DR. AMBEDKAR AND THE HINDU CODE BILL 375
quintessence of all philosophy and all religion. In that, very well-known verse, Shri Krishna says—
“Streeyo vaishyastatha sudrastepi yanti paramgatim.”
Women, Vaishyas and the Shudras who were apparently the down trodden and the suppressed classes or castes of that age, even they— Krishna says— are on a par, on a footing of equality, with Brahmana and the others.
Shri L. Krishnaswami Bharati (Madras : General): You are right, Mr. Kamath.
Shri H. V. Kamath : So far as moksha and the paragati are concerned, there is absolutely no bar to the attainment of the same by women. I am sorry that at the present day there are some men, and even certain swamis — so called religious or spiritual heads—who believe that man and woman should be placed on an unequal footing. I agree that they are not identical in all respects………….
Maulana Hasrat Mohani (U. P.: General): How are they equal ?
Shri H. V. Kamath : But to say that they are unequal and to buttress that argument by fantastic reasons is to my mind shocking. The other day I had the good-luck—or the ill-luck—of listening to a swami saying that man and woman are unequal. And, pray, what were the reasons for that statement ? He said fantastic, the House will agree—he said that man grows a moustache and woman does not. I am not joking, Sir, many of my friends were present at the meeting which the swami addresed, and he said it in all earnestness, in all seriousness, that man grows a moustache, woman cannot grow a moustache, and the woman at most can bear three, four or five children in a year.
An Honourable Member: In a year?
Shri H. V. Kamath : Depending upon whether she produces triplets, quadruplets or quintuplets. Sir, he went on to say that man, however is potentially capable of being the father of a hundred or more children. This, Sir, to my mind is a fantastic argument.
When we talk of equality of man and woman, we regard that on a spiritual basis which has been envisaged again by Shri Krishna in the Gita. He says:
“Sarvabhutasthamatmanam sarvabhutani chatmani”
That is the basis, that is the yardstick, that is the measuring rod for equality of human beings or between man and woman.
“ Yo mam pashyati sarvatra
sarvam cha mayi pashyati.”