DR. AMBEDKAR AND THE HINDU CODE BILL 1049
Pandit Maitra : It is my misfortune also.
Pandit Kunzru : …..if he continues to shut his eyes to facts……
Pandit Maitra : I am looking straight at them.
Pandit Kunzru : ……and says that nobody in India has before the introduction of this Bill ever heard of the words monogamy and divorce.
Shri R. K. Chaudhari : Monogamy means monotony.
Pandit Kunzru : I think that those who are supporting the principle that underlies the provisions that we are considering, who are trying to bring about complete equality between men and women, who are trying to renovate Hindu society, who are asking it to go back to the great principles that once made it great and the envy of the world, are rendering the greatest service they can to Hindu religion and culture. I hope that they will persevere in the path they have chosen themselves and make Hindu religion as respected throughout the world now as it was some centuries ago.
*Shri Bhatt : (English translation of the speech) Sir, I am being asked to speak in English, but as ill luck would have it, I cannot speak in English. I cannot express my ideas and feelings as suitably in that language as I can in Hindustani. I may be excused for that.
Shri R. K. Chaudhari : Sir, we do not understand high-flow Hindi and we cannot follow if the hon. Member speaks swiftly. We can understand if he speaks slowly.
Shri Bhatt : I have not taken the floor simply in order to reply to what the Hon. Minister has said, but I am here to express my own ideas. We are going to perform a big task and curs is a Herculean endeavour. We are descendants of Bharat and Bhagirath, Rama and Krishna, Manu and Yagnavalkya. The systematisation and codification of Hindu Law in such a way that we may be in a position to apply, it to our lives, is a Herculean effort. As Shri Gour has said about England:
“Various attempts have been made to codify the laws of England but the attempts have so far failed.”
England is a progressive country and yet its laws could not be codified. In our country where there are so many complications and anomalies and customs have a very heterogeneous character, the magnitude of our task is indeed great. As Hon. Minister Kaka Sahib Gadgil said, if we do not perform this task, how would we be able to
*P.D., Vol. XV, Part II, 18th September 1951, pp. 2815-35.