876 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
Mr. Speaker : Order, order.
Dr. Ambedkar : I have been asked to introduce the Gandharva marriage. It was that which I was discussing.
Sardar Hukam Singh : I have no objection if our Chief Whip wants it. Then, Sir, I was submitting another interesting thing about adoption which the other parts of the country perhaps do not know altogether. I know of instances where girls have been adopted. They have been made heir to the property and they have succeeded. Custom has allowed them and recognized them. I humbly request you Sir, to say whether with the introduction of this Code, all these traditions, all these customs and usages are going to be thrown away to the winds. Is the society that has been built going to chaos now ? I believe that the laws should reflect the stage of advancement of society, the progress that it has made, not that a target be fixed and then the society be pulled up to reach that target. It was tried in Turkey but it failed there also. I request this Government to go slow. There must be cases on the extremes on both sides and I believe there are hardships now in certain cases, but you cannot avoid this. There would be such cases even if this Code is passed. I again stress that ‘adoption’ is a very old institution which is so dear to us and we cannot afford to lose it even though this Code may be passed.
Then the third thing to which we have serious objection is about inheritance. As I observed a few minutes ago I am not opposed to give a share to the girls. I rather believe that this discrimination is only on account of the sex, that she should not get an equal share. It was remarked that it is not only on sex, but I think it is only on sex that she is not being given an equal share with her brother. Otherwise, there is no reason if they are off-springs of the same parents. I ask, why she should not have an equal share. I say on that ground alone, she must have an equal share. My objection is not on that account. What I submitted last time as well—perhaps it was on the 14th December 1949—that I would prefer that she should have an equal share in her parent’s property so long as she is unmarried and she should have an equal share with her husband as soon as she is married, in her father-in-law’s property. She must have a share. This should not disturb the present society and structure. We have pecular circumstances. I believe this Code would not apply to lands but certain. . . . . .