DR. AMBEDKAR AND THE HINDU CODE BILL 425
based on Hindu shastras. I have to make myself clear before the House. It may reject what I say ; it does not matter; but I represent a constituency—not a purely territorial one—but the constituency of a vast body of men and women who believe in Hinduism and Hindu Society governed by the injunctions of Hindu sages of old. Sir, I represent for the time being the views of that constituency. It is true that I have been returned to this Constituent Assembly by indirect election—with four or five votes only, but I may assure the House that I have fought some of the most contested elections in the country from some of the most important constituencies. Immediately before coming to this Constituent Assembly I was representing the city of Calcutta in the Central Legislature. Before that, I was representing the Presidency Division composed of several districts with lakhs and lakhs of people, and the Presidency Division is admitted to be one of the most cultured divisions in India. I know the people. I know their pulse. My native town is a famous seat of ancient classical learning. It is my district Nadia, in Bengal, that gave the new schools of Smritis, Tantras, Nyaya, Baishnava Philosophy etc. I am not digressing but I shall be failing in my duty to the inheritors of this great culture if I did not try to place before the House their views and ideas with regard to these matters of the Hindu Code. I owe it to myself and to my community to give my views so that judgement may not go against us by default. Any way, Let me hurry on.
I have shown you the place, the honour, which our Shastras have given to our women. The famous queen Indumali was dead and King Ajah was bemoaning her death thus :
Grihini Sachiva Mittah Sakhi Priya Shishya Lalita Kalavidhan, Karmia Bimalkhena Mritywui Harata vade King Na Ma Hritam
“Oh ruthless God of Death ! What have you not taken away from me? What mischief have you not done to me ? By one blow, you have taken away one, who was my Grihini —you know what Grihini means, the queen of the house—who was my Sachiva — Sachiva means Minister. She was my minister. Not only was she the queen of my family but my minister, my bosom friend in privacy and my devoted playmate in love.”
That, Sir, is the position which our womenfolk used to occupy in our society. Therefore, it cannot be said that out of sheer greed, grouse, animosity or jealousy or whatever you call it, the womenfolk has been relegated to a position of interiority. If she has not been given a distinct