why not recognise it and give it legality ? Therefore, it is but right at this stage, when Indian society has changed so considerably to allow inter-caste and sagothra marriages within the Hindu fold.
About monogamy, here also I feel that the society has on the whole accepted monogamy. Polygamy is looked down upon; polygamy finds no favour in our society, though cases do occur. Again, we recognise the current practice amongst an overwhelming majority of Hindus and we legalize it. Moreover as we are trying to bring about a society where men and women are equal, we cannot afford to have a double set of morality for men and women and I should think the men should be happy to have this introduced because by the provision of monogamy we are levelling up the standard of men’s morality to that of women. I should think that the men should be thankful to us.
An Honourable Member : Very thankful. We can get easy divorces and marry again.
Shrimati Sucheta Kripalani : As for divorce, though we do not deny the sentiments of the orthodox, men and women, analysing it, we find, that divorce did exist in our ancient scriptures. The grounds of divorce that we have allowed are extremely reasonable and just. We have not allowed any divorce on frivolous grounds as it has been in some parts of the Western world. Care has also been taken to formulate such a procedure that divorce would be resorted to only under very grave circumstances. If we see the records of Baroda, Travancore, Cochin and Malabar where divorce is allowed, very few