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BECAUSE OF DIVINE LAW OF MANU OR YAJNAVALKYA, HINDU SOCIETY WAS NEVER ABLE TO REPAIR ITSELF
Dr. B. R. Ambedkar delivered a speech in the Law College, Delhi University, Delhi on the 10th April 1948.
He said,
“The responsibility for this decay lay in the failure of ancient societies to take upon themselves the task of removing the defects in their structure. Instead of removing the defects they submitted to be governed by the law laid down by the law-makers like Manu. The true function of law consists in repairing the faults in society.
Civilisation had never been a continuous process. There were states and societies which had at one time been civilized. In course of time something happened which made these societies stagnant and decayed. This could be illustrated by India’s history itself.
There could be no doubt that one of the countries which could boast of a great ancient civilization was India. When inhabitants of Europe were living under almost barbaric and nomadic conditions this country had reached the highest peak of civilization. It had parliamentary institutions when people of Europe were mere nomads.
It looked to the laymen as if our parliamentary institutions today had borrowed all parliamentary procedure from European Countries, particularly from Britain, but I think anyone who refers for instance, to the pages of the Vinay-pitaka will find that there is no ground for such a view.
Some of the rules which are laid down in May’s parliamentary practise were known to the people of India as students of Vinay-pitaka. People seemed to think that the procedure that there could be no debate in parliament unless there was a motion and no vote could be taken unless a motion was put, was something new. But I think this was a popular fallacy. In Vinay-pitaka which regulated meetings of the Bhikkhus Sangh, there was the well-known rule that no debate could take place except on ‘Neti’ motion.