DR. AMBEDKAR AND THE HINDU CODE BILL 721
consideration of the Law Minister and the Prime Minister and others who may be interested in this matter. At present every woman after her marriage passes into the gotra of the husband, and she becomes a member of the joint family but with very limited rights. Up till 1937, her rights as given by the British Indian courts were those of maintenance only. She had no legal right in the property, she could only stay and enjoy it.
That was the position. In 1937 came the Deshmukh Act that on the husband’s death she will be entitled to a share of the property—the same share as the husband—and also entitled to have her share separated if she could not pull on with the brothers-in-law or other members of the family. What I am suggesting is this. Add to that, only one thing namely that she will become a full co-parcener. Just as in the Mitakshara family, the moment a son is born he acquires the right in the father’s ancestral property and from the moment of this birth becomes a co-sharer or co-parcener, similarly let a woman from the moment of her marriage become a co-parcener, with full rights. There may be her own sons and others. They will all continue to live together without any necessity to separate, But if she thinks that it is not possible to live together with them she can separate her share and take it way—separate it in the same manner as she can do under the 1937 Act after the death of her husband. That is one change. If you do that you will not disturb the father’s property and you will not disturb the joint family. Let the joint family continue as long as it can. Somebody said it was crumbling. Somebody said it was Cruimbling only for the purpose of Income-tax. Others asked as to how many people pay Income-tax and said that 99.5 per cent. of the Hindu population does not pay Income-tax still they have the joint family system. These arguments mean nothing. If these are the circumstances under which the joint family is crumbling, let it crumble. But let it continue for as long as it can.
What I am suggesting is not something new or something which is against the spirit of Hindu Law. If I may say so, it is in accordance with the spirit of the original law—the law of the Veda, the law as given in the early Shastra by Jaimini and others. I do not want to prolong my speech. But I would like to state what the position was in Vedic times and in times which shortly followed. You please read certain portions in Dwarkanath Mitter’s book published in 1913 on “the position of women in Hindu Law”. You also please read