DR. AMBEDKAR AND THE HINDU CODE BILL 313
Mr. Deputy Speaker : In English please.
Pandit Thakur Das Bhargava : As this matter is of vital importance so for this very reason I wish to speak in Hindi.
Dr. Mono Mohan Das (West Bengal: General) : We can understand the Hindustani spoken by the honourable the Minister of Education. It is entirely different from the Hindi or Hindustani spoken by Seth Govind Das or Pt. Thakur Das Bhargava. As beginners we do not know which is Hindustani.
Mr. Deputy Speaker : There is no set standard which is copied here. Whatever is spoken is Hindustani.
Pandit Thakur Das Bhargava : Before I begin my speech, ( Honourable members ): “English please”) as a number of honourable members desire that I should speak in English I have not the least hesitation in paying deference to their wishes. But all the honourable members know that it is easier to express oneself in his own mother tongue rather than in English. So, if they allow me I wish to speak in Hindi. But if they would insist on my speaking in English then I would not have the least objection in commencing my speech in English. ( Honourable members: “Hindi, Hindi”). As I think that a majority of the honourable members do not insist upon my speaking in English so I like to speak in Hindi.
Shrimati G. Durgabai (Madras: General) : Kindly speak in simple Hindi so that we also may be able to understand.
Pandit Thakur Das Bhargava : I will try to speak in simplest Hindi. Today when I have stood up to deliver a speech before the House about the Hindu Code Bill a number of conflicting thoughts are clashing with one another in my heart. At the very outset I beg to submit that I am not one of those people who declare this Hindu Code Bill to be the death knell of the Hindu culture, and Hindu Civilization. I wish that the Hindu culture, the Hindu Society and the Hindu Civilization may survive till eternity, till the end of this world. I am, in no way, an opponent to this. I am not at all afraid that this Bill or any another Bill would in the least be able to put the Hindu Culture or Civilization to harm. I wish that those evils that have crept in the Hindu Society since long, and about which Dr. Ambedkar made an appeal before the House in the concluding parts of his speech, may be eradicated; and the appeal may be considered over very thoughtfully with a cool heart. But in fact if the Hindu Society is to be preserved then there is no doubt that if