Question
Q12. In the context of Indian history, the Rakhmabai case of 1884 revolved around
1. Women’s right to gain education
2. Age of consent
3. Restitution of conjugal rights
Select the correct answer using the code given below
a. 1 and 2 only
b. 2 and 3 only
c. 1 and 3 only
d. 1,2 and 3
Answer: B
Detailed Explanation
· Dr. Rakhmabai Bhikaji was a pioneer in the field of medicine and women’s rights in the 19th century.
· Her efforts to be granted the right to choose was instrumental in raising the age of consent for women in 1891. She went on to study in the London school of Medicine for Women in 1889. When she came back to India to work in a hospital in 1894, she became India’s first practicing lady doctor.
· Rakhmabai got married at 11-years of age to the 19-year old Dadaji Bhikaji. As was convention at the time, she stayed at her parents house, this was the time she spent in educating herself under the guidance of her stepfather.
· When Rakhmabai was still in school, her husband, Dadaji, insisted that Rakhmabai come and live with him in his house. Rakhmabai, not one to blindly follow convention, refused.
· Dadaji soon filed a petition in the court of law. Early in 1884, one of India’s most influential and publicized trials began.
· Rukhmabai asked ‘freedom’ from her nonconsensual marriage, seeking a legal divorce. Her stand gave rise to a nation-wide debate over infant and non-consensual marriage.
· The legal and social controversies provoked by the case revolved round notions of colonial law, marriage and conjugality, and the prospect of state intervention. For the first time, the social orthodoxy, which had so far resisted state intervention in ‘family’ and ‘religion’, appealed to colonial law to discipline the disobedient wife.
· Behramji Malabari and Pandita Ramabai came to her defense and formed the Rakhmabai Defense Committee. The case spanned 4 years until Dadaji was “compensated” in 1888, outside of court.
