DR. AMBEDKAR AND THE HINDU CODE BILL 1007
indissoluble as Dr. Mookerjee would claim. I would read out a text which tells us that even the woman has a right to go in for another husband. This is the text of Narada and Parashar:
नष्टे मृते प्रव्रजिते क्लीबे च पतिते पत्यौ । प×चस्वापत्सृ नारीगां पतिरन्यो विधीयते ।
“Another husband is ordained for women in five calamities, namely, if the husband be unheard of or be dead, or adopt a religious order, or be impotent or become outcaste.”
Pandit Malaviya : Will you kindly read also the commentary on that?
Shri B. K. P. Sinha: I will leave it for you.
So it was not as indissoluble as Dr. Mookerjee would like us to believe. There were provisions for dissolution of Hindu marriages in certain exceptional circumstances. Thereby, the principle of contract was recognised indirectly. Moreover, the Civil Marriage Act also recognises the principle of divorce and these authorities apart, in the modern age, in the present conditions of India, If we do not have a law of divorce for the Hindu society we must be prepared for the disintegration and the ultimate dissolution of the Hindu society.
In this connection I am reminded of two or three cases which created such a furore in Bengal, the home province of Dr. Mookerjee. Hindu law as practised there does not leave any scope for divorce. I know at least of two cases in which the parties belonged to the Brahman caste. They were married. They led a happy life for some time. Thereafter, their life was unhappy. There was no escape for them. In both the cases, the wives went to a famous mosque at Calcutta and were converted to Islam and thereby they got the marriages dissolved. Society in India has reached such a stage that if you do not have a law of divorce you must be prepared for such incidents, I do not know whether Dr. Mookerjee by standing against this provision is doing any good to the cause of Hindus or like all fanatical champions he is doing positive harm to Hindu religion and Hindu society.
Shri Chattopadhyay (West Bengal) : Did they not later on become Hindus ?
Shri B. K. P. Sinha : At any rate, it is clear that if you want divorce you have to be converted to some other religion. I urge that only.
There are many such cases where parties have adopted some other religion just for obtaining divorce. We must take note of advance and