Lala Lajpatrai's View on Hindu Marriages Bill
It is with a sense of shame and humiliation that I have read of the
opposition to Mr. Patel's Hindu Marriage Bill. It will be a great blow to
our prestige and good name abroad if this extremely small measure
of reform based on actual legal necessity is defeated on foolish sentimental
grounds. They are poor champions of Hinduism who urge its rejection in the name and interests of Hindu Dharma and Hindu Society.
It is true
that in their ranks are some whose sincerity is beyond question; but the majority of those who are opposing it are men
who are ready
to indulge in every kind of free life for themselves,
but who grudge. it in the case of others, specially to the other sex. They are still harping on the time-honoured authority of the Shastras and customs, forgetting that the authors of the Shastras have made a liberal provision
for necessary changes in
social life and customs in accordance with the needs of place and time (Desha Kal). The Shastras themselves contain abw1dant evidence of these changes. The great Rishis were too wise to forget that static society is an impossibility. Any tendency to
make it static
leads to stagnation, sterility and eventual extinction. Bold must be the man who can honestly maintain that the social life of the
Hindus (of all sections and classes) has been the same even for a century at a
time. Compare the customs of one period with those of another, and of one
province with those of another province, and the process of change that has
been going on for centuries becomes clearly visible. The Shastras made ample
provision for the legal recognition of these changes. It is the rigidity and
absurdity of the Judge-made law of the British Courts that has brought about
the existing impasse in the marriage laws of the Hindus. A change such as is contemplated
is an absolute necessity. Opposition to it is based on short-sighted
partisanship and false notions of Dharma. The opponents of the Bill do not see
the mote in their own eyes. They are probably the worst offenders against the
so-called Varnashrama Dharma. But to be frank, where is the Varnashrama Dharma now
in India? It is sheer dishonesty to oppose this reform on the ground of its
being dangerous to Varnashrama Dharma, while the latter is a mere caricature of
its original self. Unless we propose to live for ever and ever in our present
degraded condition, it is absolutely necessary that our ideas of Varnashrama
Dharma should be radically changed. Political democracy is a myth unless it is
based on social and economic justice. The present caste system and the
resultant restrictions on the liberties of men and women in the matter of
marriage do not tend towards social and economic justice. The sooner we remodel
our social and economic life on the broad basis of equal opportunity to all men
and women, regardless of caste, colour, creed and sex, the better for our
political future. Delays in social reconstruction must of necessity retard the
realisation of our political hopes.
