1012 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
the reforms so far as the Hindu Law is concerned should be as and when required and whenever a certain situation demands them, and only when the public opinion was ready and well-informed and was capable of following all the modifications in the social structure which we desire to bring in then alone we should attempt a thing of that nature.
Therefore, I hold that the Hindu Law even when codified will not help us unless it is your desire to remodel the whole Hindu society for which the time, I submit, has not yet arrived. The Hindu law as laid down by the Smritis and as interpreted by the High Courts and the Privy Council is fairly well crystallised ; there may be certain differences of opinion ; there is a possibility of conflicts in interpretations but they are understandable and we have had this experience of these 150 years and this has not led to any great suffering or any great hardship....
Shri Lakshmanan (Travancore-Cochin) : On a point of order, are we at the general discussion or discussion on clause 2 ?
Mr. Chairman : He is in order.
Dr. Deshmukh : My remarks are really relevant so far as the discussion on this clause is concerned. What I was going to point out was that if we were going to remodel the society and change the whole law so as to suit modern times in an ideal manner that would be something far different from what we are attempting here. Even in what we are attempting at the present moment, I do not think that the Hindu Code represents a complete remodelling of the Hindu society. We are after all codifying what exists although with some changes. Because at the present moment and in this modern age, if we really want to follow modern ideas, I do not know whether the conception of any private property is going to survive very long. What is the use therefore of discussing the property law and debating whether it is according to the Mitakshra or the Dayabhaga or we are going to introduce the principle of primogeniture or something else. I personally feel that so long as we have the Hindu laws by which we are governed at the present time, and so long as it is a fairly well understood law, which the whole population and the whole Hindu community understands, the time has not come when we should attempt a radical and whole-sale alteration of the law which governs the society. Because, that is likely to create more trouble than we have at the present moment. At the same time, I have always advocated and I am in favour of removing those difficulties, those harrassments and those persecutions which exist and because of which, there is human sufferring. So far as these things are