Now, Sir, if one thing characterises our people more than anything else, it is the power and the sanctity of the family tie, the sacredness which we have been accustomed to attach to the sanctities that go to make up the spirit and the atmosphere of home life. Therefore, I am sure that every section of this House will feel that it is in the fitness of things that this strong and traditional spirit of our nation and race might somehow be expressed in our Constitution. Sir, I venture to say that if the virtues, the strength and manhood of our people have survived so many centuries of invasion and subjection, it is because, in spite of external and political changes, the strength of the family, its protective power, its capacity to inspire and maintain virtue and moral strength, have never been diminished, have never been completely overcome in our land. Whatever is best in the Caste system – and nobody will say that it is an unmixed evil – I venture to say is an extension of the family spirit, and the attachment to family ties that has come out of it is its best and most admirable characteristic.
