DR. AMBEDKAR AND THE HINDU CODE BILL 759
Shri O. V. Alagesan : I want monogamy without provision for divorce. Sir, what this bill gives with one hand it takes away by the other.
Dr. Ambedkar, in justifying the provision for divorce, has enumerated the difficulties that the women who are deserted by their husbands nowadays are made to undergo. All these difficulties the divorced women will have to undergo. The prospect for the divorced woman is as bleak as the prospect is today for the deserted woman. It is easier for the divorced man to marry again and it will not be as easy for the divorced woman.
Dr. P. Subbarayan (Madras : General): So you want a double standard.
Shri O. V. Alagesan : I want my sisters to make note of it and beware of the pit to which it leads them.
Even on other grounds I would very seriously object to the provision of divorce. What is the experience of other countries? This has been touched on by other speakers and I do not want to enlarge on it. Recently we were told that the number of divorced cases in Paris alone increased from 600 to 1200, which is only 100 per cent increase.
An Honourable Member : There is no Paris in India .
Shri O. V. Alagesan : I am glad there is no Paris in India just now but I am afraid the Bill tries to usher in Paris in India.
Shri L. Krishnaswami Bharathi : Baroda is there and Malabar is there.
Shri O. V. Alagesan : In one of the most advanced countries in the world, Soviet Russia, the family as an institution is breaking up. Soviet Russia is hard put to resuscitating the family as an institution, having allowed easy divorce. They now want to inculcate the sacredness of the family as an institution and infuse communist morality into their citizens. They are trying hard to save this institution which they have lost by lightly introducing divorce in their land. One had only to write a postcard to the Registrar saying that he is divorcing his wife and he had his divorce. I understand that they have now made their divorce laws more difficult. There is an example before us.
Shri L. Krishnaswami Bharathi : What about Malabar? Why go to Russia and Paris?
Shri O. V. Alagesan : There they have tried this method and found it dangerous. Why put ourselves in the same situation and again try to remove it ? Our Indian homes today are poor, steeped in ignorance