716 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
another angle which will give woman a higher status than we have got in the Bill; they said “No, we have got the Bill having the imprimature of Shri B. N. Rau and the authority of Dr. Ambedkar, and no change of a substantial nature can be made in it.” That was the attitude of the supporters of the Bill. If I may be pardoned for saying that, in the Select Committee and later on also, they have not been less fanatical than the opponents of the Bill. They say, “ Well there is the Bill, take it or leave it and reject it if you can. That is being repeated now after the declaration which the Prime Minister was pleased to make a few days ago, and which I know, must naturally, tie down most Members of the House in their vote.” Some Honourable Members : No, no.
Dr. Bakhshi Tek Chand : Well, it will have an unconscious effect, even if permission is given to everybody to vote as he likes. Well, I ask the friends who are supporters of the Bill, I ask my sisters ‘ Does this Bill do you full justice? Is this all that you want? Does it give you the rights you want?’ I say, ‘no’; I say most emphatically, ‘no, it does not’. It is a most truncated and half-hearted measure, and if I may say so, it will do the maximum of mischief to Hindu society and the minimum of good to the members of the female sex.
An Honourable Member : Are they agreeable to your solution?
Dr. Bakhshi Tek Chand : I do not know. Now I will deal with a few of the provisions of the Bill. One of the provisions of the Bill is that the chapters relating to succession, etc. will not apply to inheritance of agricultural land. Why? Because at that time when the Bill was introduced, the position was that under Entry 7 of the Seventh Schedule of the Government of India Act of 1935, this Legislature, the Indian Legislature could not pass any law relating to agricultural land, that was a provincial subject. Well, that was the position at that time. In 1938, Dr. Deshmukh’s Bill was extended to include agricultural land also. The matter went then before the Federal Court and the Federal Court agreed that this was ultra vires of the Indian Legislature. That was the decision of the Court and that was the provision of the Government of India Act, 1935. And therefore naturally, Sir B. N. Rau and the Committee, as well as Dr. Ambedkar and his Law department omitted it and they said this is a matter which will have to be left to each Provincial Legislature to deal with. But luckily, by that time, the Drafting Committee of the Constituent Assembly had published its Draft Constitution. In that Draft Constitution it has