596 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
compulsion is monogamy. I want all my friends and Members of this House to stand up and say whether they approve this reform or not. They have been very prudently silent on this subject and in spite of speaking for three hours, I don’t see why people avoid this subject. Do they want to establish monogamy or not ?
Pandit Lakshmi Kanta Maitra : Monogamy is already established.
The Honourable Shri K. Santhanam : Some people actually enjoy the luxury of two or more wives, others enjoy mentally the possibility of more wives!
Shri H. V. Kamath : What about polyandry ?
The Honourable Shri K. Santhanam : Therefore I say this that this is one thing in which the old Aryan tradition had made a profound mistake. It is time that we who consider ourselves to be the glorious descendants of the great Aryans now confess that it was a mistake and correct it rather voluntarily and unanimously. This polygamy must go. But complete and absolute monogamy will also become a legal fiction unless you provide reasonable facilities for divorce in very hard cases. Unless we provide such an outlet, it will bring evil.
Smt. Rohini Kumar Chaudhari : Do you agree for the women being prosecuted for adultery ?
The Honourable Shri K. Santhanam : I agree to women being subjected to same penalties for the same crimes but probably my hon. friend from Assam has a soft corner for that subject. Monogamy and divorce provisions go together. They must be taken as one co-ordinated law and in this respect this Bill does propose a reform which is not sanctioned by the Shastras but this is a reform. . . .
Pandit Govind Malaviya (U. P. : General): Do I understand that the hon. member will oppose monogamy also if divorce is not sanctioned ?
The Honourable Shri K. Santhanam : I will support monogamy in any case but I will support it in a rational form rather than in an irrational form. If my friend wants monogamy and at the same time that wherever a husband is impotent or a criminal, there should be no divorce or vice versa, then I think he wants monogamy in an irrational form. I want it in a rational form. That is the difference between us.
I will just touch one other aspect. One other great merit of this Bill it takes away all legal sanction from the caste system. We