386 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
An Honourable Member : Who is that ?
Shri H. V. Kamath : No names here please.
Mr. Tajamul Husain : I have not been able to understand ; does my honourable friend agree with polyandry ?
Shri H. V. Kamath : I will only say that
Mr. Tajamul Hussain : Only an unmarried man can say so.
Shri H. V. Kamath : Sometimes, where a couple has been married for a long time, the Hindu mind cannot reconcile itself to the breaking of marriage ties with the wife even though the purpose of marriage is being frustrated. Therefore from the standpoint of love and humanity the new Code should provide, in my mind that on such an occasion a husband can get permission from his wife to marry another wife, and if she consents then the Court should not stand in the way. But the ideal of marriage as has been stated by Pandit Thakurdas Bhargava should be one in property and love. I shall go further and say that there should be two minds with but a single thought, two hearts that beat as one.
Shrimati Hansa Mehta (Bombay: General): In Polygamy there will be more than two hearts.
Shri H. V. Kamath : I am not against polyandry if the husband does not mind it.
Shrimati Purnima Banarjee : Very liberal !
Shri H. V. Kamath : I take my stand on the principle of equality and I go to the extreme limit for both man and woman. It has been a regretable incident or development of our history—our long and ancient Hindu history—that whatever rights women enjoyed in the early Aryan Age—the Vedic, Upanishad and Smriti age—these rights fell into disuse and were not given effect to in the later medieval age. I hope that this Code will so work that women, whose paradise was lost in the dark medieval age, paradise they will regain in the modern age.
I have received a little warning from a friend outside, telling me in the name of God, in the name of Mahatma Gandhi, the Father of the Nation, in the name of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, please do not vote for this Bill. That very argument, I think, very well applies to a vote in favour of the Bill. I can say ................
Shri B. L. Sondhi (East Punjab: General): Is mat friend male or female ?