Rakhmabai

Rakhmabai

Rakhmabai ( Hindi रुखमाबाई Rakhmābāī * 22. November 1864 in Bombay ; † 25. September 1955 ibid), also known as Rukhmabai Bhikaji was an Indian social reformer and the first Indian woman to a medical degree as a doctor practiced. Their refusal after reaching their majority their by a child marriage to perform contracted marriage and to live with her husband, culminating in a dispute over forced marriage and age of consent , which in India and England caused a great, public interest and was ultimately responsible for the Age of Consent Act of 1891.

Life

Child marriage and litigation

Rakhmabai was the daughter of fifteen-year-old Jayantibai and her first husband, Janardan Pandurang, who belonged to the suthars (carpenters) caste . Jayantibai was widowed at the age of seventeen and inherited all of her husband's possessions. When she remarried six years later, this time to Dr. Sakharam Arjun, she transferred the inheritance from her first marriage to her daughter, which brought Rakhmabai a fortune of 25,000 Indian rupees . Arjun was a professor of botany and encouraged his stepdaughter to educate. At the age of eleven, Rakhmabai was married to Dadaji Bhikaji, a relative of Arjun nine years older than him. Although such marriages were not uncommon, in this case it did not take place, probably at Arjun's instigation. Instead, Rakhmabai stayed at her parents' home and Arjun also tried to provide bhikaji's education. Bhikaji was not interested and moved in with his uncle, who let his mistress live in his house and whose wife had already attempted suicide for this reason. In this environment, according to Rakhmabai, he led a life full of debauchery "which a woman can hardly bring about". Rakhmabai, on the other hand, began to study English on her own at home, sometimes against her parents' wishes.

Finally, in 1884, Bhikaji demanded that she live with him and consummate the marriage. However, Rakhmabai refused to acknowledge the marriage on the groundbreaking rationale that she was not old enough at the time of the marriage to give her consent. In addition, she suspected Bhikaji of merely trying to acquire her property and detested his way of life. She found support from Indian social reformers, women's rights activists and also from the English public. On June 26, 1885, she wrote in a letter to The Times of India :

“This bad custom of child marriage has destroyed my happiness in life. He comes between me and the things I value most - studies and spiritual education. Through no fault of my own, I am doomed to seclusion; every attempt on my part to rise above my ignorant sisters is viewed with suspicion and is interpreted in a most unfriendly manner. "

In September 1885 the case was heard in the Bombay High Court under English law. The difficulty arose here that there was no English equivalent for a law restoring marital rights and that the judge was unable to apply English law to Hindu traditions. He eventually ruled in Rakhmabai's favor on the grounds that she could not be forced to marry against her will. In March 1887, however, the revision decided in favor of the husband and Rahkmabai was given the choice of either living with her husband or going to prison. Rakhmabai stated that she would rather go to jail than live with bhikaji.

In this situation, she wrote to Queen Victoria in a letter describing the monarch as a “mother” and herself as a “poor, long-suffering Hindu woman”: “Will the mother in such an unusual situation become the sincere plea of ​​her millions of Indian daughters and allow them a few simple words of change in the Hindu code of law? ”By now her case was widely known and even discussed in the English House of Lords . Under the leadership of women's rights activist Millicent Garrett Fawcett , the Rukhmabai Committee was founded to collect donations for them, although Rakhmabai paid the legal costs out of pocket. A little later, Victoria signed a special royal decree dissolving Rakhmabai's marriage and keeping her from prison. Bhikaji eventually accepted financial compensation and shortly thereafter married another woman. Rakhmabai's status - single or married - remained unclear for the rest of her life, which is why she never remarried. Despite the out of court settlement of the case had attracted so much attention that in 1891 the Age of Consent Act was passed, which the age of consent increased for girls from ten to twelve years.

Practicing doctor

After the trial, Rakhmabai received assistance from Edith Pechey Phipson, one of the first British female doctors. She ran the Cama Hospital for Women and Children and helped Rakhmabai improve her English language skills. With the help of the money raised for her, Rukhmabai traveled to England in 1889, where she studied medicine at the London School of Medicine for Women under the direction of Elizabeth Garrett Anderson . Her studies were paid for by the social reformer Walter McLaren and his wife Eva, a member of the suffragettes, and with funds from the Countess of Dufferin's Fund for Supplying Medical Aid to the Women of India . However, in England it was impossible to get a doctorate as a woman, which is why she took her exams in Edinburgh . During this time she made friends with the doctor and women's rights activist Sophia Jex-Blake . Further stations in her training were Glasgow and Brussels , until she finally earned her doctorate in 1894.

In 1895, Rakhmabai returned to India, where Edith Pechey Phipson had given her a position as chief medical officer at the Surat Women's Hospital . She became the first Indian woman to practice as a doctor and her career would last 35 years. However, her compatriots still viewed her with suspicion, and she was forced to compromise on local customs from time to time. For example, she put on the widow's sari when Dadaji Bhikaji died in 1904, although she had never lived with him. In 1918 she moved to the Zenana State Hospital for Women in Rajkot , where she again held the position of Chief Medical Officer . She worked there until her retirement in 1929. She also continued to campaign for women's rights. In 1929 she published the pamphlet Purdah - the Need for its Abolition (in German Parda - why it must be abolished ), in which she criticized the treatment of young widows in Indian society. Furthermore, she pleaded for the abolition of child marriage until the end of her life. She died very old at the age of 91.

Movie

In 2016 the film Doctor Rakhmabai was made, which is based on Rakhmabai's biography. The title role was taken by Tannishtha Chatterjee , directed by Ananth Mahadevan .

further reading

• Antoinette Burton: From Child Bride to "Hindoo Lady": Rukhmabai and the Debate on Sexual Respectability in Imperial Britain . In: The American Historical Review Volume 103, No. 4. Oxford University Press 1998. Online edition on JSTOR (authorization required).
• Sudhir Chandra: Enslaved Daughters: Colonialism, Law and Women's Rights . Oxford University Press 1998, Delhi.
• Geraldine Forbes: Women in Modern India . Cambridge University Press 1996, Cambridge.
• Eunice de Souza, Lindsay Pereira: Women's Voices: Selections from Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Century Indian Writing in English . Oxford University Press 2002, Delhi.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Celebrate 150th anniversary of Rakhmabai Raut nationwide in The Times of India of November 22, 2014
2. ^ Dhananjay Keer: Mahatma Jotirao Phooley: Father of the Indian Social Revolution. Popular Prakashan, 1974, p. 266, ISBN 9788171540662 limited preview in Google Book search
3. ^ Rukhmabai on The Open University - Making Britain . Accessed November 1, 2016
4. ↑ ^{a b} Sudhir Chandra: Rukhmabai and her Case . In: Enslaved Daughters: Colonialism, Law and Women's Rights . Center for the Study of Culture and Society, accessed October 31, 2016
5. ↑ Sudhir Chandra: Rukhmabai and her Case . In: Enslaved Daughters: Colonialism, Law and Women's Rights . Center for the Study of Culture and Society, accessed October 31, 2016: “This wicked practice of child marriage has destroyed the happiness of my life. It comes between me and the things which I prize above all others - study and mental cultivation. Without the least fault of mine I am doomed to seclusion; every aspiration of mine to rise above my ignorant sisters is looked down upon with suspicion and is interpreted in the most uncharitable manner. "
6. ↑ ^{a b c} Helen Rappaport: Encyclopedia of Women Social Reformers, Volume 1 . ABC Clio 2001, ISBN 1-57607-101-4 , p. 599
7. ↑ Helen Rappaport: Queen Victoria: A Biographical Companion . ABC Clio 2003, p. 430
8. ↑ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt5934324/?ref_=nm_flmg_dr_2