344 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
they should be well provided for. But while this useful provision is there, there is also the other thing that the ladies should get a share in the father’s property.
The Honourable Dr. Ambedkar told us yesterday that in times of old there was simultaneous devolution of property and that the daughter got about one-fourth according to Narad. I do not know what was the basis of social existance in those days and whether the family was then constituted as it is today. I do not know whether this point has been dealt with in some texts of Hindu Law. That is not an accepted proposition. Some say that this provision of simultaneous heirship refers only to unmarried woman. But, leaving that aside, I submit that, if in these times it was considered right, the question of questions is whether today, as we are situate after having observed the theory of Agnacy for a thousand years or more, are we justified in accepting the proposition that the daughter should get a share ? What happens in a family ? As long as the father is alive, the sons work with him in his business or in the field and they combine together to produce wealth. When the father dies of old age, that property which goes in the father’s name is thus the result of the joint efforts of the sons and the father. Now, to say that the daughter should get a share of such a property which she had no share in producing—perhaps she was in some other place producing children, is not fair. Let me not be misunderstood. I do not want that the daughter should not be given full rights. She may have them. But I do not want that this innovation, which is of such a fundamental character that it will affect every home in our country, should be made. I know my people all right. Choudhari Ranbir Singh who is a Jat knows how his sonin-law will be received in the family. I have been a practising lawyer for forty years and I know that in the case of self-acquired property, the daughter gets a share when there are no sons. If this innovation is introduced in the villages, in regard to entire property the result will be endless trouble. In every home if you let the son-in-law and the father and the mother of the son-in-law to live together with aunt’s son and his family, it will create an impossible situation. This is not because we do not love our daughters. We do everything for them. In our place, if a daughter comes home to her parents, something is always given to her by way of love.
Shrimati Renuka Ray : Daughters should not be born in this country.