DR. AMBEDKAR AND THE HINDU CODE BILL 735
principle of the life that we are to build up for this country hereafter then I think that the provisions of this Bill are in full conformity with the ideals enunciated in the preamble to the Constitution and as such, anything which we now propose, that would be in any way different from or derogatory of this provision, ought not to be accepted by us. The attempt made in this bill to place women on a position of equality in regard to family relationships, in regard to inheritance, in regard to property, in regard to marriage or divorce, is an attempt not only in consonance with conditions now prevailing all over the world and coming into vogue in our society as well, but are conditions, which in my opinion are dictated by a full realization of the actual conditions and observed trend of events everywhere. It is true that for ages past, marriage has been regarded as a sacrament, but there is nothing, so for as I can see in this Bill, to prevent anybody from realizing and treating it even today as a sacrament. After all, I venture to submit, sacrament is a mere matter of your own heart and creation than an imposition from outside. How many sacraments are there, which though continuing to be sacraments are daily broken, broken in the worst possible manner and disgrace, both the breakers and those who are parties to that? Sacraments cannot change merely because the law gives a particular character to the relationship of man and wife as is attempted to be in this Bill. Whether or not, the law declares and recognizes a union to be a civil marriage or a civil contract, those who are parties to such a union, who have a very highly idealized opinion of the nature and function and objects of such a union will not cease to continue to do so. If however, circumstances develop which make it impossible for them any longer to continue in that position, if conditions develop which make it impossible to maintain that high ideal. I for one think that it would be much better to discontinue the relationship by any legal and reasonable manner that can be found than to continue it to the mutual prejudice, to the continued misery of the parties concerned or the offspring. It is not a very pleasant matter, Sir, to suggest that there should be freedom for divorce if unions could be all made in the form in the ideal, in the spirit in which they were supposed to have been made, but we live in a mundane world, with material considerations, with human weaknesses and therefore, it is too much to expect that merely by an ordinance, merely by a fireman, we would continue to keep and maintain unions in the idealist sense in which they have been believed conceived and maintained.