DR. AMBEDKAR AND THE HINDU CODE BILL 19
of giving a half share to a daughter, half of the son’s, is really practically, enjoyed. They said that except in towns it is not enjoyed. Somehow or
other the brother does the sister in the eye and knocks off her property and gives her some compensation. That may or may not be so but the fact remains that there is that supreme danger and the greatest danger
in this matter is that when you recognise the fact that 80 per cent of pattadara are able to pay only Rs. 10 as tax on 2½ acres of wet land or four or five acres of dry land, where on earth is there a chance for
them to give a share to the daughter, which she can carry with her or which she can enjoy. I doubt very much from the practical side but on the theoretical side at any rate the thing is unquestionably quite
correct.
When thus you have raised the status of women in society and when
you have conferred upon her the right to absolute property then you must also give her certain rights which self-respect engenders in her naturally. The conditions of marriage are not conditions of slavery. It
is all very well to say that marriages are made in heaven and that once a husband always a husband or once a wife always a wife. It is a very good rule but at the same time there are conditions like drunkenness,
persistent cruelly, immoral character on the part of the husband, diseases like leprosy, impotency and various other conditions which are enumerated by the Law Minister which justify a separation of the husband from
the wife. If a man feels free and has the right to stray abroad and to whatever he wants to do, if he can marry a second time when the first wife is alive, then of course it must be equally open for the wife also
to marry a second husband while the first one is alive. Imagine that condition. I sometimes ask friends when I see a young man dressed in hat, boot and suit and by the side goes a nicely clad Hindu lady dressed
in all the beautiful folds of the Hindu saree “Will you kindly reverse your dresses? Will the husband wear a dhothi and the wife a hat and skirt of a European woman, how will it look?” It will look absurd, as
absurd as when you sign your name in your mother tongue over an English document. Once an officer asked me not to sign in Telugu over an English document. Then I said that the reverse situation of an English signature over a Telugu document is equally incongruous. Therefore, we must give full freedom to our sisters, mothers and daughters and enable