Making of ‘Hindu Lady’

NO is a small word, phonetically speaking. Coming from an 11-year-old, it can feel even more insignificant. For Rukhmabai though, it was the beginning of a crusade that would culminate in one of the earliest triumphs for feminism in modern India. Born in Bombay, Rukhmabai was married off at 11 to 19-year-old Dadaji Bhikaji. Things took a turn when the family did not permit early consummation of the marriage, following which Bhikaji moved into his uncle’s home and fell into wayward ways. Raised by a mother who would take her along to reformist meetings and a physician stepfather, who also leaned towards the modern more than the traditional, Rukhmabai refused to live with a debt-ridden school dropout. During the years that her husband was busy accumulating debt, she got her first taste of education and, in turn, empowerment through books. Her rebellion had begun.

But soon, the lawyers came knocking at the door. Her family’s refusal to budge resulted in a landmark 19th-century legal battle: Rukhmabai vs Bhikaji, 1885. Bhikaji was seeking “restitution of conjugal rights”. The court of Justice Robert Hill Pinhey ruled that Hindu law, unlike English law, had no precedent to grant what was being asked. He noted that Rukhmabai was married off in “helpless infancy” and could not be compelled to act against her will. Reform, as is often the case, was met with censure. Editorials in Bal Gandadhar Tilak-led Maratha attacked Pinhey’s apparent lack of understanding of Hindu customs. For once though, the monolith was being countered. Letters, being published under the pseudonym “Hindu Lady” in a English daily, began questioning the value of customs that put women in marriages that they had little say in. In another twist in the tale, the original decision was overturned in March 1887. Rukhmabai was ordered to live with Bhikaji or face six months of imprisonment. She, however, remained defiant, choosing immediate jail time over a lifetime in a cage. The final verdict did land in Rukhmabai’s favour. Her lawyers paid Bhikaji Rs. 2,000 and he remarried. The landmark Age of Consent Act, 1891, followed.

The battles that Rukhmabai fought so valiantly laid her future path. The Maharaja of Indore rewarded her with Rs 500 for “demonstrating courage to intervene against traditions”. She also found support from Cama Hospital’s Edith Pechey and others, eventually collecting enough to attend medical school in England. With a London School of Medicine for Women degree in hand, Rukhmabai began practicing medicine. Even in her years of service, her fierce feminism shone. She refused administerial roles to serve her fellow sisters at the Women’s Hospital in Surat and Zenana State Hospital in Rajkot, from where she retired in 1929.

The “Hindu Lady”, later revealed to be Rukhmabai herself, wrote about “mental cultivation”, “aspirations”, even “happiness” — luxuries women of the times could not afford. She was determined to change that, and by saying “no” to a life devoid of agency, she emerged triumphant.