1272 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
I shall now take one more instance. Marriage is after all a social institution, meant to satisfy a social need. If social circumstances vary to a great extent in various regions of the country, several provisions would have to be made in the law which is to be enacted. In the present Hindu Law this is achieved in two ways. There are firstly various schools of Hindu Law. There was the law of Dayabhaga and Mitakshara. The common background is the Yajanavalkya’s and Manu’s smritis. The variety was given by Dayabhaga and Mitakshara. Further there were in मिताक्षरा various schools which governed different parts. There was the Mithila school, the Banaras school, the Madras school and the Maharashtra school. This was one of the ways in which variety was provided in Hindu society, which I maintain will for that reason never die. Secondly, there was the achar and on account of this the Hindu Law and religion have been progressive and satisfying the needs of all, which were this vitalising factor. It is the variety which, added to the common background, has kept the religion alive throughout the century. Invaders have come and gone, but Hinduism is still progressing.
I shall now take up the question of monogamy. Irrespective of what the law givers lay down, society would adopt monogamy or other systems of marriage according to its needs. Good law givers therefore ought to provide for this varying need. One of the factors which govern the form of institution of marriage is the ratio between the males and females. If there is an equal ratio between the sexes there will be monogamy and society is bound to be happy. But if there is very great disparity between the sexes then society will have to adjust form of marriage accordingly. If females exceed the number of males then bigamy or polygamy would have to be allowed. Otherwise the result would be either adultery or increase in illegitimate children.
Shri Naziurddin Ahmad: Adultery is permitted by this Bill.
Shri Sarwate : I will not take notice of it. There was a common phenomenon which had been observed during the war. When in U.K. the adult male population went to the war fronts there remained behind in the country an excessive number of women and the result was a great increase in the number of illegitimate children, which has now become a very difficult qustion for solution. This phenomenon has occured in other countries also. So also if the number of men is much more than the number of women then poliandry would come