928 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
I fail to see why sub-clause (4) is being retained. I don’t mind the daughter having more than the son or the son getting more than the daughter. Let it be a matter between the daughter and the son. I for myself would not hesitate to accept Marumakkattayam law instead of accepting division of the family property into bits. That being so, if my hon. friend would propose to give all the property to the daughter I would not object. Let the women have it. In fact, in Malabar, the women are by inheritance having almost all the property. Therefore, you may do that or you can give the daughters and the sons equal rights : this is not a matter with which I am very much concerned. Speaking for myself. I have no daughter to claim any share from me, but I feel for the daughters in general. Now, if you add to the share that the daughter gets from her father’s house by sub-clause (4), it means that you add to the financial possibilities of the women. She gets her stridhan, her share of the property and also special facilities as provided in the Special Marriages Act of 1872. Therefore, the continuance of sub-clause (4) is, I think, unnecessary also, I believe, unwarranted.
I feel that the time has come when something has to be done to change the social structures of India. That some has to be done with the concurrence of the people and the thinking sections of the society. Therefore, I appeal to the Treasury Benches and to you to see that Government remove the objectionable features of clause 2 as also of the Bill, so that the Bill will have a smooth passage.
Shri M. A. Ayyangar : At no stage of the Bill hitherto have I had the good fortune to take part in the debate. You, Sir, were absent in the earlier stages and I had to take the chair. I have always tried to keep my opinions to myself, but the time has come when I should express my opinion regarding this matter. Let me first of all declare to the House and to the hon. the sponsor of this Bill that I am not wedded to whatever is ancient merely because it is ancient nor opposed to whatever is new simply because it is new. Merely because something is old, let us not cling to it; nor decry something that is new because it is new. It is up to us, as wise men, to consider both the pros and cons and accept what is good and reject what is bad. I shall try therefore quite dispassionately to go through some of the points that have been urged. I shall not go over the ground and make this a speech on the second reading of the Bill, but whatever is relevant in general I shall address myself to.
P.D., Vol. VIII, Part II, 7th February 1951, pp. 2517-31.