410 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
law, when the britishers came here, was interpreted with the help of Indian Pandits. They used to call them Judge Pandits who ransacked all the Smrities and Dharma Shastras and interpreted the law. This process continued till they succeeded in evolving from the rest mass of Smrities and Nibhandhanas and usages, a system of judicial principles constituting the Hindu Law which now hold the field.
Sir, it is well known that the Hindu Law has the oldest pedigree of all the known systems of jurisprudence in the world.
Dr. Mono Mohan Das (West Bengal: General): It is unjust.
Pandit Lakshmi Kanta Maitra : Yes, the Hindu law is unjust ! Hindu society is unjust! Hindus are unjust! It is not possible for anybody to reply to an interruption that the Hindu law is unjust. It took only three words to compose that interruption. I do not know if I have the capacity to reply to a sweeping charge like that made in three words ‘It is unjust’, Whether a system is good or bad, it is for the society to judge ; it is not for disappointed or disgrauntled persons to judge. But I may say that the one surest proof of its soundness is that it has been able to stand the test of centuries. No system which is intrinsically bad, unsound or unjust can endure for a long time. Hindu law and the Hindu social system governed by it have been able to withstand the shocks and revolutions which have swept over the country during the ages past. Historic cataclysms have swept off the feet of ancient civilisation of countries like Greece, Rome, Assyria, Babylonia—which have all crumbled down—whereas Hindu culture or community, which cannot date its origin, still continues to function with all the vigor and vitality, and I am sure, Providence will allow it to function, till we set about to undermine its very foundations, by legislating in these reckless and lighthearted ways. If there was anything essentially weak in the foundations of Hinduism it would not have been able to survive the upheavals that overwhelmed it throughout its long and chequered history. This country has been subjected to foreign rule for over a thousand years. History will tell you how she has shown her wonderful adaptability, reflection will reveal to you that the Hindu law has had in it the germs of flexibility and adaptability which have enabled it to adjust itself at all times to the changing needs and to meet the challenges of the times.
Shrimati G. Durgabai: Hear, hear.
Shrimati Renuka Ray: There is a change now. (Interruption ).
Pandit Lakshmi Kanta Maitra: I am glad that I get a spate of interruption, which gives me breathing time. Please do that singly. Mr. Deputy