356 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
has written. He has said in his note that you should allow nomination of an heir, that you allow divorce to take place in the same manner in which
it is taking place today and he has also mentioned about non-sacramental marriages. In all these points when you take his name I beg of you kindly
to follow him in what he has said in his dissenting note.
Mr. Deputy Speaker: Shrimati Renuka Ray.
Mr. Naziruddin Ahmad: Sir, my grievance is not being heard.
Mr. Deputy Speaker: The honourable Member’s grievance will not go
unheard.
Mr. Naziruddin Ahmad : May I submit that I had certain points and I would like to have got the advantage of those points being made and the replies given to them.
Mr. Deputy Speaker: The honourable Member will have the advantage
of his observations going unchallenged.
Mr. Naziruddin Ahmad: I do not like it, Sir.
Mr. Deputy Speaker: I have already ruled that the honourable Member
will not have his turn now. I have called Shrimati Renuka Ray.
- Shrimati Renuka Ray : The Bill that is under the consideration of this House now, or rather the principles embodied in it, have been on the anvil of this legislature since 1943 and the insistent demands for these changes that are embodied in this Bill have been before the country for a very much longer time. It was more than 100 years ago that Raja Ram Mohan Roy wrote a treatise called “The Rights of Females to inherit property and their rights of marriage”, and this matter was first brought to public attention. Since 1931 and 1932 there has been an insistent demand throughout the country, and at that time the need for the removal of legal disabilities of women and the need for a uniform and comprehensive code of legislation was made manifest in this country. Due to the fact that on the anvil of the legislature there were a number of Bills dealing with this subject, due to the fact that piecemeal legislation was leading to anamolies in law and because of this insistent demand, the Government of that day was forced and compelled to appoint the Hindu Law Committee better known as the Rau Committee on Hindu Law. It was as a result of the report of this Committee that the two Bills on intestate succession and marriage were introduced in 1943. At that time the opposition that has now again reared its head also came to the forefront. The
*C.A. (Leg.) D., Vol. II, Part II, 25th February 1949, pp. 925-29.