1114 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
its back, which have been the determining factors in the preparation of its clauses and details. To the best of my knowledge, no such statement has been made so far. I will, therefore, proceed on the assumption that the claim remains that the Bill and its provisions are based on the Hindu Shastras. If that is so, I would like very much to get a clarification from the Law Minister as to how that point is to be determined, as to what is said on a particular point in the Hindu Shastras and what the meaning of that statement in the Shastras is. I know what I am saying must mean mere waste of time for a man like the learned Law Minister, because, I have no doubt, that he is familiar with the meaning of what I am saying. But we the Members of this Parliament are here to legislate on a vital issue, and if we are going to legislate on a matter of such universal importance, and if we are going to do it on the basis of a certain thesis, namely, that it is being done in accordance with the tenets of Hindu Shastras. I feel that it is our duty that we the Members of this House should then keep in mind the rules, the methods, and the recognised procedure by which the meanings of the Shastras and their words are interpreted. The Mimansa applies itself to that high purpose, because in a society like that of the Hindus, where the law came not from a Government or from a Minister, howsoever high and mighty.........
Shri Sidhva (Madhya Pradesh) : Please address the Chair.
Pandit Malaviya : My hon. friend Shri Sidhva asks me to address the Chair. I have been doing nothing else. I wish Mr. Sidhva would not forget so easily.
The Members of this House should know that in a society like that of the Hindus where everything has been based—for, God only know how many millions and millions of years, or thousands and thousands of years—upon certain texts coming down through the ages; where we had not the printing presses or the printing paper, where everything had to be committed to memory and had to be passed down from the teacher to the pupil and from the sire to the son, where everything depend upon the correct pronunciation and intonation and upon the correct text and upon the correct interpretation of old and ancient words and mantras, where new codes and new treatises, not printed on paper, but in the minds and memories of men came up from time to time and had to be assigned their right importance and place; in such a society, disaster would have followed if the most minute, if the most exhaustive and positive rules had not been laid down for the