DR. AMBEDKAR AND THE HINDU CODE BILL 867
that they will not be prepared to accept the provisions of the Hindu Code. Even if it is forced down their throats, I submit there will be such a revolution in the society—I said on the last occasion that there will be revolt; there will not be revolt because we are too strong. There will be revolt in our minds and we will certainly not accept a custom to be forced down our throats that we cannot digest. One effect of such a step will be that when the father dies, since you are giving the father the power to make his will in any manner be pleases, the result will be that there will be forced wills by virtue of which the daughter will be disinherited. I am not against the inheritance of the daughter as such. Where you can have it, where it is in consonance with the ideas of the people, have it by all means. There is nothing objectionable in it. But the only point is that it is not expedient to have it in some places where it is not wanted. In the Punjab the daughters do not enjoy such a position that you can say that they do not get anything. I know that in Madras and other places the daughters are not treated so favourably, perhaps, as in the Punjab. In the Punjab at the time of marriage so much is given to the daughter in dowry. If you go to any wedding function in the Punjab—to the rich man’s place—you will find the dowry consists of thousands of rupees. So far as self-acquired property of the father is concerned, since the last 50 years our High Courts have made a change. Before 1909 the daughter did not even get a share in the self-acquired property of her parents. Now if there is no son, the daughter succeeds to the self-acquired property among all the people. But I do regard that this is not sufficient justice with the women of our country. I want that so far as the unmarried girls are concerned they may get as good a share as the son does—I do not want to give her just a half. So far as the married daughter is concerned I want that she should be entitled to inheritance, along with her husband, to her father-in-law’s property. That is to say, as soon as a marriage is performed, the husband and wife must unite their properties also and you can frame rules by virtue of which a married lady gets full rights of property.
I do not want that the ladies of this country should not get full rights, but I do not understand why a lady should get a right in her father-in-law’s property as well as in her father’s property. To that I object. I want that our notions of society and family should not be rudely shaken. At present, the son is the pivot of the family. He continues the family. The woman goes to another family and becomes