1054 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
of the share of the daughter in her father’s property. What I want to show is that those who are opposing the Bill are not lunatics and that they are not acting without intelligence. Some members of the Adarsh Mahila Sangh came to me and put the same question. Now they are also wise and reasonable. No doubt, the hon. Member Shri Renuka Ray, Shrimati Durgabai or other lady members are wiser and more well-read. But that does not mean that women outside this House do not understand the significance of things or, as somebody said, that they are mere blockheads. The ladies I referred to just now, started discussing and said that we should do nothing that may bring down the whole structure of society. We have opened a way by passing the Civil Marriages Act. Persons marrying under this Act can also give divorce. Why should we go further ? Let our customs remain as they are. We do not say that a certain person should not do a certain thing. Gradually people would begin to understand.
Shri Kunzru has spoken about monogamy. People don’t have enough to live on. In many cases it is difficult to support one wife even, how can everybody support two ? Muslims are allowed to have as many as four wives, but has everybody four wives ? In very few cases, men have two wives and very rarely one has four. I could not obtain census figures in this respect. Our Statistics Department is still far behind. The question now is, how Muslims came to be allowed to have four wives at a time. Hazrat Mohammad fought the battle of Ohad in which a large number of men were killed. The result was a preponderance of women over men, for the protection and upkeep of whom those who could support upto four wives were ordered to take that number of women as wives. This thing has happened in Germany and France at different times. In our country there is more or less a parity between the numbers of men and women. The number of women is some thousands less than that of men.
(P ANDIT T HAKUR D AS B HARGAVA in the Chair )
But if, unfortunately, the number of women goes up by two crores, a new legislation will have to be passed to meet the new situation. I am going into detail to show that our laws were made according to the demands of time and place and even now they are being made according to the same standards. Dr. Ambedkar wants a legislation of that sort but that legislation should have the effect of healing. In our country marriage is not a matter of convenience only. He may be of the view that marriage is merely a contract, pure and simple. These words have