916 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
with children and forget many of his worries, he is not prepared to greet their first arrival in this country. He has said so openly, and the prospect of more and more children certainly frightens him as well as it frightens everyone. It is a patent fact. I have no doubt our Muslim friends will realize it and try to fall in line, whatever their present religious law or practice may be. So it is not as if there are insurmountable barriers in the way of evolving a common civil code for this country.
I would like to quote the example of China. It is as ancient as our country. Apart from the ancient texts, they have recently evolved a civil law which embraces and tries to enact the three principles of the people enunciated by Dr. Sun Yat Sen. These principles, as the House knows, are nationalism, democracy and popular economic progress. We can very well follow the example of China, as we are placed in a similar situation, and try to put in our principles, the principles that the Father of the Nation placed before the country, and make them a reality. Nothing would have pleased him better than the bringing within the ambit of one civil code all the great religions that inhabit this country,
My hon. friend Pandit Thakur Das Bhargava waxed eloquent and welcomed most of the things that are found in the Code because he was sure that they would not apply to him. He welcomed all the salient features of the Code because he was sure that they would form the basis for the future civil code of this country, and he felt that this was a right step in that direction. But I am afraid I am unable to accept his plea. I am afraid it only side-tracks and postpones the question of evolving a civil code. Now that we have done our best by the Hindu community we would not bother about a common civil code, because the impression generally is—and I think there is good ground for it—that we are prepared to meddle with everything that is Hindu but we are fighting shy when it concerns others.]
Prof. Ranga : One by one.
Shri Alagesan : I only wish that the prophesy of the professor will come true, that you will approach others also and try to reform them also. But as it is, the impression is gaining ground—and that is the ruling impression—that we are prepared here to go only to the Hindu community and none else. And that in my opinion is the chief psychological barrier to the passing of this measure. I hope the Hon. Law Minister with all his ingenuity will devise something which will dispel this