996 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
religion and Indian culture and whatever we decide to embody in this Code is final for the time being and nothing else will be allowed to be looked into by Judges and Courts. Does not the House know that even in 1951 after the attainment of Independence, our own Supreme Court had to draw from the original texts or their interpretations and give their verdict on cases where questions of Hindu law were under consideration, because they could not get any analogy from judicial decisions or text-books ? You are killing today the very fountain source of your religion which had given such a wide scope to generations of people to make it a living reality and you say that it is a forward measure : it is a backward measure ; it is a measure which does not help anybody at all ; it only helps in dividing the country. I do not wish to ascribe any motive to anybody. Anyone who may be supporting it or proposing it may be acting with the highest motives. I am prepared to admit that but what I would like to say is this : Do not give compulsory effect to the provisions in respect of all people. ( An Hon. Member : Where is the compulsory effect at all ?) Divorce is not compulsory but the breaking away of the sacramental ties of Hindu marriage will be compulsory and that is bad enough. Whether divorce comes or not is a different question altogether ; you are violently changing customs and convictions. Somebody said, when I was speaking earlier that south India was specially progressive and many of the laws which we are considering are already in existence there today. I say good luck to south India. Let south India proceed from progress to progress from divorce to divorce. I have absolutely no quarrel with south India, but why force it on others who do not want it. In fact I have got a letter with me. I received it only two days ago—it is a postcard and I do not know the gentleman who wrote it.
Shri Gadgil : From the Dead Letter Office ?
Dr. S. P. Mookerjee : It is not from the Dead Letter Office. I can make a present of it to Mr. Gadgil, if he likes. It is not a dead letter. This only shows how customs vary in this country. Here is this gentleman who writes from Nuzwid, Kistna district.
“The Bill as published on the Hindu Law contains a provision rendering the marriages between a girl and her maternal uncle void as being within the prohibited degree. The aforesaid custom is widely prevalent in Andhra and Tamil Nad and even Brahmins consider maternal uncles of girls to be the most eligible and suitable bridegrooms for their girls. The prohibition is not known perhaps