The Hindu Code Bill: Ambedkar’s Reform and the Four Acts of 1955-56

Years of drafting

• A Hindu Law Committee under B. N. Rau drafted a code in the 1940s.
• Ambedkar placed the Hindu Code Bill before the Constituent Assembly on 11 April 1947.
• As India’s first Law Minister, he pressed it again in Parliament in 1951.
• It covered marriage, divorce, inheritance, adoption and guardianship.

Roots of the code

• The Hindu Women’s Right to Property Act, 1937 gave widows a limited share.
• The B. N. Rau Committee of 1941 first drafted a code from this base.
• Before reform, Hindu law allowed several wives and gave daughters little or no inheritance.
• Divorce was not recognised in most Hindu law.

Why it stalled

• Conservative groups saw it as interference in Hindu tradition.
• President Rajendra Prasad opposed it.
• Nehru’s government did not push it through.
• Ambedkar resigned on 27 September 1951 in protest at the delay.
• The bill was never formally rejected. It died by delay.

Who stood where

• Opponents argued that Hindu law came from scripture and a non-elected body should not change it.
• Some leaders in Parliament, including Shyama Prasad Mookerjee, opposed it.
• Women members, such as Durgabai Deshmukh, supported it.
• Ambedkar saw the bill as a matter of social justice for Hindu women.

1955 and 1956

• Together they are called the Hindu Code.
• The Acts apply to Hindus and also to Buddhists, Jains and Sikhs.
• The Succession Act widened women’s property rights.
• Opposition faded when the reform came in four smaller parts, not one big bill.

What each Act changed

• Marriage Act: one spouse at a time, and divorce on stated grounds.
• The Act set a minimum age for marriage. It was 15 for brides and 18 for grooms, and later raised.
• Succession Act: daughters and widows became heirs to a person who dies without a will.
• Guardianship Act: the mother became a natural guardian, though after the father at first.
• Adoption Act: Hindu women could adopt in their own right, and maintenance duties were set out.

The code kept evolving

• The Hindu Succession (Amendment) Act, 2005 made daughters coparceners by birth. See the joint family article.
• Reform of other personal laws came later and by other routes. See the triple talaq ban.
• Article 44 asks the State to work towards a Uniform Civil Code.

Why the piecemeal path worked

• Each Act faced a smaller, narrower fight.
• Parliament had a fresh mandate after the 1951–52 general election.
• Reformers kept the core ideas and dropped the single big target.

From Hindu law to all communities

• Uttarakhand became the first state to put a Uniform Civil Code into effect, on 27 January 2025.
• It issued an amendment ordinance in January 2026.
• Gujarat’s Assembly passed its own UCC Bill on 24 March 2026. The President has since given assent. Scheduled Tribes are exempt.
• The law starts once the state notifies the rules.
• A UCC applies the same codifying logic as the Hindu Code, but across all religions.
• Source: Outlook India on Gujarat’s UCC. Background: Wikipedia on the Hindu code bills.