1010 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
Bill. That is because the opponents of this code have for the last five years or so been carrying on a tearing and raging propaganda against it while the supporters of the bill have been keeping mum and slient. In my area also people were by and large, opposed to the provisions of this Bill. But when I explained to them the provisions of this Bill in detail I can tell you that at least 70 per cent, of them became converts and they realized that nothing short of this was needed for the society. When Dr. Mookerjee says that there is intensity of feeling I concede that. But when he talks of the depth and breadth of that feeling I disagree. There is no depth in it because that feeling is based on ignorance. There is no breadth in it because the people, by and large, are not against this Code. It is only a handful of moneyed people who care more for their property, for their land, for their shares who are putting up such a row against this measure. I have had intimate talks with some of these orthodox people. They do not care a grain, an iota for the Hindu Law or the Hindu principles, or the rishis or the smritis. What rouses them into opposition is the property clause.
Shri R. K. Chaudhuri : That has been dropped now.
Dr. Deshmukh (Madhya Pradesh) : But wife also is property.
Shri B. K. P. Sinha : These are the three lines of my argument. There is nothing revolutionary in this. All that we are going to have is already there on the statute books. Secondly, this Bill does not go against the fundamental principles of Hindu religion. Rather, it tries to bring the circle full. The wheel has gone a full circle and Hindu law is being restored to its pristine purity. Thirdly, this law is essential for the existence of Hindu society in the circumstances of today.
Since one of my friends from Bihar, Mr. Syamnandan Sahaya, when he spoke last referred to Dr. Jayakar, I would like to quote a very small paragraph. While writing his foreword to Hindu Law in Bharat published in 1951—and the foreword was written in 1951—what has Dr. Jayakar to say about this aspect—not about Hindu Law in general but about the aspect to which I referred ? He says :
“The author has not omitted to note some of the prominent deficiencies which exist in present-day provisions of the Hindu Law, requiring early redress.”
An Hon. Member : Who is the author ?
Shri B. K. P. Sinha : The author is another person, but the foreward is written by Dr. M. R. Jayakar—a scholar of Hindu Law, not the politician.
Shri Syamnandan Sahaya : Also a politician.