1284 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
as far as his objective is concerned I am not opposed to that. I am a supporter of monogamy and I want that in some special circumstances arrangement for divorce should also be made so that when some difficulty is felt on both sides, by the man as well as by the woman in living together, a way must be found out to save them from that difficulty. But along with it I cannot help saying that this attempt is nothing but an act of abuse of power, because we should have applied this Hindu Code Bill to those only who wanted to be governed by it.
Since this question of Hindu Code Bill has come before this House, it has taken several months and many a day has been spent upon it, I tried hard to snatch some minutes so that I might express my views about it, but unfortunately I could not get a chance. Unfortunately, when Sardar Man spoke about it, instead of coming to the right thing he got himself entangled in the labyrinth of the Sikh religion, perhaps he might have thought that in this way his point would be more forceful or there might have been some other reason. However, I think that this question is not related so Sikhism alone, this is a question pertaining to the customary laws of the whole of the Punjab. I want to bring to the notice of the Hon. Dr. Ambedkar that even in such a time when such Brahmanic rules and regulations with regard to the living customs of the country and the society were being enforced rigidly, viz., one could not go in a particular direction on Mondays or on Tuesdays or on Saturdays, the martial race of the Jats in the Punjab, to which I and the Hon. Sardar Baldev Singh belong, did not yield to the Brahmanic rules and it has not done so even now. I want to submit that really in our society there is no likelihood of any appreciable opposition to the two provisions relating to monogamy and divorce, and I am not personally against them, but I am opposed to the method and manner which you are resorting to. And the manner or the backdoor method through which it has developed is not a proper one. This is not because I regard myself a Non-Hindu but I do feel that we have never been governed by the Hindu code and it has never been enforced with ragard to us. I doubt your intentions that you can govern by the backdoor policy those whom you could not enslave mentally. I disagree with you to a great extent with regard to the rules and regulations which you are enacting in respect of marriage and divorce without caring for the prevailing customs. I want to state with respect to this that many reformers of society have done a great many reforms in the Hindu Society with regard to the widow’s