DR. AMBEDKAR AND THE HINDU CODE BILL 937
There was an hon. Member of the Assembly—he was a Member from Bengal—and he brought a single clause Bill which stated that no widower shall marry a spinster. His idea was that a widower may marry at least some widows and when some of our friends poohpoohed the idea, he withdrew the Bill and said that he committed a mistake. When once a man has learnt that a woman has been divorced, would that woman be touched as a wife and married again as a wife ? I do not want the society to be disrupted in that manner to suit the few conveniences here and there of some individuals. There are difficulties but the other difficulty is far more appalling than this difficulty.
I was told this morning that some delegation is coming from Pakistan for the purpose of recovering abducted women. Have you ever heard of an ‘abducted man’ ? Nature has so made us that without the husband and the wife, there is no unity in this world. Even among the Patagonians the wife is as tall as the husband. In any other community the male is taller than the woman. Is it good if I talk like a woman with a squealish voice and a woman goes on talking like a man. Therefore I must be a man and a woman must be a woman. I see I am evoking laughter of my friends but I feel that God has made the best arrangement by creating a happy family in which the parents will be protected, the minor children will be protected. The affection is not as a result of wealth. Love and affection must flow of its own and it does not depend upon money at all. Most of us are poor and we marry and get a son and in our old age he takes charge of the management of the household and we feel that since we have discharged the responsibility to the aged parents, similarly he will maintain us in our old age. Sanction has the mighty force. That old law has much greater sanction than any other law which has prevailed so far for the last 3,000 years.
When I become a member of parliament you do not allow me to sit here unless I take the oath of allegiance, but so far as this marriage is concerned, I ask you all, are you to displace these old customs such as taking hold of a woman, taking her hand and placing her feet upon straw and saying that “our hearts are placed together like the Ganges and Jamuna” ? This is not such a drab affair. Is it for the purpose of conjugal facility that a man is marrying and a woman is marrying ? Our ancient scriptures enjoined it for the purpose of a happy married life and for the purpose of a good progeny. It is