DR. AMBEDKAR AND THE HINDU CODE BILL 1153
- Shri Brajeshwar Prasad (Bihar) : I rise to offer my unqualified support to clause 2 of the Hindu Code Bill. While doing so, I would like to point out that if this clause is passed it will mean the perpetuation of a great wrong in Hindu society—the immoral distinction between legitimate and illegitimate children. The clause says that it applies to any child, legitimate or illegitimate. I know that it is not possible for the State to go to the extent to which I want the Government of India to go. I want the State to abolish the distinction between legitimate and illegitimate children. The stigma of illegitimacy dwarfs the personality of the child. It is inhuman and barbarous that millions of people in this country should suffer from psychological and social handicaps thorughout their lives for no fault of their own. It may be urged that the institution of marriage will be weakened if the distinction between legitimate and illegitimate children is obliterated. I submit that the Heavens will not fall if the institutuon of marriage is weakened in any way whatsoever.
Pandit Maitra (West Bengal) : Does the hon. Member want abolition of marriage ?
An hon. Member : No week-end marriage.
Shri Brajeshwar Prasad : The good that is done to society by marriage is great, but the harm that is done to society by illegitimacy is also very great and serious. I think that it is neither possible nor desirable for the State to strengthen the foundations of a discredited social order. I can very well conceive of a society where there is no marriage. The Platonic ideal of a community of wives and children is as valid a concept today as it was during the days of Plato. If we are sincere about our professions of secularism if we have any faith in secularism—let us be frank with ourselves—we must try to emancipate the institutions of property and marriage from the bondage of religion. It is true that the secular ideal has not been realised in any part of the world.
It is not secularism but Christianity that guides the institutions of marriage and property both in America and Europe. I am of opinion that the institution of marriage will not be weakened in any way if the distinction between legitimate and illegitimate children is obliterated ...
Mr. Chairman : I think the hon. Member may reserve these views to the marriage Chapter.
- P.D., Vol. XV, Part II, 20th September 1951, pp. 2933-35.