Rukhmabai (or Rakhmabai)
(born November 22, 1864 - September 25, 1955), was an Indian woman who became
one of the first practicing women doctors in colonial India. She was also at
the heart of a landmark legal case which led to the enactment of the Age of Consent Act, 1891.
She was married off at the age of eleven to a nineteen year old groom Dadaji
Bhikaji Raut. She however continued to live in the house of her widowed mother
Jayantibai who then married Assistant Surgeon Sakharam Arjun. When Dadaji and his family asked Rukhmabai to
move to his home, she refused and was supported in her choice by her step-father.
This led to a long series of court cases from 1884, a major public discussion
on child marriage and on the rights of women. Rukhmabai wrote numerous letters
in the newspapers under the pseudonym A Hindu Lady, winning the support of
many and when she expressed a wish to study medicine, a fund was created to
support her travel and study in England at the London School of Medicine. She
subsequently went to England and returned to India as a qualified physician and
worked for many years in a women's hospital in Rajkot.
Biography
Rukhmabai was born to
Janardhan Pandurang and Jayantibai who came from a community of carpenters
(suthars). When Janardhan Pandurang died, Jayantibai transferred her property
to Rukhmabai who was then only eight and when she turned eleven, she married her
daughter off to Dadaji Bhikaji, and then aged nineteen. Jayantibai married a
widower, Dr Sakharam Arjun but Rukhmabai stayed in the family home and studied
at home using books from a Free Church Mission library. Rukhmabai and her
mother were regulars at the weekly meetings of the Prarthanä Samäj and the Arya
Mahila Samaj. Dadaji lost his mother and took to living with his maternal
uncle Narayan Dhurmaji. The environment of Dhurmaji's home pushed Dadaji into a
life of indolence and waywardness. Dhurmaji had a mistress at home and his wife
attempted suicide. Rukhmabai at the age of twelve refused to move to the
household of Dhurmaji to live with Dadaji and Sakharam Arjun supported her
decision. In March 1884, Dadaji sent a letter, through his lawyers Chalk and
Walker, to Sakharam Arjun asking him to stop preventing Rukhmabai from joining
him. Sakharam Arjun responded through civil letters that he was not preventing
her but soon he too was forced to obtain legal help. Through lawyers Payne,
Gilbert, and Sayani, Rukhmabai provided grounds for refusing to join Dadaji.
Dadaji claimed that Rukhmabai was being kept away because she could assert the
rights to the property of her father.
Life in medicine
Dr. Edith Pechey at the Cama Hospital encouraged Rukhmabai,
helping to raise funds for her education. Rukhmabai went to England in
1889 to study at the London School of
Medicine for Women. Rukhmabai was supported by suffrage
activist Eva McLaren and Walter McLaren, and
the Countess of Dufferin's Fund for Supplying Medical Aid to the Women of
India. Adelaide Manning and
several others helped establish a fund, the Rukhmabai Defence Committee.
Contributors included Shivajirao Holkar who donated 500 Rupees,
"demonstrating courage to intervene against traditions". Rukhmabai
then went to Edinburgh for her final examination and returned to India in 1894
to join a hospital in Surat. In 1904, Bhikaji died and Rukhmabai wore the white
sari of widows in the Hindu tradition. In 1918 Rukhmabai rejected an offer to
join the Women's Medical Service and joined a state hospital for women in
Rajkot. She served as chief medical officer for a total of thirty-five years
before retiring to Bombay in 1929 or 1930. She continued her work for
reform, publishing a pamphlet "Purdah-the need for its abolition."
The court cases and outcome
Dadaji Bhikaji vs.
Rukhmabai, 1885 with Bhikaji seeking "restitution of conjugal rights"
came up for hearing and the judgments was passed by Justice Robert Hill Pinhey.
Pinhey stated that English precedents on restitution did not apply here as the
English law was meant to be applied on consenting mature adults. He found fault
with the English law cases and found no precedent in Hindu law. He declared
that Rukhmabai had been wed in her "helpless infancy" and that he
could not compel a young lady. Pinhey retired after this last case and in 1886
the case came up for retrial. Rukhmabai's counsels included J.D. Inveracity Jr. and Telang. There were
outcries from various sections of society while it was praised by others. Some
Hindus claimed that the law did not respect the sanctity of Hindu customs when
in fact Pinhey did. Strong criticism of Pinhey's decision came from the Native
Opinion, an Anglo-Marathi weekly run by Vishwanath Narayan Mandlik (1833–89)
who supported Dadaji. A Poona weekly run by Balgangadhar Tilak,
the Mahratta, wrote that Justice Pinhey did not understand the spirit of
Hindu laws and that he sought reform by "violent means". In the
meantime, a series of articles in the Times of India written under
the pen-name of a Hindu Lady had through the course of the case (and
before it) caused public reactions and it was revealed that the author was none
other than Rukhmabai. One of the witnesses in the case, K.R. Kirtikar
(1847-1919) formerly a student of Sakharam Arjun (and a fellow founding Indian
member of the Bombay Natural History Society),
claimed that the identity did not matter in the case. Kirtikar however was in
support of Dadaji. The public debate revolved around multiple points of
contention - Hindu versus English Law, reform from the inside versus outside,
whether ancient customs deserved respect or not and so on. An appeal against
the first case was made on 18 March 1886 and it was upheld by Chief Justice Sir
Charles Sargent and Justice. The case was handled by Justice Farran on 4 March
1887 made using interpretations of Hindu laws went in the other direction and
Rukhmabai was ordered to go to live with her husband or face six months of
imprisonment. Rukhmabai bravely wrote that she would rather have the maximum
penalty than obey the verdict. This caused further upheaval and debate. Balgangadhar
Tilak wrote in the Kesari that Rukhmabai's defiance was the result of
an English education and declared that Hinduism was in danger. Max Muller wrote that the legal route was not the
solution to the problem shown by Rukhmabai's case and stated that it was
Rukhmabai's education that had made her the best judge of her own choices.
In popular culture
The story of Rukhmabai has
been incorporated into novels and films.
On 22nd November, 2017, the
153rd birthday of Rukhmabai Google India showcased a doodle celebrating it.
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