DR. AMBEDKAR AND THE HINDU CODE BILL 517
I submit that these are most important changes made by the Departmental Bill. Although it is clear that some honourable Members of the Select Committee realise that there were substantial changes introduced in the departmental Bill that may have been a later realisation in view of the guarantee that no substantial changes have been made. In fact their attention may not have been specifically drawn to it and there is a danger that all these details may not have been fully considered by them. That would not have happened if they had confined their attention to the original
Bill and proceeded clause by clause or if they had sat first and given a direction to the Department to prepare.
Mr. Speaker : The honourable Member is again covering the same ground; he has covered it yesterday.
Mr. Naziruddin Ahmad : Sir, I do not wish to repeat the grounds. In
these circumstances I submit that the simple point is that this is a very substantial matter which has prejudiced the fair and full consideration of the Bill by the Select Committee.
I do not wish to cast any aspersion on the Members of the Select Committee, but without a proper comparison of the clause it would be extremely difficult for the Members of the Select Committee to follow all the changes.
We then come to the other matters in connection with this Bill. The question of inheritence is agitating the mind of the country for a long time. The position of the daughter is the most contentious provision of the Bill that I can think of. In fact, I was asked why it was that I was refusing to my Hindu sisters what I have given to my Muslim sisters. The reply is very simple. Under the Muslim Law, the daughter has been given a share. We are not permitted to question the wisdom of that Law; that Law has got to be taken along with various other circumstances, historical, social and others which justify that. There is a kind of justice which has been tolerated and accepted by the Muslim society for 1350 years. But our Hindu sisters have tolerated their lot for about three to four thousand years under a different system. A comparison between the two systems so far as the daughter’s position is concerned, would not be quite relevant. In fact, the
two systems of law approach the matter from different points of view and they depend upon different historical accidents. Under the Muslim Law, the system of inheritance was taken from the old Arabian customs. It arose out of obvious and inevitable circumstances. In Arabia there were no