624 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
of my part of the country also want to see, that there is one uniform law existing for all the Hindus in the country. But at the same time it should not be made so revolting or made impossible for my people to follow the law, or even if they do so to do it with a certain amount of reluctance. It ought to be made attractive. My submission is that in framing the law the matriarchal system of law has also to be taken into consideration. I submit that proper amendments might be introduced to attract us also to come within the scope of the Bill. If for any reason the two systems are so divergent that it is impossible to introduce amendments in the Bill so as to attract us also within the scope of the Bill, my appeal to the House is that we may be left alone, that we may be allowed to follow our own law which stands on a higher footing of love and affection than the Hindu Code Bill that has now been introduced in this House. According to me this Hindu Code Bill is not a secular measure, it is not a rational measure ; religion still pervades throughout the Bill. The Bill ought to be entirely a rational one. I would have had no objection if the whole Bill had been framed from a natural outlook, an outlook entirely divorced from religion. If a Bill like that is introduced, our people would be too glad to follow it. What we notice is that the Bill as it is framed now is religious still to a high degree; though it has been watered down, it is not yet sufficiently secular. I don’t know why in marriage, adoption and inheritance, religion ought to interevene, why the provisions relating to them ought not to be made more secular as they prevail today in our part of the country. There is no reason why we who follow a system which has nothing to do in all these mundane matters with religion, should be roped into this Bill in which religion plays a prominent part.
- Mr. Chairman : There are only ten minutes left. I want to know if any of the Members will finish his speech in ten minutes.
Some Honourable Members rose —
Shri Sita Ram S. Jajoo (Madhya Bharat): Madam, I will finish my speech within ten minutes.
At the outset I want to make it clear that I am wholeheartedly in support of the present Hindu Code Bill. It is with a hesitant heart that I am standing here because I feel that almost all the Members belonging to the older generation were speaking against the Hindu Code Bill. I don’t challange their hearts, but so far as the Hindu Code Bill is concerned their hearts seem to be older or staler.
- C.A. (Leg.) D., Vol. VI, Part II, 12th December 1949, pp. 506-508.