DR. AMBEDKAR AND THE HINDU CODE BILL 1011
Shri B. K. P. Sinha : Probably my friend Mr. Syamnandan Sahaya referred to Dr. Jayakar, the politician. I am referring to Dr. Jayakar, the scholar.
Shri Syamnandan Sahaya : Do you mean that politicians are not scholars ?
Shri B. K. P. Sinha : They are. And then Dr. Jayakar goes on to say in his foreword:
“He observes that in modern times facilities of transit and interchange have enormously increased and various causes, appropriate to the times have compelled people of different races and religions to live together in territories governed by different systems of law. These new factors naturally tend to complicate problems of human life in the sphere of their legal relationships. Rules framed to regulate municipal and purely local set of circumstances prove inadequate or even out of place to deal with such problems arising out of the introduction and presence of foreign elements within the territory. The development of a Body of Rules to cover these new sets of circumstances is alreay overdue.”
- Dr. Deshmukh : I am afraid probably my hon. Friends who welcomed my getting up to speak by saying “hear, hear” may be disappointed at what I am going to say today.
Shri R. K. Chaudhari : Have you changed your mind ?
Dr. Deshmukh : To a certain extent, probably, yes.
An hon. Member : Wise men always do that.
Dr. Deshmukh : I have been member of the Select Committee and I have appended a note of dissent to the Committee’s report. But that covers only four points. That note of dissent itself shows that appart from those four points, I am in general agreement with the many provisions proposed to the Bill. At the same time. I always felt that the time had not come when it was possible to revise, with some other and different ideals in front of us, the whole structure of the Hindu society and to change it radically. Ours is a vast country and the Hindu community is extremely large and numerous. We are also highly uneducated and absolutey, illiterate. From that point of view if you wish to change the basis of the Hindu society to any violent or great extent, the people who are not capable of understanding the changes are likely to suffer considerably. From that point of view I thought that
*P.D., Vol. XV, Part II, 17th September 1951, pp. 2732-38.