DR. AMBEDKAR AND THE HINDU CODE BILL 1141
the State, without the authority of the police, without the authority of any legislature as such. There has been no governmental sanction behind the laws which have been in force. The laws were promulgated by men who had attained to perfection as nearly as man could, who were held in universal respect, who worked for the good of the people. And there was the sanction of what has been called in the Shastras, Apoorva, the unseen, that which will happen under certain circumstances ; the thought that what one was doing today would have effect later on ; that the human soul, the jeeva does not lead one life alone, but goes through a chain of births; that the actions of one life are inter-related to the actions and results of previous and future lives ; that deeds of virtue and piety and righteousness bring a reward which is greater in reality than any reward of comfort or convenience which one may have in this life. A clear conception of the real value of things as distinguished from the ephemeral aspect, was always kept in mind, it is under the force of that sanction and that belief that the laws which were promulgated have always been followed. In the whole of this country, throughout its length and breadth, the law of the Hindus has been observed not because any one—for instance my esteemed friend Kaka Saheb Gadgil who is coming into the House and who talked on this Code, not like the elderly responsible man that we know him to be, but like a gay youngster who just utters what comes at that moment in the mouth, or any one else—found them to be comfortable or otherwise, found them to be pleasant or irksome, but because both Kaka Saheb and Govind Malaviya and the other 300 millions like them have been steeped in the conviction and belief that what they are doing today will have repercussions hereafter, that what they go through now will bring its own reward. They have been all bred up to believe that it is not Preya alone which matters in life, but that it is the Shreya of things which must be assiduously inculcated. That has been the shape of things in this country and in this society. Let not the Government make a thoughtless and hasty mistake in demolishing that fabric upon which the respect for and the adherence to the law has prevailed. If one set of legislators, one set of wise men or wiseacres today legislate in one particular manner as they think fit, people will have ceased to worry about Apoorva. People will know that it is possible for them the next day to get a law made to suit their pleasure and their convenience. The moral fabric will disappear and man might go back to the old age where there