32 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
Therefore, I would submit that those who are members of the Select Committee should consider these things and try to make necessary amendments.
*** Dr. B. V. Keskar** (U.P.: General): Sir, I take this opportunity of congratulating the Honourable the Law Minister for bringing this Bill forward in spite of the inordinate delay that has taken place since this idea was first conceived. Sir there is no doubt that this is a very, very important Bill. As my Honourable friend, Dr. Pattabhi said, I do not think there has been any bill so radical and so revolutionary which is trying to change the very foundations of Hindu society, a society which has remained fossilized for the last thousand years. No doubt and it is to that that I want to draw the attention of this House and the members of the Select Committee, the very fact that this society has remained fossilized for the last thousand years and has developed such inertia, such lethargy, in the body politic that all manner and all kinds of forces will come forward to impede the passing of this Bill and passing of any Bill to change the existing structure of Hindu society. It is to this inertia, this lethargy of Hindu society which has probably become its bane, that the members of the Select Committee and the honourable the Law Minister will have to look to, because I have no doubt that until this Bill is passed, to the very last moment every sort of effort, will be made to see that this Bill does not become a law. The changes that are suggested are such that there is a fundamental change in Hindu law. I know mat orthodoxy will try in every way. My honourable friend, Mr. Naziruddin Ahmad was good enough to voice the alarm of a certain section of the orthodox society about the revolutionary nature of this Bill. No doubt, some of the changes suggested appear revolutionary. But as Dr. Pattabhi rightly observed the changes are really not revolutionary. They are due to the fact that for the last so many centuries, Hindu society has not been allowed to evolve. So we have to try to change in a few days what would have been done in centuries. I would, therefore, ask the Members of the Select Committee not to fall a prey to the pressure of what is called the so-called orthodox opinion which is really the opinion of the inertia of so many centuries which does not want anything to change, but after thinking over it for years and years,
- C.A. (Leg.) D., Vol. IV, 9th April 1948, pp. 3647-48.