454 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
Mr. Chairman : The honourable member is going into the history of the amendments to Hindu Law.
Mr. Naziruddin Ahmad : I submit that the Hindu Married Women’s Right to Property Act was the first mistake and I shall show that this contained within it seeds of other blunders culminating in the present Bill.
Shrimati G. Durgabai : That was a serious reflection of the legislature then existing.
Mr. Naziruddin Ahmad : I submit that the mistake was admitted by that legislature itself and I can quote passages that that legislature admitted that mat was a mistake. ( Interruptions ) .
Mr. Chairman : Order, order.
Mr. Naziruddin Ahmad : I submit, I should show how the mistake came about. In fact in providing for the widow of the propositus of the deceased son, grandson and of the great-grandson, the position of the daughter became absolutely uncertain. Nobody knew what the position of the daughter was at that time under this Act.
The Honourable Dr. B. R. Ambedkar : An undertaking was taken from my friend Dr. Deshmukh by Sir N. N. Sircar that the Government will support the measure only if he agreed to drop the word daughter and he promised that he would drop the word ‘daughter’
Mr. Naziruddin Ahmad : I am as much familiar with the history of that law as the Honourable Dr. Ambedkar.
Mr. Chairman : Is the honourable member going to take more time?
Mr. Naziruddin Ahmad : Yes, Sir.
Mr. Chairman : In that case, he may resume his speech later and we may now adjourn.
The Assembly then adjourned till a Quarter to Eleven of the Clock on Thursday, the 3rd March, 1949.