DR. AMBEDKAR AND THE HINDU CODE BILL 359
to you ? I think it would be wholly wrong for such a procedure to be adopted. If we have not issued posters and circulars and wires it does not mean that the demand for the changes does not continue to exist. I will not go into great detail on the provisions of the bill after the brilliant and masterly analysis of the Honourable Law Minister. It is quite unnecessary. Unity is something we desire in this country, and a uniform and comprehensive Code of law for Hindus who are the majority in the country is surely a necessity in that case.
Turning to monogamy I would like to ask, is there any one in this House or in the country who would contemplate with equanimity the fate for his own sister or his own daughter of being the first wife of a man who has married again. It is true that polygamy is not very customary : It is on the whole rare in the country. But in recent years we have seen that polygamy has become more frequent, and to the eternal shame of Indian womanhood. There have been women who have knowingly and willingly agreed to become the second wives of such men. I do not think that I need elaborate the point that law must come forward to redress the grievances and the miserable plight of the women who are first wives of such men.
Turning to inter-caste marriage and sagotra marriage, when in the Fundamental Rights of our Constitution we say that all discrimination on account of caste and sex and other such things should go, surely inter-caste marriage which is a permissible measure will be only the very first step towards it.
Mr. Deputy Speaker: Caste can go; how can sex go ?
Shrimati Renuka Ray : I said ‘discrimination on account of caste and sex’.
Mr. Deputy Speaker: The honourable Member may go on.
Shrimati Renuka Ray : Turning to the divorce provision in this Code, I concede that these are restricted conditions. The home is the nucleus of society and I do believe that the primary reason for marriage is that it is for the protection of children and as such divorces should not be allowed on flimsy grounds, but for genuine cases of hardship we have to provide. Since 1943, when the Marriage Bill was first introduced, I have had scores of letters and scores of people have come to me with their daughters who have shown to me how grave and how terrible is the hardship which the women do suffer. Unless there is such a provision, both for men and women, it will not meet geneuine requirements.