398 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
*HINDU CODE— contd.
† Shrimati G. Durgabai (Madras: General): It is with great pleasure that I rise to support the motion made by the Honourable Minister of Law. I also feel that I should express my deep debt of gratitude to Sir, B. N. Rau and his colleagues on the Committee who have bestowed great labour on the report which forms the basis of this Bill.
The Bill to codify the Hindu law when it goes on the State Book will be a great landmark in the social history of this country. Before I go in greater detail into the main provisions of this Bill I would like to stress one point. Honourable Members are aware of the fact that the provisions of this Bill are of a permissive or enabling nature. They impose no sort of obligation or compulsion on the orthodox section of the Hindus. Their only effect is to give the growing and clamant body of Hindus, men and women, the freedom to live a life which they wish to live without in any way affecting or infringing their liberty to adhere to the old ways.
I wish to confine my remarks only to one or two main objections that have been raised against the bill. The first objection is against the attempt at codification itself. It is urged that many of the principles of the Hindu Law are now well-settled, and as it would unsettle the settled law, a code is not called for at all. The other objection is that far from preserving the principles of Hindu Law which have been handed down from generation to generation an attempt at codification would tend to introduce principles which are quite alien to Hindu society. It has been said that the Legislature has no right
12 NOON to alter the law of smritis, shrutis and sages of great repute. An other charge against the Hindu Code Bill is that it seeks to introduce changes of a revolutionary character and therefore, it will destroy the law laid down by smritis and Dharma. My answer to all these objections is that it is just because many of the principles of the Hindu Law are now well settled, that an attempt to set down all these principles into a systematised and easily understood code should be made.
Hindu Law as it exists today is rigid without being certain. Many judicial decisions and precendents have outlived their usefulness. As an English writer puts it, the case law on the subject has become a luxuriant jungle where it is not possible to see the wood for the
- C.A. (Leg.) D., Vol. II, Part II, 1st March 1949, pp.591-1030.
† Ibid. pp. 991-95.