1096 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
Sardar B. S. Man : Sir, may I seek the help of and invoke the good convention that is here in the House that whenever a law concerning the religious institutions of personal law of persons is concerned, the members of that community should be consulted and that their opinion should weigh ? I am invoking that convention. Will not that convention be made applicable to us here ? If that is made applicable, then the whole trouble will cease and I shall sit down. My argument is, if today you pass this law with the help of the majority in the House—may I be permitted to add—the Hindu majority of the House, because for the first time such terms as communities—Hindus and Sikhs—are being used in this debate and that is the primary bane of this law...
Dr. M. M. Das (West Bengal) : On a point of information, Sir…….
Sardar B. S. Man : Is it a point of order, Sir ? Otherwise I am not yielding.
Dr. M. M. Das: Is the hon. Member speaking on behalf of the Sikhs of the Punjab or on behalf of everyone in the Punjab ?
Mr. Deputy Speaker : The Member is not yielding. I will not permit any more interruptions.
Sardar B. S. Man : The difficulty is, hon. Members who are not .well acquainted with the law go on interrupting without understanding my point. As I was saying, that was a good convention and…….
Mr. Deputy Speaker : That point has already been stressed by the hon. Member, that against the will of the community no personal law should be touched. That point will be considered by the House. The hon. Member may go to his next point.
Sardar B. S. Man: Then coming to the marriage laws, here the present set of laws are very rigid. I may be permitted to quote here from no less an authority than my colleague here, Dr. Tek Chand, who has been a distinguished Judge. He has dealt with this point in his own lucid and clear fashion. And let me also add, that this quotation is from one who is not a Sikh himself, nor an agriculturist—a nonagriculturist—but one who is well acquainted with laws and with the Sikh laws and the customs and practices in the Punjab. Well, this is what he says :
“ It is well-known that Jats, specially Sikh Jats hold very liberal views on questions relating to marriage, and even at the height of the Brahmanical supremacy, they did not show much inclination to