DR. AMBEDKAR AND THE HINDU CODE BILL 635
for any authority to adopt as a condition for the validity of adoption following the main principles of Mayukha Law. On the whole, it may be claimed that there is everything in the chapter on adoption to commend it for the favourable considration of this House. The need for an express authority from the husband for the validity of adoption, the restriction of the scope and the terms of the authority conferred by the husband, the free consent of the nearest sapindas who are most interested in disputing the adoption and being a substitute for the authority of the husband and the relative claims of the senior and junior widow, the limits that ought to be placed upon the exercise of the power to adopt have been fruitful source of litigation in British Indian Courts. The Bill, I have no doubt, has considerably simplified the law as to adoption and the rights of the adopted son. On the whole, I should think there can be marriage between different communities—it has become part of the chapter on adoption, because when once you agree to the principle that there can be marriage between different communities—it has become part of the law—all these restrictions which have been obtaining in regard to the eligibility of the boy to be adopted must necessarily go. When gotra has disappeared, how can sagotra be a qualification for adoption ? Therefore, in the interests of simplicity and of logic, we have necessarily to see that giving and taking are enough ; we have to reconcile ourselves to this situation. Having taken the first step, you cannot stop at the second step. The Legislature here has already taken the first step. Therefore, there is no use fighting shy of the next step. Under those circumstances, I would commend for the favourable consideration of the House the Chapter on Adoption.
I am just coming to the other parts of the Bill where I differ from the Members of the Select Committee. In dealing with the institution of joint family, the problems of Indian agriculture and its future and the position of many trading facilities belonging to communities which have trade or business as their principal avocation must necessarily form an important factor. Anyone who is in touch with conditions of village life in India knows that particular families have long been in possession of particular lands from generation to generation, that being the main reason assigned for conceding occupancy rights to tenancy families who have been cultivating the land for a long time. Here I must say that I radically differ from my respected friend, Mr. Santhanam, in regard to what he said about village life in India. It is not correct to say that the joint family is breaking up. I also