1066 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
can never lose its reality, just as gold can never turn into a stone ; it can only become refined gold. So please allow gold to become more refined and let them have time to understand what divorce actually means. Do not give rise to a dispute here. Those who favour such reforms are at liberty to make use of the Civil Marriage Act, and have the facility of divorce under that Act. You ask how those people, who are not married under the Civil Marriage Act, can have the benefit of divorce. I give you a suggestion in order to find out a way for them. Allow them to get their marriages registered under the Civil Marriages Act so that they may also have the benefit of having divorce, if they so desire. In this way they can have a wider door open for the fulfilment of their wishes.
Shri R. C. Upadhyaya : What do you suggest if the husband favours it and the wife does not ?
Shri Bhatt: The wife listens to the words of her husband. She still considers her husband “ God’ at home, notwithstanding the fact that she may be an educated one. But that does not mean that Hindus consider their wives as their serfs. She is the mistress of the house and a Devi. These are the words which are used for her. I do not believe that Hindu society is so degenerated as to consider its womenfolk as serfs. If anybody has any such impression, he should wash it off. I say even in those sects which are called backward, women are mistresses of their homes and their men do only what they direct them to do. In Rajasthan and other places there are several social customs which are included in the Shastra and that Shastra is known as the Doshi Shastra. People do every thing in the manner in which the old ladies advise them to do. If a pandit makes a mistake while performing a sacramental marriage ceremony, it is at once pointed out with the help of songs as to where he has committed mistake. If there would be any mistake in the Saptpadi etc. we at once come to know with the help of the songs as to where the mistake has actually occurred. In this way, all those customs go on with the help of the songs not be presumed that women are not honoured in Hindu society.
A drunkard might be a good man, a great man or an educated man but in spite of all that he is a drunkard. It only intoxicates a man, what else can be the effect of the drink. Whether a drunkard is from a backward class or from a higher class he or she is nothing more than a silly person.
Shri R. C. Upadhyaya : What should be done for them ?