566 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
The brother is living with brother. He is not separate and as soon as you give the right of inheritance to daughter’s daughter, to daughter’s son in preference to the brother or the brother’s son my respectful submission is that the society will not tolerate or even if it tolerates, the peace and quiet that exists today will disappear in no time. Therefore, you have to be very wise before laying any novel rules of succession so contrary, so repugnant to the accepted principles of Hindu law.
Now, I come, Sir to the doctrine of bringing daughter in the category of simultaneous heir with son.
The Honourable Dr. B. R. Ambedkar : I thought he had said something about it. No elaboration is needed.
Pandit Mukut Bihari Lal Bhargava : Now, Sir, it has been argued that the daughter had a specific share in the inheritance of her father according to the scriptures and the reliance is placed upon Manu and Yajnavalkya, but my cursory knowledge of these Hindu law texts is that whatever share is allotted is in the case of an unmarried daughter and we have no objection at all, even today to allot any share to an unmarried daughter. The question arises even today, what is the position? Can anybody deny that ? Not one daughter among thousands remains unmarried. The daughter is given, according to the status of the family, the best education and is treated on the same footing as the sons. When her marriage takes place she is given a dowry according to the status of the family. On marriage her relationship to the brothers is not cut off. As far as my experience goes, she is invited for every function in the family and on occasions of marriage in her parent’s family a quota is assigned to her according to custom. Can anyone say that resort to a court of law will bring peace and franquillity in the home? Such a step will only aggravate the situation and the provisions in the Bill for resort to court are there to our utter shame. We do not want that our daughters and sisters should go to a court of law. It was never contemplated by our sages that they should seek the help of the law. The position assigned to our daughters in the family is of such a unique character that it is difficult to find a parallel to it anywhere. Even after marriage, as I was saying, the daughter has a definite share in the family budget for festive occasions. The question was asked, whether she can go to a court of law to enforce her rights ? Sir, if in a family the father or the brother of a girl is unmindful of his duties to her, he is looked down upon by the