1070 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
there and they are due to the long usages which have been recognised. Various attempts have been made to over-ride customs ; but all this is is bad and it wiill be a bad policy and quite definitely an ill-advised policy, to promulgate laws from the top and then within these fifteen days change the entire structure of society there which has come through for a very long time and which has imbibed in itself the wisdom of the ages and the spirit of the time. I am mot saying that because a particular law has been laid down by a particular old Brahmin and so it cannot be touched or changed. I am not basing my argument upon that sort of sanctity. I only say that the custom has come down to us and it has developed, due to the lack of rigidity it has imbibed into itself certain practical usages, usages very useful to the genius of the people there. I will come to this part later on. Here I only refer to it to say that custom over-rides the written text. The custom in the Punjab has been there and is still the law there.
Apart from that, I shall prove also that my customs are far more advanced than this retrograde step that is now being proposed. They are much more advanced in many respects.
I ask that the Sikhs be absolved from this Bill, for this reason also. It will surprise hon. Members, as it has surprised me, that all along, since the introduction of the Hindu Code Bill in this House by Mr. Mandal—in fact though Dr. Ambedkar is trying to improve upon that Bill, nevertheless he is carrying Mandal’s baby—since the introduction of the Bill up to now, there has not been a single Sikh Member on the Select Committee.
Dr. Ambedkar : Giani Gurmukh Singh ?
Sardar B. S. Man : No. No Sikh opinion has ever been consulted on this vital question. Nor has there been appreciable agitation among the Sikhs because we were told that the agricultural property will be an exception under this Hindu Code Bill and this led to a sort of indifference among the Sikh community towards this Bill, 95 per cent. of the population thought that this Hindu Code Bill was not going to touch them in a vital way.
Shri A. C. Shukla : Have the Sikhs passed any resolution against the Code in any of their conferences ?
Sardar B. S. Man : I can speak for the Sikhs much better than the hon. Member. There are a few ladies here and on such a vital matter as this they are consulted and listened to and their advice is accepted. But in this House we are seven Members of the Sikh community and