1072 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
it proper to include Sikh Members in the Select Committee and we of the Sikh community were never really agitated because till this day we were led to believe that agricultural property would not be touched and will be made an exception. Suddenly when this Bill is introduced we find that in his wisdom he has brought even agricultural property within the purview of this Bill. We were indifferent in the original instance because of the exemption of agricultural property and we never really applied ourselves to the provisions of the Bill. Now this Bill has suddenly emerged : it is a hotchpotch, it is retrograde in many respects and an advance in some other respects, it is a heterogenous combination and it is thrown at our face asking us to accept it. I frankly admit that I for one fail to comprehend its provisions and much less will the illiterate person or peasant in the villages. Much less so an illiterate person, a peasant in the field, because the peasant was told. “ do not be worried because it is not going to touch you”. My grievance is that Sikh opinion was not consulted to any apreciable degree. And now when you pass this Bill with the help of the Hindu majority here, it will leave a very bad taste and memory in the minds of the Sikhs that in spite of their unanimous opposition to the Bill, in spite of the fact that they were led to believe that most of the provisions of the Bill will not apply to them suddenly, at the fag end of the session it was passed much against the will of the community.
An Hon. Member : Then let your Members show the opposition.
Sardar B. S. Man : Yes. My esteemed friend, Sardar Hukam singh who can speak on behalf of the Sikhs in a much better capacity than myself has shown his opposition. After all, it is not a political matter that you may not accept his advice. It is not such a matter in which because he sits in opposition his opinion may be declined. On matters of personal law, on matters of religious precepts, on matters of adoption of Hindu communal law, you must accept the opinion of the representatives here ; and we are unanimously opposed to it. And if in spite of our opposition you proceed and make the provisions applicable, then it will be a strange thing—it will go down as something autocratic, something savouring of the communal. It so happens that we are only seven Sikh Members here. But we want that so far as religious matters are concered, so far as personal law is concerned, due weight should be given irrespective of the fact that a section may be numerically very much weaker. You have already made exceptions. I am not arguing on these lines because you have made exceptions. Because a Muslim is