366 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
provisional attempts and I shall make that attempt. I think, as far as the present topic is concerned, the fundamental points which the Hindus have kept before themselves are that there should be restraint on enjoyment all along. Not encouragement of enjoyment but restraint on enjoyment was their rule and according to them, for the community of interest, the individual should lose himself.
Now, applying this principle of restraint, I submit that the whole Chapter on Marriage has to be recast. In this respect it has been stated that because ninety per cent, of the people by custom have this right of divorce, what are you going to do ? It is asked, are you going to impose this custom of ninety per cent, on the remaining ten percent ? I submit an argument of this sort is a very good piece of rhetoric, but not of logic. What we have to consider and what the Honourable Doctor has to consider is not what is the custom, but what is good and what is beneficial. We have to consider what ought to be there. That has been the criterion all along and that should be the criterion. There will otherwise be anomaly. For instance, among ninety per cent. of the people there is the custom of drinking. We are certainly not for the matter of that prohibiting prohibition. It cannot be denied that there is the custom of drinking.
The Honourable Dr. B. R. Ambedkar: It is not a custom.
Shri V. S. Sarwate : All right, you may think so. I am at liberty to express the thinking in that way. ( An honourable Member ;: “There are not ninety per cent, drunkards.”) It is one think to call it a custom in the community and another thing to call them drunkards. That is the difference. It is no argument to say that a certain custom is there and therefore it should be continued by law. The argument should be whether it is beneficial and if we consider from this point of view, and if a certain section of the Hindu community says that marriage is indissoluble, why force them and say that there shall be a dissolution, if the parties so choose ? Argument may be advanced, that there is in this Bill no necessity, there is no compulsion, but there is an option. The option is always there. The option to a drunkard is he may or he may not go to the drinking shop. There is always the option, but he does go all the same when there is a drinking shop and a drinking shop has therefore to be closed by law. If it is to apply to a certain portion of the society, I would have welcomed it. In law of marriage, there should be monogamy. I admit it. I would go further and say that if you consider that from the point of view of restraint, there