DR. AMBEDKAR AND THE HINDU CODE BILL 421
in the country and unless as public men you have your ears stuffed with cotton, as most public men among us have, you will have to pay very very dearly for it. In any case, as a Hindu, I emphatically protest against the introduction of this heterodox concept of divorce into the scheme of Hindu marriage.
Now let us come to the question of inheritance. There has also been an innovation in this regard though I do not want to go into very great details. But there also I would like to tell my honourable sister, Shrimati Durgabai, that we are firm believers in the judgement of the Hindu lawgivers of old : we are firm believers in the equality of the sexes, though not in the sense in which she talks or her friends talk. Equality must be in the sense of equality of opportunity. You cannot make physically man and woman the same. Equality must therefore have some other meaning. There is no feeling of inferiority attached to women, there is no discrimination with regard to the education of daughters or their marriage. Our shastras have provided :
“ Kanyapyevam Palaniya, Shikshaniyatigatant Deya Boraya Vidusha, Dhana Ratna Samanvita.”
It means that the daughter also should be educated in the same way as boys, and in the fullness of time, given over in marriage to a proper groom with dowry including rich jewellery. And in my society, in the Hindu society it is enjoined :
“ Yatra naryastu Pujyante, Ramante Tatra Devata. ”
It means that Gods bless the households where women are honoured. Women folk has been accorded such a high and exalted place in Hindu society. I do not deny that there may be hard cases: there are hard cases, where women are not treated in the way they ought to be. But if you have fallen off the ideal of your sages, your saints, your lawgivers or your leaders, they are not to blame for they have not let you down. The blame attaches to us. If you cannot approximate to the ideals of Mahatma Gandhi in your conduct but preach them in season and out of season or take his name in everything but not follow in his footsteps, the fault is not Mahatmaji’s, the fault is ours. Similarly you cannot impugn your Hindu Shastras or law-givers. They have set the standards quite high and it is for you to act up to them. Notwithstanding our best efforts it is not possible to eliminate every case of injustice or hardship. Human institutions are imperfect. No human ingenuity can devise any procedure, any machinery or any agency by which all possibilities of social injustice can be completely eliminated. Let us be frank about that and let us try to realise that.