Discussion on the Hindu Code after return of the Bill from the Select Committee (11th February 1949 to 14th December 1950) - Page 406

DR. AMBEDKAR AND THE HINDU CODE BILL 391

is more useful or that eye. Man and woman are one and nothing more than one. As regards law I tell my sisters throughout the country

that law cannot help them. What can help everybody and also the womenfolk is love and nothing but love. Love between the pair is

the only thing which can make the pair happy. Well, they may get the right of divorce. One woman may be divorced today ; other women may be coming for—marriage the next day. Monogamy may mean

many-gamy; you won’t allow a man to marry a second wife. The first wife will be divorced and he will marry the second day. The third

day he will divorce that wife also and on the fourth day he will marry again. The process will continue. So far as pure love is concerned for that I think character of the people is most important. We must

realize that in this country the people lost their character first and then anything afterwards. So, whatever we have to do in this matter

we have to regain our character. As I say that the importance of hand cannot be compared with the importance of feet, so the importance of man cannot be compared with the importance of woman. I can

rather say one thing. According to our shastra they are the goddess Lakshmi—Women are called in our society Lokshmi, Saraswati,

Grihalakshmi. They are anything and everything. If I may compare man with woman. I can say woman is much more important in the world than man. I can explain this further. If we remove or kill all

men from the world the world will still go on. ( An honourable Member: ‘Except one man.’) Not even one man. I say if all the men in the

world be killed, the world will still continue and the human race will continue. ( Honourable Members. ‘Question’). I can explain it. There are my friends who question my statement. Well, Sir, if you kill all

men today there will be millions of men in the womb of the women. Women are therefore certainly more important so far as the world

is concerned. But those who talk of equality between man and woman want really to separate woman from man. Instead of helping the pair to be happy they are really destructive. As I say their importance

is there; they are the Lakshmi. But at the same time it is very difficult to compare man with woman. Nature has created man and

woman. Their tasks are different, their duties are different and their functions are different. What is the use of comparing the two? No comparison can really stand in this case.

My friends have talked about the provisions of the Bill. I shall

touch only one or two points as regards the daughter’s share in the