380 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
are deep. But those who light a little candle in the darkness will help to make the whole sky aflame.”
I would commend this statement of the Hindu Dharma to those of my friends who oppose the Bill, even the consideration of the Bill on grounds of Dharma. Who does not know and who does not recollect that this cry of ‘ Dharma in danger’ or ‘Society in danger’ was raised by those that wanted to block every reform of Society attempted in the past ? Is it not a fact that twenty-five years ago, when the movement against asprisliyata untouchability was started, some of our men, even high-class orthodox Hindus said that Hinduism was in danger, social order was in danger and that disruption of society was coming ? Yet, did we not persist in that muchneeded reform ? Did we not help to accelerate the evolution of Hindu society on an egalitarian basis ? As a culmination of these attempts, have not we adopted an Article in the draft Constitution prohibiting untouchability and banning it in any shape or form ? If we could do that in spite of what the orthodox pandits claim for Hindu Dharma surely I do not see any reason why we should not proceed to legislate or provide for the regulation of social relations and personal law.
Again, Sir, honourable Members will recollect the opposition that was started against the Sarda Act, which tabooed child-marriage, on the ground that Hindu Dharma was in danger and that Hindu religion and Hindu society were in danger. In the last century when the custom of sati, cremation of the widow with her husband, was sought to be abolished, these same reactionaries who block the road to progress denounced the attempt stating that the Hindu-Dharma sanctioned sati and that it granted the highest salvation to women and therefore it should be continued. In spite of their agitation and obstruction, much-needed reforms like that were put through.
Pandit Thakur Das Bhargava said the other day that this Bill had not reached the rural population and that the rustics, the people in rural areas have not seen or read or considered it. He expressed anxiety to know their reactions to the Bill, before it was proceeded with in this House. When he said so, he forgot the fact that some of the Bills he himself had introduced had not been seen by the peasants of his own Hissar. I wonder if on his advice we are going to circulate copies of our Bills to every village and hamlet and homestead in the country.
Shri Mahavir Tyagi (U. P.: General): Peasants do not count these days.