1162 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
however undesirable a person he may be. I want to put one question to the House. Are we for slavery or are we for free labour ? What are we for ? Now, in all economic matters, we have all along been insisting that there must be free labour. Slavery we shall not tolerate.
An hon. Member : Is this slavery ?
Dr. Ambedkar : Now, what is the difference between slavery and free labour ? I think if you examine it carefully, you will come to the conclusion that free labour means the ability and the capacity to break the contract when the necessity for breaking the contract arises.
Shri R. K. Chaudhari (Assam) : And is this a contract ?
Dr. Ambedkar : Yes, I shall come to that.
Therefore, if the woman under the sacramental marriage is to get her freedom, then circumscribe as you may, the conditions for her getting her freedom, and as I said, I shall be quite prepared to consider any proposal that may be made by any Member from any side of the House to narrow down the conditions of divorce that have been prescribed in the Bill as it stands. But if you mean to give liberty— and you cannot deny that liberty in view of the fact that you have placed it in your Constitution and praised the Constitution which guarantees liberty and equality to every citizen—then you cannot allow this institution to stand as it is. That is the reason why we are proceeding with this Bill and not because we want to imitate any other people or we want to go in for our ancient ideals which are to my judgement, most archaic and impossible for anybody to practice.
Dr. C. D. Pande (Uttar Pradesh) : We are ready to support the Bill, but we do not want these invectives. How far the Hon. Minister is justified in dealing with this subject and resorting to such invectives. I do not know ?
An hon. Member : Why vilify the Hindu religion ?
Dr. Ambedkar : Now, I come to the specific amendments that have been tabled by various Members to clause 2.
Shri Krishnanand Rai (Uttar Pradesh) : The House is for divorce and monogamy, but not for this kind of abuse.
Dr. C. D. Pande : We are for these provisions, but we do not want these abuses and invectives.
Dr. Ambedkar : If you had said that before, I would not have made this speech at all and not spent seven days over this Bill.
The Prime Minister (Shri Jawaharlal Nehru) : I am rather surprised at the tender skin of some of the hon. Members. We have had to put up with a series of speeches and things have been said