Current Thought October - December 1942

The futility of the habit of quick adaptation and the dilatoriness and inherent lack of constructive initiave in democracy can be demonsfrated by a critical analysis of the biological evidence which Darwin is believed to have made available to those who cling to the ideal of adaptability and by an examination of the impact of the accumulating knowledge of science on human society. [...] Since the introduction of western education and western ideas in the nineteenth century there appeared in the country two channels of movement the one nursed by the spread of liberal ideas and the other goaded by the instinct of preservation against the surging tide of westernisation. [...] The Hindu Law Committee submitted its report in June 1941 and it urged that the only satisfactory solution is to avoid piecemeal legislation and to take up as early as possible the codification of the Hindu law beginning with the law of succession followed by the law of marriage." The need of a Code which will retain the distinctive character of Hindu law but at the same time satisfy the needs [...] The Committee has accordingly drafted two Bills the one relating to the Hindu law of intestate succession and the other in respect of the Hindu law of marriage by way of fulfilment of the contemplated Code. [...] From the point of view of preservation of property any law of succession which encourages and widens the possibilities of dismemberment of estates is to be deprecated ; from the point of view of social justice the exclusion of any one on the technical ground of sex diqualification can hardly be justified: The manner of approach to the question will determine the method of solution.