576 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
a fact that if there is a quarrel—naturally there is bound to be quarrel in families so many times—if these provisions exist in the bill, they will give an incentive to the couple at any time of quarrel or even family scuffle to seek the remedy of the court and Sir, it is very cheap because the charge of adultery can be brought by a woman against her husband or a husband against a woman very easily and there are interested persons everywhere to disrupt the families. Result would be for very flimsy reasons there will be cases of divorce. It therefore will be ruinous to Hindu society. Our society has survived the onslaught of so many centuries and has successfully stood in the world as the ideal form of institution notwithstanding the onslaughts because of the inherent system of pativratabhakti. These provisions do not even help those communities which are by custom taking resort to divorce. They create a great obstacle and compel them to go to court. It is opposed to our culture and civilization and our accepted ideals of ideal marriage life. One argument has been repeated often viz., there is nothing radical or revolutionary about this measure, and the provisions regarding marriage and divorce are of a permissive and enabling character. If that is so, why not scrap all these provisions from clause 5 to 51 and make one clause in the Bill that every Hindu shall be competent to marry any person he likes because that will be only an enabling provision. He can very well, at his own risk, marry his own sister. Therefore it is no use providing such a comprehensive bill with so many sections. Why not scrap them and provide one general section and it will be a model of simplicity as also a model of the civilization and the stage through which we are passing. My submission therefore is these provisions from a Hindu oriental point of view are simply repulsive and could not be incorporated and cannot be tolerated in a bill of this nature.
I come to the next point. Under the provisions of this bill, clause
91 is the relevant clause—every property that comes to a female either by inheritance from father or from father-in-law or from any other source will be her absolute property and the rules of devolution of female property are provided in clauses 106 to 109. These provisions are also not conducive to the attainment of peace in family life, and are of a disastrous character. Here again every provision is opposed to the accepted conception of Hindu ideal and you will find that the property which a female inherits and which according to clause 91 will be the absolute property of the female will descend in the order also prescribed under clauses 106 to 109. That is, the first persons