638 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
another land or property. Once you change the law in regard to nonagricultural property, a change in the law in regard to agricultural property must necessarily follow. Though in the matter of distribution of legislative power between the Union and the States for taxation purposes, a distinction is maintained between agricultural and nonagricultural property, it is an accident only that certain power is given to the provinces and certain power is given to the Centre, and it cannot be denied that Hindu law of succession is single and entire. Succession is not a truncated affairs. Succession cannot be split up. Therefore, when you consider the question, you should consider it in all these aspects both in regard to agricultural property and in regard to nonagricultural property and you should address yourself to the question whether in the larger interests of society, the time has come for a revolutionary change in the family system. I request my hon. Friend, the Law Minister to consider the question why certain chapters of the Bill should not be postponed.
Sir, I just want to deal with another aspect of the question namely the rights of succession of sons and daughters in regard to succession proper. I have got a special claim to speak on that behalf as I am a father of both daughters and sons and I repeat that. In fact the majority is on the woman side, four daughters and three boys. Therefore, I have a special claim to speak on this subject ( Hear, hear ) . Apart from what little I know as a lawyer, I have a special claim to speak as a father of daughters and of sons. Now, I want you to look at the general set up of the Hindu family in dealing with this problem. If three sons find it difficult, you say, to live together and to own property in common how can you expect the daughters married to different people, may be people belonging to different castes or communities to carry on joint cultivation in villages ? Under those circumstances, is it in the larger interests of the country, that this property of the father as well as of the son be divided up equally between sons and daughters without any question of difference ? If it is a question of justice, if it is a question of equality, if it is a question of theoretical equality, I have nothing to say against it, but law is not logical—it does not mean that it is always illogical—but it has to take into account the social strata of society, the consciousness of the community, its effect upon the family life and other factors. Therefore, you have not a clean slate to write on. Therefore, let us take what happens in a Hindu family, Mr. Santhanam looks with equanimity from Delhi. If any marriage takes place in a brother’s house, the sister and the