DR. AMBEDKAR AND THE HINDU CODE BILL 715
of this proposal goes against the fundamental principles of the Bill which
have been accepted by the House when it passed the first reading and therefore, we the Members of the Select Committee who wished to move
amendments to those vital matters are out of court and we were out
of order. We submitted to the ruling and we had only six days to discuss this Bill in the heat of July and we did the best that we could under
the circumstances within the short time at our disposal and within the
narrow limits which were laid down by the Hon. Law Minister at that time. That was not only the Law Minister, but there were certain
enthusiastic Members of the Select Committee who thought : “Well now
is the time we have got this Bill; let us push it through in this very session and before the month of October or November arrives, it will
be a part of the Statute Book.” Several objections and several arguments
were given : ‘Let us wait for a few months.’ Ultimately the Select Committee decided to proceed with it on a majority of two.
Things have gone in such a way that within one month this Bill could
not be put on the Statute Book. Things have dragged on due to
circumstances much beyond the control of us, beyond the control of the majority of the select Committee. One point which
3 P.M. I raised in the Select Committee and one which I also dwelt
at some length in my note of dissent and which I ask the permission of the House to repeat was that this Bill is a very half hearted, and
a very, if I may say so, a very truncated measure. I fully endorse the
view and I have no hesitation in repeating it, that the time has come when we must give full rights to our sisters and our daughters; that
is to say, the time has come when we cannot allow the old texts to
continue, or their interpretations which have been given by the British Courts that a woman has not got a full estate, that a woman is not
entitled to succeed to this type of property or to that type of property
and so on and so forth that must go. In the first place I maintain, and I have always maintained it that all that is against our original Hindu
law. I maintain and I hope to show; if the Hon. Deputy Speaker will
permit me a few more minutes, that this theory that a woman’s estate is limited is a creature, a creation of the British Indian Courts. It
is not countenanced, not supported by the Mitakshara law not by the
Mayukha nor by the Smritis. All that must be done away with But in order to do that, what shall we do? I suggested that some
changes should be made in the Bill, that we must look at it from