STORY OF HINDU CODE BILL
This particular
episode deals with one of the major happening just after four years of
independence of India. During that period of time the popularity and the
appreciation to Nehru was at a peak, everywhere he was getting acclamation and
appreciation for his positive approach to make India as a strong and powerful
country. So saying or doing anything against Nehru was like doing against the
country itself. Then why an open challenge was given to Nehru just after four
year of independence? The sole reason was Hindu code bill. It was for the first
time that the government was trying to take an initiative to look after the Hindu
religion and what are the filthy and negative aspects which is diminishing the
social values was supposed to come under legal scrutiny for the reformation
purpose. Issues like how many marriages can a Hindu men women do? Who have the
right to divorce? Who have the right to get the fathers property? By what
percentage a girl can get her paternal property etc. and many more? But few
Hindu family thought that it is an unnecessary interference of law and order of
government in their personal and internal matter of their family. So people
opposed this particular bill in a big way. People claimed that government is
trying to change and break the Hindu culture and religion. It was the time when
Hindu Code Bill was staged in the legislative assembly for discussion but the
thing was, whether that time was the perfect time for such changes? Nehru was
so anxious and eager to make reformation to the negative and filthy side of the
society. According to Nehru if the country like India is moving forward to
achiever the mark of development, this type of reform is needed and Dr. B R
Ambedkar was in support of Hindu Code Bill as well. When this was staged at the
legislative assembly, most of the people opposed the bill in a huge manner,
even if it was accepted by Nehru and Dr. Ambedkar, the bill failed to catch the
positive acceptance from others. But both Nehru and Dr. Ambedkar were not in a
state to compromise with the bill. Dr. Ambedkar was always trying to make the
Indian society capable enough for the social change which was necessary during
that point of time. He failed at the first attempt but he didn’t leave his hope
and as a result he again proposed the bill in 5th February 1951 in
the legislative assembly. At that point of time the members of the house were
not elected but in the presence of both ruling party n oppositions he could
able to present the bill. He was justifying each recommendation with proper
references to Hindu Shastra. But people were thinking and taking it as personal
and they were thinking that government has no right to enter into the internal
matters of the personal life of the common masses and in the internal matters
of their family. Biggest cause of the protest against the bill was why bill is
only meaning for the Hindu, why not for other religion? Why the government is
not going and proposing for uniform civil code. Another big which got erupted
during that protest that who is a Hindu and according to the Hindu code bill
those who are not Muslim, Parsi, Christian and Jew will be considered as Hindu.
And for this another thing came into the public sphere that it is a conspiracy
that government is trying to merge Sikh’s into Hindu religion. And the bill got
postponed till to the September session of the parliament. But still the
protest was on against the Hindu code bill. All the Hindu based organisation in
the country got grouped against the bill. And swami Karpatri ji was leading the
protest against the Bill, because he was regarded as one of the eminent leaner
of the Hindu Shastra, he had been the disciple of Swami Sankaracharya. Protest
against the bill was increasing day by day but still Nehru was predetermined
that he will anyhow pass that bill, but the problem was there were few congress
people who were against of the bill as well. Even president Dr Rejendra Prasad
was also one such people from congress who were not in support of the bill.
According to him the government should not impose the bill on the common and
majority of Hindu people and it should take the peoples consent to consideration.
If the government will be imposing the bill, then he will use his presidential
discretionary power to do something for the interest of the people. Nehru was
in deep tension and he wrote a letter to the president where he tried to make
the president understand about the situation that if the government will take
back the bill then the image of the Congress party and the image of the whole
country at the international arena will get affected. Prior to Hindu code bill,
there were no right for divorce and the status of women was very low, no second
marriage facility for women was there even if she is a widow but men were
liable to go for more than one wife. So these were some lacunas with the Hindu
society for which Nehru was so keen to pass the bill. People were having the
notion that government is attacking on the Hindu Culture and the system. Both
Nehru and Ambedkar were the big supporters of the Hindu code bill but at the
same time they always had conflicts in their state of thinking. After few days
Dr. Ambedkar got illness and he wrote a letter to Nehru and where he mentioned
about the bill to give priority in the upcoming session of the parliament, so
that by the end of the next session the bill gets pass. So Nehru tried to give
gave priority to the bill but he got enormous agitation and reluctance from his
own party member. Then due to the strong agitation inside the parliament and
outside, and it was such a compelling situation, which compelled Nehru to
divide the bill into four sub parts to get pass. And then the time came when
Dr.Ambedkar got ready to answer and justify the importance and significance of
the bill in the legislative assembly but after wards he had to face a huge protest and he replied that all what I am
saying is because no one didn’t tried before him to reform this thing. If you
could able do this before then I would not be saying these things now. The
first election was about on the heads of the political parties and Nehru had
decide whether he will be sticking to the bill and letting his party to be in trouble
for this bill, the he thought let the right time to come for the bill and let
the election to get over then will think about the bill. Then Dr. Ambedkar
resigned after postponing of the bill, he was totally against of that. Nehru
got a more problematic situation after the resignation of Dr. Ambedkar and the
postpone of Hindu code bill. But he was on the march for the first election,
because it was the first chance to check that whether he and his party congress
is actually having majority of voters or not.
But he got a competition at the first chance itself, his competitor was
not a politician but was a saint named by Prabhudutta Brahmachari from Uttar
Pradesh. His intention was just to obstruct Nehru before passing Hindu Code
Bill. But Nehru was still not that loose in reference to the bill. And finally
the result came out and it was Nehru for the second term of Priministership. In
the first election result only 23 women MP got elected to the parliament and
Nehru appealed before them to promote the Hindu bill. He also divided the bill
into different subparts in order to minimise the voice of the agitators. And
then the new law minister HB Patiskar presented the bills before the parliament.
During the time period of 1955-56 the four parts of the Hindu code bill got
passed in the parliament. Amongst which one of the major act was Hindu marriage
act of 1955, in which the government has given right to divorce and inter caste
marriage got nod as well and also it was made illegal if someone is doing two
marriages at one point of time. And again in 1956 three other acts like Hindu
Succession act, Hindu adoption and maintenance act, Hindu minority and
guardianship act. All three acts were in favour of the women of the society. It
was an initiative to promote the supressed and adjusted section off the
society. And for the first it got thee government approval that daughters will
the share of property of their paternal side. When these acts had been passed
by the government, Dr. Ambedkar was in Rajya Sabha, so he didn’t contribute
directly, but we can’t deny his contribution to the bill. We know him as the
messiah of Dalit and at the same time he also worked for the equal status for
the women in the society. So finally Nehru got success by passing these acts
through his party’s majority in the assembly. He was also in favour of uniform
civil code but according to him this was not the tie for bringing uniform civil
code, so he thought or now let’s change thee wrongs things of Hindu culture and
system and when right time will come, then will bring uniform civil code in
order to have balance in the society among all religions.
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