600 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
to what form our marriages should be ? The time chosen for rushing the Bill through is not very opportune and it is likely to add to the difficulties of the situation rather than do otherwise.
What are the subjects dealt with under this Code ? Marriage, Inheritance and Adoption. So far as marriage is concerned there is even now the Civil Marriage Act, under which those that do not want to marry in the orthodox way can marry. Many people are as a matter of fact doing it. Therefore this measure does not look so urgent as made out.
An Honourable Member : Under that Act you have to say that you do not belong to any religion.
Shri H. V. Pataskar : That is gone my dear friend : It is dead and gone, long past. Under the Civil Marriage Act, any two Hindus belonging to any caste or community, without making a declaration that they do not belong to any religion, can get married and there is nothing to prevent them from doing so.
There is much agitation with respect to the question of inheritance. We have laid down the equality of the sexes as a principle in our Constitution and in these days it is not possible for anyone to go back upon it. The objection raised is not with regard to the equality of the sexes. A father who has a son and a daughter loves them both equally and there cannot be any difference. But so far as inheritance is concerned it has to be looked at from a different point of view. For that you have to look at the development of the present structure of our society. This structure has been evolved through a process of evolution during the last many centuries. Hinduism is not a religion in the sense in which Christianity is a religion, Zorastrianism is a religion or Islam is a religion . . .
An Honourable Member : What is religion then ?
Shri H. V. Pataskar : Christianity is the religion of those who believe in Christ and follow his teachings in the Bible. The Zorastrians are the followers of Zoraster and Islam is the religion of those who believe in Mohammad the Prophet and the Koran as their sacred book. But what is Hinduism ? Hinduism includes not only the followers of the Vedas or the followers of Rama and Krishna or Shiva or of the innumerable gods in various shapes and forms but it also includes those who worship nature and those who do not believe in any God whatsoever and those who do not believe in the oneness of God also. Their places of worship, methods of worship and objects of worship