DR. AMBEDKAR AND THE HINDU CODE BILL 1073
allowed to marry four wives, I do not say that I should be allowed to marry four times. The fact is that you have made exceptions. Why ? Because you found that the law of the Muslims, the law of the Christains, so far as their personal law was concerned, was absolutely different. And since it was completely different and in many respects diametrically opposed to the Hindu Code, therefore you made an exception so that it may not be forced down their throat. That way you gave a latitude and thus you accepted the principle that irrespective of the fact that the Hindus may be in majority here they will not force a law of theirs, so far as their personal usage, religious precepts, etc. are concerned, down the throat of any minority. If you have accepted this because the Muslim Law and the Christain Law and even the Parsi Law is fundamentally different, then I may be permitted to prove on the floor of this House—on any given subject that you are trying to legislate, for example, marriage succession or divorce—that the Sikh Law is entirely different. Then I claim the exception which you have extended to the Muslims. Because the Muslims proved that they were governed by an entirely different set of laws they were given an exception. And if I prove here that I am also governed, in every single item which you are trying to legislate here, by a different law, and that my law is fundamentally different from yours, then I claim the same concession which has been extended to Parsis, Muslims and Charistains should be extended to me also.
Mr. Chairman : The Hon. Member may continue tomorrow.
The House then adjourned till Half Past Eight of the Clock on Wednesday, the 19th September, 1951.