DR. AMBEDKAR AND THE HINDU CODE BILL 639
daughter occupy the most important part. It is regarded as a father’s house, the son looks upon the family house as his house. Every one of us know what an important place the sister and the daughter occupies in the household. ( Hear, hear ) . If the mother and father sit together for the Aarathi, it is the daughter, it is the sister that brings it and you give the present to the daughters and the sisters on that occasion. After all we are all Hindus; you cannot forget that. The very first person who receives the present will be the sister or the daughter in the household. The second thing is that no marriage can go through in any Hindu household unless provision is made for presents being made to the daughters and to the sisters. Again even though, women who may not care to bear children may not appreciate it—daughters of the family are certainly cared for on every occasion such as srimanta or on occasions of first confinement and second confinement. A girl generally goes to the father’s house or to the brother’s house and it is only after getting two or three children that the girl does not go to the father’s or brother’s house, and this is Hindu life to-day. It is not the life in Delhi, it is not the life in Calcutta, it is not the life in Madras that is to be the guiding factor in these matters. It is the normal ordinary life in every village, in the whole of India, ( Hear, hear ) . Therefore, I would ask you most respectfully the Members of this House, though I am addressing Mr. Deputy Speaker, to take these factors into consideration. The Bible said “I shall set father against father, son against son and brother against brother” or some such thing, but let not legislation result in a feud between the members of the family, an unnecessary feud between the members of the family. A certain amount of bickering, a certain feud is inevitable, so long as property is there.
Sankara said that property is the soul of strife in our country and that is inevitable, but let us not give an impetus to it by stating that I shall set brother against brother, a sister against the brother, the brother against the sister and in that way mould the family life of the India at present. The time may come when each daughter may arrange for her marriage after they attain their maturity. Many of the girls look to their brothers for their marriage. Hardly a week passes when a brother or a father does not come and ask for a little help in regard to a marriage. It may be that I am old-fashioned to consider such requests, but that is Hindu life. I am supposed to be educated in English ways of life but what would you think of other people