604 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
throwing open of inheritance to the daughter. That objection is not for political or social reasons but because if you open the inheritance to a
daughter the result is that the whole social structure based on the joint family system will be broken.
The trend in the modern world is towards individualism. The joint family
system is cracking in many places. I would go to the length of saying that the joint family system would not continue for all time under modern
conditions. But as it is there, the question is whether we shall gradually replace it by the individual as the basis of our society or whether we shall
break it up by law as is proposed to be done by this measure. If we want to break up the Hindu society suddenly, then I am afraid we shall be rocking and shaking the foundations of that society which may result in consequences
unforeseen and unpredictable. The danger involved is not the mere opening of inheritance to daughters but the fact that by that opening up of inheritance
the whole basis of society is involved. Hence the opposition. If only we try by an evolutionary process to help in the process of disintegration of the
family which has already started owing to various economic and social causes, the same results as are aimed at will be achieved but not suddenly and
abruptly. There is a clause in the Bill which says clearly that from the date of the commencement of the Code the whole joint family system as such
will disappear. You are trying to do it suddenly and to my mind that is sure to rock the very foundations of the society which has been based for
centuries past on the joint family as a unit of society. I would appeal to my enthusiastic reformer friends that while I am one with them, that this
system no doubt has to be changed, and that as the world stands today no one will be able to resist it for too long, while that is so the question is whether we shall do it gradually, whether we shall carry the people with
us and go as far as they come with us, or as far as we can drag them with us, or on the other hand whether we shall suddenly, by a stroke of
the pen and by legislation, say that all this joint family system is destroyed. Even in these days when owing to abnormal circumstances people are
worried by so many problems, this question is attracting their attention and therefore any abrupt action is likely to result in a state of affairs which
is desirable neither to the reformers nor to the others. I agree we can’t remain stagnant. The Hindu society has undergone so many changes in the past
but by a different process altogether. If we try to force the events which must happen gradually, I am sure the result is not going to be very happy.