DR. AMBEDKAR AND THE HINDU CODE BILL 755
Sir, I should like to put another point of view. What is the approach that this Bill makes towards the problem? The approach is that inequality exists in the Hindu society between man and woman. I should very respectfully submit that this conception of inequality between man and woman is a biblical conception. The Hindu conception is that of Ardhanareeswara, that is of man and woman being equal. That is our conception, Sir, that is the basic Hindu conception. I do not say that it has been entirely translated into practice and I do not make that claim, but that is the basic conception of Hinduism. The conception is not one of inequality, but it is one of dissimilarity. If man represents strength woman represents endurance; if man represents intellect woman represents enlightenment; if man represents grammar, woman represents poetry. The great poet Kalidasa has described Parvati and Parameshwara as word and meaning and that is the basic approach. You do a basic wrong when you approach this question from the point of inequality between man and woman.
Again Sir, I should like to point out that the present atmosphere is not a free atmosphere because we have never examined our institutions as an independent nation, especially on this subject. It is not Yagnavalkya or Manu that is so much current as the British courts and we have never had on opportunity to examine our Indian institutions with a dispassionate and an unbiased open mind. Always the bias of western ideas and western notions had been there. Though our political slavery have been removed, still the spell of western civilization and ideas continues. So, it is better if some time elapses and we may be able to view and examine both the good and bad points in our institutions in an independent way, in a fresh way and that will give us an opportunity to mend this Bill and even improve.
Sir, another reason behind this Bill is a sense of injustice done by man to woman. I do not want to repeat all the things that have been said before, both in humour and seriousness, but, Sir, I can claim that there has been no injustice done to woman by man. I should like to say that it is only a mental aberration of high strung natures due to unattached circumstances which enable one to do anything except lead a normal life. That is how I would put it. In this land nothing has been done by man to wrong woman. I should like to examine some of the arguments put forward by the other side. Sir, I find a growing practice among the occupants of the Treasury Benches.