DR. AMBEDKAR AND THE HINDU CODE BILL 429
honourable friend read the Hindu Law. Even as it is under the Hindu Law, all categories of daughters are entitled to Streedhana property.
Shrimati G. Durgabai: No, no, no, no.
Pandit Lakshmi Kanta Maitra : I say, yes, yes, yes, yes. Thus the daughter is provided according to the present Hindu Law. I cannot go on correcting the misapprehensions of others. The Hindu law is there. The members of the legal profession know it. I need not labour the point I believe, that there is sure to be more fragmentation. This will inevitabily lead to increased testametary disposition and consequent litigation and ultimate ruination.
An Honourable Member: Already there is fragmentation.
Pandit Lakshmi Kanta Maitra : Yes, but two wrongs do not make one right. Because there is fragmentation already, is no argument for making provision for further fragmentation in the shape of more shares to property.
Sir, in this field of inheritance, another innovation has been introduced and I think that is the most devastating of all changes.
Shri B. Das : That is not the principle of the Bill. You can drop it.
Pandit Lakshmi Kanta Maitra : What is the principle of the Bill ? Shri B. Das ; I am referring to partition and that is not the main principle.
Pandit Lakshmi Kanta Maitra : The system of inheritance is the backbone of the Bill. Under this Bill you are going to scrap the Mitakshara law. Make no mistake about it. The right to property by birth and survivorship, which is the basic foundation of Mitakshara law, is going to be swept away. This Mitakshara system of law has been governing the country for hundreds of years till there was evolved in Bengal the Dayabhaga law founded on the principle of natural justice and affection. Many of my friends who are supporters of the Bill have told me that I should be the last person to oppose it inasmuch as it introduces the principle of inheritance enunciated in the Dayabhaga law of my province. My reply to them was that that was no satisfaction to me. I do not want even if the well-meaning Social Reformers in India wants that that system should be adopted. Even if a superman or dictator comes and tells me: ‘Look here, the law of inheritance in Bengal should be made applicable to all India’, I would be the first man to raise my voice of protest against it. The