578 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
Shri L. Krishnaswami Bharathi: I am told that they do not even pass through such a village.
Pandit Mukut Bihari Lal Bhargava: Under the rules of devolution after the father and mother who are the persons entitled to inherit the property of the female ? If it provides that that will go to the husband’s relations, it is repulsive and it will create family feuds. Why should property go to the husband’s relations, if it has come to the daughter from the father ? That is why our law-givers have made several categories of stridhana which will accrue to different categories of people. You are not competent to understand the higher motives of our law-givers who made those salient provisions and you want to sacrifice their ideals at the alter of simplicity. According to our accepted notions of stridhan, if the property has come from the side of the father it is the father’s relations that are entitled to it. Why should not a provision of this character be incorporated in sections 106 to 109. That would be more acceptable to Hindu ideology .
I now come to the other provisions of the Bill. On the day the Code comes into force, the joint tenancy will be deemed to have been converted into tenancy-in-common. The Bill makes a provision in clause 115 that it is open to every heir to go to a court of law and claim partition of the family property. Is this provision conducive to the preservation and maintenance of peace in the family ? After the death of the father, the daughter, the son, the widow of a pre-deceased son, etc., will rush to a court of law and claim partition as required by section 115. This will be like the Islamic law, entirely repugnant to Hindu ideology and cannot be tolerated in a Bill of this kind.
It is claimed that this Code will resolve conflicts of opinion, that it is an exhaustive piece of legislation providing remedy for every malady in Hindu dharma. Are there not any omissions in the Bill and until they are filled in, will it not shatter the Hindu society ?
Under clauses 88 and 89, you abrogate the doctrine of Pious Obligation. Under clause 89 you provide that the family members will be entitled to pay the duties existing on the joint family. What provision have you made when the father dies ? Who is to bear the funeral expenses or make provision for shradhas, or the other charitable objects connected with such occasions. Once this Code is brought on the Statute Book will there not be fight and feud between the different heirs ? On the death of a father every son and daughter will be so absorbed in assimilating the wealth of the father that they will forget their duty to