934 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
own institution with that which was prevailing in this country. They wanted to be converted but for their social habits and customs which weighed strongly with them. As they got enamoured of our institutions we are also now getting enamoured of their ways.
Let us examine whether it is useful or not. Let us see what the authors, the Members of the Hindu Law Committee said. Mr. Rau himself said that this is a concurrent subject and as regards such of the chapters the Provinces may be left some voice as to whether this portion should be applied to this community or not. The territory to which it should be applied, whether it should be enacted at the present time or should be postponed all these are matters which any reformer, the sponsor of the Bill including, ought to take into consideration, so that there may be no impression let in the mind of any person that his conscience or religious faith or scruples have been trodden over. We have to gradually take people along. It is not as if we are declaring a war on Hindu religion. It is not an immediate question like deciding whether we should join America or not in declaring China as an aggressor. Here and there an inconvenience might have been felt by some people. I am asking this House, though you, Sir, to see the balance of convenience. It is not as if any human institution is perfect.
Without going into details, taking the question of marriage, it is a proved fact that till the Sarda Act came into being, the majority of our women—99 per cent of them—were married. Do you want to say, let women remain unmarried, let men remain unmarried, let there be children who have no parents—like forty thousand war babies to be taken care of by others ? Is it right for you to do so in our country ? You will be creating a new problem. Is it right ? So far either the man had to obey the voice of the woman or the woman had to subordinate her voice. Otherwise where is the house and the household ? That is exactly why the woman is not under the law. The modern woman who is educated in a foreign system, who has lost moorings in her own faith, wants that she should inherit the property of her father and not her husband. She is indifferent. She wants to have the money in her pocket and feel “Why should I be subordinate to a man ?” I know the difficulty in every household but if I am saying these things I am saying so with experience. Girls refuse to marry now because they feel “Why should I subordinate myself to a man ? Give me a portion of the property”. Does my daughter expect me to live perpetually ? It is not money alone that makes for happiness.