598 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
this is really complementary to the Constitution which we have enacted and it is in the supreme fitness of things that the same body which enacted the Constitution will also be enacting this Hindu Code into Law. I hope it will be put on the Statute Book and our descendants will say that these people not only enacted the Constitution but also reformed the Hindu law.
Pandit Lakshmi Kanta Maitra : Destroyed the Constitution !
The Honourable Shri K. Santhanam : I believe our ancestors are watching and are blessing us for this.
Shri Loknath Misra : On a point of information. My friend has just now sworn by the Vedanta and the Bhagvad Gita. Is he prepared to reject any provision that will go against the tenets of these ?
The Honourable Shri K. Santhanam : If they are based on wrong premises, I am bound to reject them.
Mr. Deputy Speaker : It is unnecessary to carry on this argument.
The Honourable Shri K. Santhanam : Sir, I do not want to tire the House. I have dealt with the main points which came to my mind. I wish to appeal to those who by ancient prejudice have come to feel that it is their duty to oppose the Bill to reconsider their attitude, to have another vision—the vision of a Hindu community without caste, without distinctions, all pulling as one man. If we could convert the present disintegrated, weak and for a thousand years servile Hindu community into a very strong, healthy and great community, we would have done a work which our sons and grandsons will be proud of.
Shri H. V. Pataskar (Bombay : General): Sir, we are considering a Bill which is going to revolutionise the structure of the Hindu society. That society comprises more than about 25 crores of people at the present time. It is therefore not unnatural that even the common man has begun to take interest in what is happening and it is best in the interests-of all sides, to take into account the fact that when we are revolutionising by this Bill the whole structure of Hindu society, it is not desirable that we should ignore the feelings that have been roused in the common man with respect to the provisions contained in the Bill.
The common man is at the present moment ill-equipped with education. He is worried with the problem of feeding himself and his dependents. He is faced with scarcity of clothing, for want of funds if for nothing else, and he generally finds life so difficult. Even then he has begun to take interest in this legislation because he thinks that