DR. AMBEDKAR AND THE HINDU CODE BILL 345
Pandit Thakur Das Bhargava : To that I know what Dr. Ambedkar will say. He will say, ‘Instead of son, daughters should be born. Do we not know that among many Rajputs, the daughters were killed ? I do not want that to be done. It is unnecessarily wrong. What I am submitting is that for hundreds of years we have lived in such a society. We have regarded the son as the very pivot of the family. Without a son the daughter does not count in the family. It is the son which protects a man from hell. ( पतात त्रयते ) If we were like the Muslims, we would certainly accept it, but it is very difficult. This interruption by Renuka Ray only brings into relief my argument that so far as the conceptions of the people are concerned and their mental outlooks are concerned, such an innovation would spell nothing but disaster. This is my humble submission and Mrs. Renuka Ray only supports me in this.
Mr. Krishnaswami Bharati : I do not know which part of the country he comes from, but it appears that he does not know the custom in the Punjab. In no other province I can say the conditions are the same. What are these conditions due to ? They are due to the fact that for thousands of years, our policy and our theory and our conception about the family has been exactly what has been in the Punjab. Sons-in-law are not all bad. Sons are not equally bad.
Shri Mahavir Tyagi (U.P.: General): It is the brother-in-law which matters.
Pandit Thakur Das Bhargava: There is a proverb which runs as follows :
(Translation of Urdu proverb)
(The following are the efficient causes of strife:
(1) Construction of house in the place meant for deposit of village refuse;
(2) A field in the vicinity of village common ; and (3) The habitament of son-in-law in the village.)
Another proverb.
(Translation of Urdu proverb)
(The yama, the son-in-law, the maternal nephew, chowkidar and the goldsmith can never be yours. You may try them if you please.) This is the truth. Let me say : Ask any person to go to the Punjab and find out among the Sikhs and Jats.
So far as this Bill is concerned, when this Bill was introduced, I remember that in the Objects and Reasons, this thing appeared:
“The Bill aims at providing uniformity in all branches of Hindu law for all provinces and for all sections. The old complex, intricate and different provisions