DR. AMBEDKAR AND THE HINDU CODE BILL 719
Under this Bill more than 80 per cent of the property is being excluded. That is one serious drawback from the point of view of reform.
One of the objections raised is this. A man may have a house and a small bit of land. Some of the villagers have a kutcha shop also. There will be so many divisions and the son-in-law will be introduced into the family. Some supporters of the Bill say that it is a reasonable objection and therefore we must introduce a clause at the third reading by which the dwelling house of the family will be excluded from succession. That is to say, the daughter though she will be entitled to succession, will not get a share in the dwelling house. If that is so that will reduce the urban property still more. Out of the 30 crores of Hindus, except a few rich people, how many possess more than one dwelling house in which the whole family lives? Normally in the villages it is one house and a piece of land. If a trader he has a small kutcha shop also. If you exclude the dwelling house from the inheritance of the daughter, you take out another slice from the property.
Another objection is that the sons-in-law will be introduced, and what might happen in most cases is that they will create trouble and since they could not manage the property in another village, they will arrange to sell it to some local person. That will lead to the disruption of the family. To meet that, suggestions are being made that the daughter will no doubt get a share but only its money value. You must then give to the brothers a right of pre-emption within one or two years of the marriage; the brothers will be entitled to pay to the sister or her husband the money value of the share and keep the property. That again, I submit, will lead to great trouble. It will be difficult to ascertain the market value of the property and this will lead to endless litigation and confer little on the daughter. Agricultural land is excluded, dwelling houses are excluded and various other things will come in. It may be said that the whole share is too much, give her a half or a quarter share, I ask why not give her a full share?
If you analyse the Bill calmly and quietly and not take as smriti which has come down from the Heavens, it will be found that it does not give the minimum of benefit to the female heirs.
This Bill will destroy the Hindu joint family. Whether, it is good or bad, people still cling to it. Yesterday our revered brother Mr. Alladi Krishnaswami Ayyar pointed out that in the villages in Madras it is