608 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
our Law Minister should, immediately after the 26th of January 1950, bring forward a uniform Civil Code applicable to all people throughout India. I
know my enthusiastic sister Members thought when I rose to speak that I was an opponent of this Bill. Let me hasten to add that I am entirely
for equality and all those things. But this is not the way in which we should do it, by destroying one thing and creating difficulties in another. For the
sake of a uniform Civil Code, we can go and tell our Hindu friends that the joint Hindu family must go, that it is necessary in the interests of the
nation. But what we are doing is in the opposite direction. I am afraid it will lead to very undesirable and unforeseen consequences. I will just cite
an example. In Ahemadnagar City in Bombay province, a young Hindu widow wanted to marry a Muslim. I do not know whether it was a love affair or
what it was. But she wanted to marry a Muslim. As you know, those days we were passing through critical times. There was a lot of trouble. There
were riots and some lives were lost. So this Muslim gentleman got afraid not only for the sake of his own safety but the safety of his community. He said I do not want to marry or do anything of the kind. She could not
marry without conversion to Islam as the Muslim gentleman had already wife and children. She could marry only if she converted herself into a
Muslim. In the Province of Bombay we have also enacted a measure which prevents a Hindu from marrying more than one wife at a time but does
not prevent Muslims from doing so. By the present Bill also you are giving the exclusive right to a Muslim to have as many wives as he likes or at
any rate up to four. Now what happens is, if a man,—a very wealthy man— wants to marry another wife, he can get himself converted into a Muslim
and he can have as many wives as he likes. Considered from all points of view, the interests of our country demand that hereafter at any rate we
should strive to achieve a uniform Civil Code for all people. That is what is happening all over the world. As I pointed out before, such a code exists
even in a Portuguese territory in India viz. Goa. The present Hindu Code is an artificially engineered device of the former rulers, when they tried to keep us apart. We must try to get out of that rut. We must endeavour
to form a well-knit, uniform society. We want to form a single State, not based on religious tenets, whether they be Hindu or Muslim or any
other, but a truly secular State. For this a uniform Civil Code is absolutely necessary. I therefore suggest that this Bill should not be proceeded
with. It will serve no purpose. Therefore, I appeal to my hon. friend