1002 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
you will not be doing a service to the people of India. The only way in which you can proceed even at this late stage is this. Let us not quarrel amongst ourselves ; let us agree to differ on this fundamental issue. If you are prepared to point out that there are certain matters which are immediately anti-social, or corroding into the very life of Hindu society, let us agree to make such provisions compulsory if there are any. Othewise, this new great structure which you have prepared, keep it there for a few years and say that any one, whether a Hindu or not, any Indian citizen, who desires to accept it can make a declaration, and the provisions regarding marriage or divorce or property, whatever it is, will be applicable to such selectors. That would be the beginning of a great era. For after all, who is going to decide ultimately ? your elections are coming. You then go forward. As the Prime Minister has said, his sweeping wind will come and blow away all opponents and….
Shri Kamath: Whirlwind.
Dr. S. P. Mookerjee : Yes, the whirlwind will come. Let the whirlwind come with regard to the provisions of the Hindu Code Bill. Let them go and convince the people and tell them that they are not forcing it on them. Let them say, “we give you the option. Here is a heaven we have created. Come into this heaven and attain moksha ”. Go and explain to the people and if they feel that it is really such a heaven and not a dilli-ka-laddu they will come and take it, and take it with open hearts. There will be ample time. After all, Hindu civilisation has existed for thousands of years, in spite of on slaughts from various quarters, cultural, political and economic invasions and so on. We have survived all that and we are now a free country, and we propose to survive with a much more glorious future than we had attained in the past. But when you introduce social reforms in such a vast country as this, where opinions differ, where attitudes differ and where ideologies differ, then the only way in which you can do it is to go at a slow pace. I am not asking you to abandon principles which you believe to be true. I am not asking that for the time being. But please go and convince the people, the Hindu people who still claim to live under canons and codes which are in no way inferior to those existing in any other part of the world. Give them scope to choose for themselves. That is my appeal to the House and to Government and I hope that appeal will be heeded to.