DR. AMBEDKAR AND THE HINDU CODE BILL 423
money and just as one feels relieved as soon as that trust or deposit is made over to his rightful owner. So do I feel today having made over Sakuntala to her husband. ( Interruption ) Not in these days of law of limitation but I am talking of those days. “Nyasa [”], means a deposit, trust. If my honourable friend Dr. Kamath wants further interpretation, I am perfectly willing to give that outside the Chamber.
Shri H. V. Kamath : But I am not a doctor ?
Pandit Lakshmi Kanta Maitra : More than a doctor: you are doctor, philosopher, lawyer, and legislator. I have great respect for you ; you are a nice chap and above all a great patriot.
Sir, that is the conception of girls. So, if the Hindu law-givers did not give them a right of ownership equal to that of the son in the family, it was not because of any aversion, not because of any dislike but because of the simple reason that the girl is made for her husband’s family; she is not to become a part and parcel of the family where she is born. That is the whole thing. And therefore no question of injustice or inequality arises. I do not know of any school of Hindu law prevalent in any part of the country where a daughter has been given a distinct share equal to that of the son in the property of her father.
Shri A. Karunakaran Menon (Madras : General): It exists in Malabar.
Pandit Lakshmi Kanta Maitra : I am glad that in the South they have got so many things.
Sreematty Annie Mascarene (Travancore State): In Travancore too, sons and daughters share equally.
Pandit Lakshmi Kanta Maitra : I am grateful for this information but all such information emerges from the South ; and if my friends from the South . . .
Shrimati Hansa Mehta (Bombay : General): Are they not Hindus in the South ?
Pandit Lakshmi Kanta Maitra : Yes, but if they are proud of all that in the South, let them not deny us our legitimate right to feel proud of our manners and customs in the North and North-east. That is my humble submission to them. I do not like this type of argument. Because some order of succession, some order of inheritance prevalent in Bombay or some other part has been found suitable there, therefore it must be bodily transplanted into Bengal and elsewhere