DR. AMBEDKAR AND THE HINDU CODE BILL 411
Speaker, I am not so big a fool as to hope that many will be convinced by what I say, but I do hope that someone of us at least, may give some little thought to what 1 say. I earnestly plead that Hinduism, the Hindu Law; the Hindu culture have got immemorial traditions, agelongmoorings, which it would not perhaps be wise for us to sweep away by one stroke of the pen. I make this appeal to my friends to the right and to the left. Sir, I am apprehensive tills is just what the present Hindu Code Bill is going to do for us. I do not find anything Hindu about it. It can be more properly called an ‘un-Hindu’ or ‘Anti-Hindu’ Code.
Mr. Nazruddin Ahmad (West Bengal: Muslim): Muslim Code.
Pandit Lakshmi Kanta Maitra: Whatever else it may be, it is not a Hindu Code. It does not breathe the spirit of Hinduism : it reeks of un-Hindu ideas : a spirit of supreme contempt for anything Hindu permutes the whole Bill from the beginning to end.
Shri H. V. Kamath : What is the Hindu spirit ?
Pandit Lakshmi Kanta Maitra : Sir, do you call that Hinduism ? You please think over your system of marriage and inheritance which form the cornerstones of Hindu system or Hindu society ; are you going to undermine it in the way in which you are going to do ? That is the question that you will have to answer not only to us here but to our countrymen outside and to the posterity.
Sir, I do feel that if we codify the law in the way it is sought to be done, as a simple intellectual pastime, codification for the sake of codification, I will plead with my honourable friends that it is unwise to do that. It is not necessary. No need for it has been felt by anybody. Look at the opinions of the judges of the different High Courts and the District Courts. They are the people who have to administer the Hindu law. Has the Government got a vast volume of opinion embodying the demands from the judiciary that Hindu law require codification and that also in the way in which it is sought to be done ? No. Has there been such a general demand from the people who have to guide themselves, guide their lives and conduct by the provisions of this law ? Have they demanded it ? Has there been that kind of demand ? My honourable friend to the right says : No. It is perfectly correct.
Shri L. Krishnaswami Bharathi: He supports you.
Pandit Lakshmi Kanta Maitra: My honourable friend says : he supports me. He supports truth. The country will be taken by surprise