DR. AMBEDKAR AND THE HINDU CODE BILL 725
years that Bill has been in force. Can we say that Hinduism in Baroda has come to an end because of that Bill? In Bombay Mrs. Munshi’s Bill was passed in 1946 and became a part of the law of the land. In Madras, last year, the Madras Legislature passed a similar Bill. Thus, we have got practically the whole of South India where monogamy is a law of the land. Hinduism there has not been destroyed. All our Madras friends are as strong and as kicking as they ever were. Therefore, I consider this provision is a very salutary one and must be maintained.
Shri Gokulbhai Daulatram Bhatt : If you, Sir, permit I should like to ask one or two questions for information sake.
Mr. Deputy Speaker : He does not give in.
Shri Gokulbhai Daulatram Bhatt : Whatever you have said about monogamy is quite true but what I want to ask is whether a man is permitted to remarry in the life time of his first wife if she consents to such marriage?
Dr. Bakhshi Tek Chand : I am very glad, our respectable brother Gokulbhaiji has put that question. I say that you can get a woman’s consent in any way you like. I have seen notorious cases of that. In one case there was an old man and an old woman. A very learned pandit, an astrologer was brought in and after performing all the pujahs he said to the woman. “Your husband is going to die during the course of the next three months; the only remedy against that is that he should remarry and if he marries again he will have a son” and all that. And that old lady, thinking that this great calamity was coming upon her, gave her consent, Now of course, there is not only one woman but five women in that house. (Interruption.)
Mr. Deputy Speaker : Order, order. The Hon. Member has been anxious to sit down for the past half an hour but on account of the frequent questions he has to go on.
Dr. Bakhshi Tek Chand : I come to the last point, the question of divorce. One of the great mistakes which have been made in this Bill is to make the provisions for the dissolution of civil marriages similar to the provisions for the dissolution of sacramental marriages. In this respect, the Bill as now reported by the Select Committee differs from the Bill which was orginally framed by Sir B. N. Rau’s Committee in 1944 and then revised by him in 1945. What I say is so far as civil marriage is concerned you maintain the present law which gives the same rights as the Bill gives. But do not try to introduce