DR. AMBEDKAR AND THE HINDU CODE BILL 21
will. Then why should it not be permissible in law for a husband to give permission orally to his wife in order that she can adopt. These are points which the Select Committee will have to give its consideration to. ( An Honourable Member: “Why permission at all?”) That is my contention. If permission is necessary why not oral permission? Relax the law regulating adoption as much as possible.
Then there is the question of monogamy. I am very sorry to note that young girls in their blooming youth do not understand all the conditions that must be observed in regard to the proper selection of match for marriage. We have an ancient saying which when rendered into English says : You must consider the prosperity, good looks, tradition, pedigree, culture—all these things you must consider before you select a husband. But now it has become rather common—and a very distinguished authority has confirmed the statement—that educated girls have the habit of picking readymade husbands who have already got a wife and five or six children. Why does this happen? It is due to the want of education during their college days about these matters. Somehow these things are considered taboo and everybody shrinks from talking about them although a lot of private talk is inevitably done in regard to these matters. The forbidden fruit has never remained untasted. Therefore, it is necessary that we provide teaching in regard to these matters. I once spoke to a certain friend of mine—he has given freedom to his daughter with regard to the selection of his son-in-law—and in the course of his conversation he told me a story which I later related to his daughter and son-in-law much to their amusement. She was asked by him, “Do you wish to marry so and so, a boy who is handsome, goodlooking, is well educated, passed B.L., or is in the profession, is the son of a rich man and has an upstair house” and she said “No, father, has he got no motor car and elctric lights? If he has got a motor car and electric lights, no matter to whom you give me in marriage I am willing to marry him”. Such are the temperaments, tendencies and trends of untutored youth and therefore, it is very necessary that we should teach them about all these matters. It is not enough to make laws: but it is necessary to propagate these laws and propagandize these laws in order to educate our young girls in the direction of monogamy. That is very necessary.