562 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
that existed in the joint family system. His only point is that true characteristics have been shown off by case-law and therefore, the institution should be put an end to. I say it is a counsel of despair. That is a view which, at least I for myself cannot support. To me this joint family institution is an institution of which any nation in the world can well be proud of. It is an institution, Sir, which anticipated the socialistic and communistic form of society, centuries before our time. It is an institution, Sir, where even the invalid and the disabled members of the family have equal right to the corpus of the family. It is an institution which .....
Sirjut Kuladhar Chaliha (Assam : General): It is not prevalent in Bengal.
Pandit Mukut Bihari Lal Bhargava : Bengal, as far as my meagre knowledge goes is partly governed by Mitakshara and partly by the Dayabhaga system.
An Honourable Member: No, all by Dayabhaga system.
Pandit Mukut Bihari Lal Bhargava : Therefore, Sir, my point was that the axe of legislation should not have been applied by the learned Law Minister to cut at the very root of the joint family tree, if it does not rest on such firm and solid foundations as it did at the time of our ancients. Legislation should have been undertaken to protect it. In the time of the British, because we were subjected to foreign rule, and they were not at all interested in keeping in tact our time-honoured institutions. In fact, they had contempt for them. When our own national government has come into power, is it too much to expect that they should attempt to revive and restore this time-honoured institution to its previous glory rather than destroy it. I submit, Sir, by this Bill, the Hindu joint family is being shattered to pieces. What the Rau Committee proposed was not so fraught with danger as what is proposed in the provisions of this Bill. I invite attention to clauses 86 and 87 of the present Bill. The Rau Committee in clauses 1 and 2 of Part III-A only laid down that on the demise of a coparcenar in the family, the right in the property will not devolve by survivorship but will be by succession. That is intended to keep intact the coparcenary for at least one generation. Even that was not tolerated or liked by the present Select Committee and some of its members, including the Law Minister, with the result that what sections 86 and