582 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
Better do away with these provisions commencing from clause 5 to
- They are wholly opposed to Hindu ideology, to Hindu culture and to Hindu civilization. That is my submission in respect of the marriage provisions. As regards the divorce clauses I had already made my submission. About adoption, I had said and I repeat it today that the very conception of adoption is a creation of Hindu law, and if you cannot in this modern age, on account of what you call your advanced views, subscribe to that ideal of adoption, then do away with adoption altogether but don’t provide for a hotch-potch adoption of the nature you have done. According to the provisions of the Bill, every person, every Hindu, can be adopted as a son. There is no restriction of Gotra, there is no restriction of caste, there is no restriction of the status, and it is left to the person concerned to adopt any person. Those, who are well conversant with the codes of Hindu law, very well know how the adoption of a stranger in the family has been the source of litigation. There are well-established, customs and usages having behind them the sanctity and authority of judicial pronouncements whereby only a member of a family of the same Gotra can be adopted. All those usages, all those well-established customs are very easily given the go-by; without even thinking of the disastrous consequences this step is being taken. I shudder to think of the very terrible consequences that are bound to follow from a provision of this character. Better do away with the institution of adoption altogether rather than provide for adoption of this kind. In fact, I may be permitted to remark—and I do so with full responsibility—that the sponsors of this Bill had an inherent abhorrence, an inherent hatred against everything related to Hindu culture, and that is why we find provisions of this character being included without appreciating or finding out what were the motives of the Hindu lawgivers in providing for adoption. The sole purpose of adoption under the Hindu Law is that a person may have a son to administer to his spiritual needs, to offer oblations on his death. That is the sole purpose of the conception of adoption but by making a provision that any Tom, Dick and Harry can be adopted you are cutting at the very root of that conception. Do not therefore, make such a provision. Better do away with adoption. It doesn’t exist in so many societies. Where is the necessity to perpetuate it if you are so averse to it ? But then do not make a mockery of the conception of adoption.
Sir, I shall submit that every provision in this Bill has got a stigma which is anti-Hindu and therefore cannot be acceptable to any Hindu. To me this Bill is an insidious effort on the part of its sponsors to