DR. AMBEDKAR AND THE HINDU CODE BILL 895
bad luck that I have been put in such a discriminating position. Let us take it arithmetically ; if after having married once, I am called ‘unlucky’ then what are you to call a gentleman who has not been able to marry so long. Yesterday my hon. friend Mr. Naziruddin Ahmad mentioned about a certain kind of help which some of my esteemed friends would give in the way of vote by quoting Hindu Shastras. He being a non-Hindu probably was feeling delicate and refrained from saying what he wanted to say. Let me make myself clear. I submit that the first premises on which those who want to support this Hindu Code is this : Hindu religion is intimately connected with Hindu law, that is to say the Hindu law is intimately connected with Hindu religion. Divorce of Hindu law from Hindu religion means nothing. Here this is a religious question. If the Hon. Minister in charge of the Home Ministry were to take out a census of those people who believe that not to have a son is to go to Hell, you will find that two thirds of the Hindus believe in that. They believe that if you do not have a son, you will go to hell.
Shri Tyagi : I want to know how can one help it if he has not got a son. What is he to do ? It is not in his hands.
Shri R. K. Chaudhuri : You need not go into irrelevant questions. I would just like to tell my hon. friend that there is no limit of age so far as marriage is concerned. Dr. Ambedkar has been merciful in this respect. He has said do not marry more than once. You may divorce a dozen of your wives and there is no bar to your marrying again.
Shri Tyagi : One by one.
Shri R. K. Chaudhuri : Only one at a time ; not more than one. That is what is stated here. He does not lay down any restrictions of age. A woman of 85 years under this new picture of the Hindu Code can marry a young man of 25. There is no civic sense in this Hindu Code.
Shri Deshbandhu Gupta (Delhi) : What about vice versa ?
Shri R. K. Chaudhuri : Vice versa also. I submit that it is most inhuman for the author of this Hindu Code to suggest that you can, whatever your age, marry again if you are inclined to marry.
Shri Bharati L. Krishnaswami (Madras) : What is the relevance of this to clause 2 ?
Shri Deputy Speaker : He says that the Hindu Code Bill ought not to be applied to all persons except to those who voluntarily submit themselves to the Code. Therefore, he is developing that argument.