DR. AMBEDKAR AND THE HINDU CODE BILL 591
understand people when they say that in politics and in economics we shall be in the year 1950 A.D. but so far as the law is concerned we shall be in 1950 B.C. Sir, to say so is wholly a disintegrating and disastrous proposition. If Hindus have to be one community, if they have to have vitality they must all come under one law, whether it be Dayabhaga or Mitakshra. I can understand some people saying, “Let us have Mitakshara” or “Let Bengal come under Mitakshara”. I can understand other people saying, let them all come under the Dayabhaga law. But to say that Hindus should be dissected into various regional groups, each having its own law, so that if a Bengali goes to Malabar, the courts would have to interpret three types of Hindu law, that I think, Sir, is pronouncing the doom of Hindu society. Sir, the enemies of Hindu society cannot ask for anything better than that Hindus should be administered by a dozen regional laws. Sir, by this Bill we are at last bringing Hindu society under one unified Hindu law, let it be any law, but it should be one unified Hindu law for the entire Hindu community, Sir, in this Bill ....
Sjt. Rohini Kumar Chaudhari : Sir, on a point of order, the hon. Member is speaking communalism in this House. He is talking of unifying all the Hindus, probably against the Muslims and others. He wants one law for the Hindus ; so he is preaching communalism.
Mr. Deputy Speaker : This point of order only enlivens the debate, but it is not really any point of order.
The Honourable Shri K. Santhanam : Sir, the day this Bill is put on the Statute Book, the whole process of assimilation will begin and it will not be long before the rest of the Indians in this country will begin to conform to that law, and if necessary, we shall give them minor changes so that the whole country will come under one civil code. Sir, this process is not a disintegrating process but a cementing process. The process will go on and before long.
Pandit Lakshmi Kanta Maitra : It is going on outside.
Shrimati G. Durgabai (Madras : General) : It is going on inside.
Pandit Lakshmi Kanta Maitra : Inspired by you.
The Honourable Shri K. Santhanam : I have been in this House too long to be worried by these interruptions.
Now, the question is whether we should prefer the Dayabhaga law or the Mitakshara law. My friend Pandit Mukut Bihari Lal said that Mitakshara law is followed by twenty crores of people and Dayabhaga is followed by five crores, and asked why should we choose the law of the five crores rather than the law of the twenty crores. I do feel