DR. AMBEDKAR AND THE HINDU CODE BILL 607
should be welded into one. Marriage, inheritance etc. form part of civil codes of all the countries world over. They must do so in India also. That Code should apply to all citizens whether they be Hindus, Christians or Parsis or Muslims. From that point of view, we are going exactly in the opposite direction. I tell you why. The shibboleth of no interference in religious or semi-religious matters was the creation of a foreign government. It was imposed upon us in their interests and not in our interets. What is there today to prevent us from including all these things in a uniform Civil Code ? The present Hindu Code was conceived under different circumstances, and at a time when there was no ideal of having a uniform Civil Code. But since then, things have changed enormously and especially after Pakistan, it should be our endeavour to bring closer all the different elements in the country, be they Hindus, Christians, Muslims or Parsis. I do not want that anything should be done for Hindus alone in such matters. We have already decided upon joint elections for welding all the people of our country into one. One uniform Civil Code will further bring all the people together. That is the process which we must follow and which demands the attention and interest of all of us. We must give up this idea that we cannot interfere in the laws of inheritance and other social matters of persons belonging to other religions. That idea must go. At the present moment,instead of building one well-knit society, we want to stick to the old thing which was conceived at a time when the aim was to keep us apart. Now the idea is different. The security and well-being of our people demands the enactment of a uniform Civil Code. I do not care whether I offend the susceptibilities of some orthodox friends when I say this, but I am quite frank and open. If things are to be done, they must be done in the right way. We cannot partly stick to the old things and partly bring in new things. In this connection, I can mention that a, uniform Civil Code is in operation in Goa. The Law minister himself probably knows that. The laws of inheritance etc. are applicable to Christians, Hindus, Muslims and everybody alike in that part of India under the Portuguese. If that is so, why should we be afraid ? Our fear is the result of what we have inherited from the past—this shibboleth, I said, of noninterference in religious or semi-religious matters. But that was done by the British for their own purposes, because they wanted to keep us apart. Now our ideal is to unite all our people in the nation. What we ought to do is instead of proceeding with a Bill of this nature,