Rhetoric Against Age of Consent - Resisting Colonial Reason and Death of A Child-Wife - Sarkar

Rhetoric against Age of Consent: Resisting Colonial Reason and Death of a Child-Wife
Author(s): Tanika Sarkar

Source: Economic and Political Weekly, Vol. 28, No. 36 (Sep. 4, 1993), pp. 1869-1878
Published by: Economic and Political Weekly
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SPECIAL ARTICLES
Rhetoric againstAge of Consent
Resisting Colonial Reason and Death of a Child-Wif e
Taiiika Sarkar
The historian cannot af f ord
to view the colonial past as an unproblematic retrospect wvhere allpower was on one
side and allprotest on the other. Partisanship has to take into account a mullti-f aceted nationalism, allaspects of which
w4ere complicit withpowerand domination even when they critiqued western knowledgeand challenged colonialpower.
This article contends that colonial structures of power comprontised with-indeed learnt much
f iom-indigenous
patriarchy and upper caste norms and practices which, in certain areas of lif e, retained considerable hegemony.
Legislative activity on Hindu marriage issues in the lastf ew decades of the centu ry f orms the discursivef ieldf or this
exercise.
I
AT the risk of provoking startled disbelief ,
I propose to place constructions of IHindu
conjugality at the very heart of the f orma-
tive moment f or militant nationalism in
Bengal.' Ilistorians have adequately noted
the centrality of debates around colonial
laws on women and marriage in the dis-
course of liberal ref ormers. No attempt,
however, has been made so f ar to locate
these themes within early IIindu national-
ism.
Three interlocking themes will be taken
up and elaborated simultaneously. In the
last f ew decades of the 19th century, a f airly
distinct political f ormation had emerged
that I shall clumsily designate as revivalist-
nationalist. It wasa mixed groupof newspa-
per proprietors, orthodox urban estate hold-
ers of considerable civic importance within
Calcutta and pundits as well as modern
intellectuals whom they patronised. They
used an explicitlynationalistrhetoricagainst
any f orm of colonial intervention within the
Hindu domestic sphere which marked them
of f f rom the broader category of revivalist
thinkers who would not necessarily oppose
ref ormism in the name of resisting colonial
knowledge. At the same time, their com-
mitment to an unref ormed Ilindu way of
lif eseparated them f rom liberal nationalists
of the Indian Association or Indian National
Congress variety. Needless to say, these
groups were not irrevocably distinct or
mutually exclusive. Despite considerable
shif ts and overlaps, however, we do iden-
tif y a distinctive political f ormation of na-
tionalists who contributed to emerging na-
tionalisma highly militant agitational rheto-
ric and mobilising techniques built around
the def ence of l-indu patriarchy.
The second related theme would explore
as to why they chose to tie their nationalism
to issues of conjugality which they def ined
as a system of non-consensual, i ndi ssol ubl e,
inf ant marriage. And, f inally, we need to
dwell upon the arguments they f abricated.
We f ind that the Age of Consent issue
f orced a decisive break in their discourse. It
made it imperative f or them to shif t to an
entirely dif f erent terrain of arguments and
images, moving f rom the realm of reason
and pleasure to that of discipline and pain.
The entire exercise, I hope, will widen the
context of early nationalist agitations and
give them an unf amiliar genealogy.
A f ew words are necessary to explain
why, in the present juncture of cultural
studies on colonial India, it is important to
retrieve this specif ic history of revivalist-
nationalism, and to work with a concept of
nationalism that incorporates this history.
Edward Said's Orientalism has f athered a
received wisdom on colonial studies that
has proved to be as narrow and f rozen in its
scope as it has been powerf ul in its impact.
It proceeds f romaconviction in the totalising
nature of a western power knowledge that
gives to the entire Orient a single image
with absolute ef f icacy. Writings of the Sub-
altern Studies pundits and of a group of
f eminists, largely located in thc f irst world
academia, have come to identif y the struc-
tures of colonial knowledge as the origi nary
moment f or all possible kinds of power and
disciplinary f ormations, since, going by
Said, Orientalism alone reserves f or itself
the whole range of hegemonistic capabili-
ties. This unproblematic and entirely non-
historicised 'transf er of power' to struc-
tures of colonial knowledge has three major
consequences; it constructs a necessarily
monolithic, non-stratif ied colonised sub-
ject who is, moreover, entirely powerless
and entirely without an ef f ective and opera-
tive history of his/her own. The only history
that s/he is capable of generating is neces-
sarily a derivative one. As a result, the
colonised subject is absolved of all com-
plicity and culpability in the makings of the
structures of exploitation in the last two
hundred years of our history. The only
culpability lies in the surrender to colonial
knowledge. As a result, the lone political
agenda f or a historiography of this period
shrinks to the contcstation of colohial knowl-
edgc since all power supposedly f lows f rom
this single source. Each and every kind of
contestation, by the same token, is taken to
be equally valid. Today, with a triumphalist
growth of aggressively communal and/or
f undamentalistic indentity-politics in our
country, such a position comes close to
indigenism and acquires a near Fascistic
potential in its authoritarian insistence on
the purity of indigenous epistemological
and autological conditions.
It has weird implications f or the f eminist
agenda as well. The assumption that colo-
nialism had wiped out all past histories of
patriarchal domination, replacing them
neatly and exclusively with western f orms
of gender relations, has naturally led on to.
an identif ication of patriarchy in modern
India with the project of liberal ref orm
alone. While liberalism is made to stand in
f or the only vehicle of patriarchal ideology
since it is complicit with western knowl-
edge, its opponents-the revivalists, the
orthodoxy-are vested with a rebellious,
even emancipatory agenda, since they re-
f used colonisation of the domestic ideol-
ogy. And since colonised knowledge is re-
garded as the exclusive source of all power,
anything that contests it is supposed to have
an emancipatory possibility f or the women.
By easy degrees, then, we reach the position
that while opposition to widow immolation
was complicit with colonial silencing of
non-colonised voicesand, consequently, was
an exercise of power, the practice of widow
immolation itself was a contestatory act
outside the realm of power reladtons since it
was not sanctioned by colonisation. In a
country, where people will still gather in
lakhs to watch and celebrate the buming of
a teen-aged girl assati, such cultural studies
are heavy with grim political implications.
We will try tocontend that colonial struc.
tures of power compromised with, indeed
learnt much f rom indigenous patriarchy
and upper caste norms and practices which,
in certain areas of lif e, retained consider-
able hegemony. Tlhis opens up a new con-
text against which we may revaluate liberal
ref orm. Above all, we need to remember
Economic and Political Weekly September 4, 1993 1869
that other sources of hegemony, f ar f rom
becoming extinct, were reactivated under
colonialism and opposed the liberal ratio-
nalist agenda with considerable vigour and
success. The historian cannot af f ord to view
the colonial past as an unproblematic retro-
spect where all power was on one side and
all protest on the other. Partisanship has to
take into account a multi-f aceted national-
ism (and not simply its liberal variant), all
aspectsof which were complicitwith power
and domination even when they critiqued
western knowledge and challenged colo-
nial power.
lI
A summary of the most controversial
legislative activity on Hindu marriage is-
sues in the last f ew decades of the century
would help to map out our discursive f ield.
The Native Marriage Act III of 1872 was,
f or its times, an extremely radical package
which prohibited polygamy, legalised di-
vorce and laid down a f airly high minimum
age of marriage. It also ruled out caste or
religious barriers to marriage. Predictably,
the proposed bill raised a storm of contro-
versy. Its jurisdiction was eventually nar-
rowed down to people who would declare
themselves to be not Hindus, not Chris-
tians, and not Jains, Buddhists or Sikhs. In
short, its scope came to cover the Brahmos
alone, whose initiative had led to its incep-
tion in the f irst place.2
Furiousdebatesaroundthebill hadopened
up and problematised crucial areas of H indu
conjugality-in particular the system of
non-consensual, indissoluble inf ant mar-
riage whose ties were considered to remain
binding f or women even af ter the death of
their busbands. The polemic hardened in
1887 when Rukma Bai, an educated girl
f rom the lowly carpenter caste, ref used to
live with her uneducated, consumptive hus-
band, claiming that since the marriage was
contracted in her inf ancy it could be repudi-
ated by her decision as an adult. She was
threatened with imprisonment under Act
XV of 1877 f or non-restitution of conjugal
rights. The threat was removed only af ter
considerable ref ormist agitation and the
personal intervention of Victoria.3 The is-
sue f oregrounded very f orcef ully the prob-
lems of consent and indissolubility within
Ilindu marriage.4 In 1891 the Parsi re-
f ormer Malabari's campaign bore f ruit in
TheCriminal LawAmendment Act l0which
revised Section 375 of the Penal Code of
1860, and raised the minimum age of con-
s-ent f or married and unmarried girls f rom
10 to 12.5 Under the earlier Penal Code
regulation a husband could legally cohabit
wvith a wif e who was 10 years old. The
revivalist Hindu intelligentsia of Bengal,
now claimed that the new act violated a
f undamental ritual observance in the lif e
cycle of the Ilindu houscholder-that is,
the 'garbhadhan' ceremony, or the obliga-
tory cohabitation between husband and wi f e
which should take place immediately af ter
the wif e reaches her puberty. Since puberty
was quite likely to occur bef ore she was 12
in the hot climate of Bengal, the new legis-
lation meant that the ritual would no longer
remain compulsory. If the wif e reaches
puberty bef ore attaining the age of consent,
then garbhadhan could not be perf ormed.
This, in turn, implied that the 'pinda' or
ancestral of f erings, served upby the sonsof
such marriages, would become impure and
that generations of ancestors would be
starved of it. The argument provided the
central ground f or a highly organised mass
campaign in Bengal. The f irst open mass-
level anti-government protest in Calcutta
and the of f icial prosecution of a leading
newspaper were its direct consequences.6
The summary might be taken to suggest,
Cambridge School f ashion,7that nationalist
initiative was actually a mere ref lex action,
f ollowing mechanically upon the legal ini-
tiatives of the colonial state. Far f rom being
so, however, not only was colonial initia-
tive itself generally a belated and f orced
surrender to Indian ref ormist pressure but
Hindu revivalist reaction against both was
ultimately constituted by a new political
compulsion. It was coterminus with a re-
cently-acquired notion of the colonised self
that grew out of the'1857 uprising, post-
Mutiny reprisals, Lyttonian discriminatory
policies in the 1870s and the Ilbert Bill
racist agitations in the 1880s. These experi-
ences collectively and cumulatively modi-
f ied and cast into agonising doubt the ear-
lier choice of loyalism that the Bengali
intelligentsia had made f airly unambigu-
ously in 1857. Our understanding of re-
sponses to colonial legislation can make
only very limited and distorted sense unless
they are located within this larger context.
Whereas early 19th century male liberal
ref ormers had been deepl y sel f -critical about
the bondage of the women withi n the house-
hold,8 the satirised literary self -representa-
tion of the Bengali 'baboo' of the later
decades recounted a very dif f erent order of
lapses f or himself : his was a self that had
lost its autonomy and that now willingly
hugged its chains. Rethinking about the
burden of complicity with colonialism ham-
mered out a reoriented self -critique as well
as a heightened perception about the mean-
ingof subjection. It is, perhaps, noaccident,
that even the economic critiques of drain,
deindustrialisation and poverty would come
to be developed by the post-1860s genera-
tions.
With the gradual dissolution of f aith in the
progressive potential of colonialism that
accompanied political self -doubt and the
f ailureof indigenouseconomic enterprises,9
there alsodeveloped a disenchantment about
the magical possibilities of western educa-
tion that had led the earlier ref ormers to look
hopef ully at the public shpere asan arena f or
the test of manhood, of genuine self -im-
provement. With the boundaries of activi-
ties shrinking into the constrictive limits of
parasitic petty landlordism or tenure-hold-
ings andl to mechanical chores within an
oppressive and marginalised clerical exist-
ence, the household of the bhadralok in-
creasingly appeared as the solitary sphere of
autonomy, a site of f ormal knowledge
where-and only here-education would
yield practical, manipulateable, controllable
results. The Permanent Settlement had gen-
erated a class- of parasitic landlords with
f ixed revenue obligation whose passivity
was reinf orced by uninhibited control over
their peasants' rent. The gap between a
f ixed sum of revenue and a f lexible rent
procurement in a period of rising agricul-
tural prices, cushioned an existenceof f airly
comf ortable tenure holding. The Rent Acts
of 1859 and 1885, however, breaches that
security. Organised tenant resistance of the
late 19th century led to heightened anxi-
eties and uncertainties among the landed
gentry. The household, consequently, be-
came doubly precious and important as the
only zone where autonomy and self -rule
could be preserved.'0
0
In the massive corpus of household man-
agement manuals that came to occupy a
dominant place in the total volume of printed
vernacular prose literature of these years,
the household was likened to an enterprise
to be administered, an army to be led, a state
to be governed"-all metaphors, rather
poignantly, derived f rom activities f rom
which colonised Bengalis were excluded.
Unlike Victorian middle class situations,
then, the f amily was not a ref uge af ter work
f or the man. It was their real place of work.
Whether in the Kalighat bazaar paintings'2
or in the Bengali f iction of the 19th century,
workplace situations remain shadowy,
unsubstantial mostly absent. Domestic re-
lations constitute the axis around which
plots are generated, in sharp contrast with
f or example, Dickensian novels.'3
The new nationalist world-view, then,
reimaged the f amily as a contrast to and a
critique of alien rule. This was done prima-
rily by contrasting two dif f erent versions of
subjection-that of the colonised Hindu
male in the world outside and of the appar-
ently subordinated Hindu wif e at home. T'he
f orced surrender and real dispossession of
the f ormer was counterposed to the alleg-
edly loving, willed surrender and ultimate
self -f ulf ilment of the latter.'4 It was in the
interests of this intended contrast that con-
jugality was constituted as the centre of
gravity around which the discursive f ield on
the f amily organised itself . All other rela-
tions, even the mother-child one (which
would come to take up its place as the
pivotal point in the later nationalist dis-
course) remained subordinated to it up to
the end of the 19th century. It was the
relationship between the husband and wif e
that mediated and rephrased within revival-
ist-nationalism, the political themeof domi-
nation-subordination, of subjection-re-
sistance as the lyrical or existential problem
of love, of equal but dif f erent ways of
loving.
The household generally, and conjugal-
ity specif ically, came to mean the last inde-
1870
Economic and Political Weekly September 4, 1993
pendent space lef t to the colonised HIindu.
This was a conviction that was both shaped
and reinf orced by some of the premises of
colonial law. English legislators and j udges
clearly postulated a basic division within
the legal domain. British and Anglo-Indian
law had a 'territorial' scope and ruled over
the 'public' world of land relations, crimi-
nal law, laws of contract and of evidence.
On the other hand, there were Ihindu and
Muslim laws which were def ined as 'per-
sonal', covering persons rather than areas,
and ruling over the more intimate areas of
human existence-f amily relationships,
f amily property and religious lif e.'5 Early
nationalists chose to read this as a gap
between the territory or the land colonised
by an alien law, and the person, still ruled by
one's own f aith-a distinction that the
Queen's Proclamation of 1859, promising
absolute non-interf erence in religious mat-
ters, did much to bolster.'6 Even in sub-
jected India, theref ore, there could exist an
interior space that was as yet inviolate.
Far f rom trying tohegemonise this sphere
and absolutising its control, colonial rule,
especially in the post-1857 decades, tried to
keep its distance f rom it, thus indirectly
adding to the nationalist conviction. The
earlier zeal f or textualisation and codif ica-
tion of traditional laws was gradually re-
placed by a recognition of the importance of
unwritten and varied custom, of the inad-
visability of legislation on such matters,
and of urging judicial def erence, even obe-
dience, to local Hindu opinion.'7 Towards
the end of the century, a strong body of
Ihindulawyersand judgescame tobe f ormed
whose conf ormity to Ihindu practices
(Ilindutva) was of ten taken to be of decisive
importance in judicial decision-making,
even though their prof essional training was
in western jurisprudence, and not in Hindu
law.'7, There was, moreover, an implicit
grey zone of unwritten law whose f orce was
nevertheless quite substantial within law
courts.'8 Take a Serampore Court case of
1873, f or instance, where a I-lindu widow
was suing her brothers-in-law f or def raud-
ing her of her share in her husband's pov-
erty by f alsely charging her with
'unchastity'. Her lawycr ref erred f requently
to notions of kinship obligations, ritual
expectations f rom a Hi ndu widow and moral
norms and practices of high castc women.'9
Clearly, these arguments were thought to
have value in convincing the judge and the
jury, even though, overtly they had little
legal signif icance. Far f rom laughing pecu-
liarly Hindu susceptibilities out of court,
English judges, even the Privy Council,
seriously rationalised them. Ref erring to
the existence of a f lindu idol as a legal
person in a dif f erent law suit, an English
judge commented: "Nothing impossible or
absurd in it ...af ter all an idol is as much of
a person as a corporation."' Legal as well
as ritual niceties about the proper disposi-
tion of idols were seriously and lengthily
debated and sacred objects were brought
into courts of law af ter due ritual purif ica-
tion of the space.2" Tlhe introduction of i
limited jury system between the 1860s and-
the 1880s in Bengal f urther strengthened
the voice of local Ilindu notables, and,
consequently, of local usages and norms.
An of f icial recommendation of 1890 cur-
tailed the powers of the jury in many other
directions but lef t the powers of settling
marriage disputes intact in their hands.22
Nor did colonial legislators and judges
f orm a unif ied, internally coherent body of
opinion on proper Hindu norms and prac-
tices which they would then try to f reeze. A
substantial debate developed over a pro-
posal in 1873 to transf er the cognisance of
cases connected with marriage of f ences,
especialy adultery, f rom criminal to civil
courts. While Simson, the Dacca Commis-
sioler, recommended the repeal of penal
provisions against adultery, Reynolds, the
Magistrate of Mymensingh strongly de-
murred: "I have always observed with great
aversion the practice of the English law in
giving damages in cases of adultery and
seduction, and wanted it to remain a crimi-
nal of f ence."' About cases of f orf eiture of
property rights by 'unchaste widows', there
was a clear division between the high courts
of Allahabad on the one hand and those of
Bombay, Madrasand Calcutta on the other.24
The divisions ref lected the absence of any
monolithic or absolute consensus about the
excellence of English legal practices as a
model f or Indian lif e.
These decades in England had gone
through prof ound changesi n women's rights
in property holding, marriage, divorce, the
rights of prostitutes to physical privacy.25
Englishmen in India were divided about
their direction and a signif icant section f elt
disturbed by the limited, though real, gains
made by contemporary English f eminists.
They turned with relief to the so-called
relative stability and strictness of l-lindu
rules. The Hindu joint f amilysystem, whose
collective aspects supposedly f ully sub-
merged and subordinated individual rights
and interests, was generally described with
warm appreciation-2 They f ound here a
system of relatively unquestioned patriar-
chal absolutism which promised a more
comf ortable state of af f airs af ter the bitter
struggleswith Victorian f eminism at home.
The colonial experience itself mediated and
reoriented contemporary debates on conju-
gal legislation in England. There were im-
portant controversies, f orinstance, between
John Stuart Mill and James Fitzjames
Stephen on issues of consensus vs f orce and
authority as the valid basis f or social and
human relations. Stephen, drawing on his
military-bureaucratic apprenticeship in In-
dia, questioned Mill's premise of
complementarity and the notion of the
companionate marriage.2' Nor was there a
stable legal or judicial model to import.
Prior to the Judicature Act of 1873 there
were f our separate systems of courts in
England, eachl applying its own f orm of law
of ten in conf lict with cach other.2> In any
case, the prolonged primacy of case law and
common law procedures within England
itself made English judges in India agree
with Indian legal and nationalist opinion
that customs, usages and precedents were
f ar more valid sources of law than legisla-
tion.29
A general consensus about the dif f erenti-
ated nature of colonial law, then, postulated
a f issure within the system wherein Hindus
could insert their claims f or a sectoral, but
complete autonomy, f or a pure space. The
specif ic and concrete embodiment of this
purity seemed to lie more within the body of
the Hindu women, rather than of the man-
a conviction shaped, no doubt, by the grow-
ing self -doubt of the post-1857 Hindu male.
Increasingly, irony and satire, a kind of
black humour, became the dominant f orm
of educated middle class literary self -repre-
sentation. There was an obsessive insis-
tence or the physical manif estation of this
weakness. The f eeble Bengali male phy-
sique became a metaphor f or a larger condi-
tion. Simultaneously, it was a site of the
critique of the ravaging ef f ects of colonial
rule. "The term Bengali is a synonym f or a
creature af f licted with inf lammation of the
liver, enlargement of the spleen, acidity or
headache." Or, "Their bones are weak,
their muscles are f labby, their nerves tone-
less."'" Or, "Bengal is ruined. There is not a
single really healthy man in it. The diges-
tive powers have been af f ected and we can
eat but a little. Wherever onc goes he sees a
diseased people.32 Through the grind of
western education, of f ic9routine33 and en-
f orced urbanisation, with the loss of tradi-
tional sports and martial activities, it was
supposedly marked, maimed and completely
remade by colonialism. It was the visible
site of surrender and loss, of def eat and
alien discipline.
The woman's body, on the other hand,
was still held to be pure and unmarked,
loyal and subservient to the discipline of
shastras alone. It was not a f ree body by any
means, but one ruled by 'our' scriptures,
our custom. The dif f erence with the male
body bestowed on it a redemptive, healing
strength f or the community as a whole. An
interesting change now takes place in the
representation of the Hindu women in the
new nationalist discourse. Whereas f or the
liberal ref ormers she used to be the arche-
typal victim f igure, f or nationalists she had
become a repository of power, the Kali
rampant, a f igure of range and strength.34
What were the precise sources of grace
f or the Hindu women? Sheattained itthrough
a unique capacity f or bearing pain and
discipline that were exercised upon her
body by the iron laws of absolute chastity
extending beyond the death of the husband,
through an indissolube, non-consensual in-
f ant f orm of marriage, through austere wid-
owhood, and through a proved past papacity
f or self -immolation. All of them together
imprinted an inexorable disciplinary regi-
Economic and Pol'-:al Weekly September 4, 1993 1871
men upon her person that contained and
def ined her f rom inf ancy to death. Such
discipline was not entirely conf ined to the
normative or conceptual sphere. Bengal,
with the exception of the Central Provinces
and Berar, and Bihar and Orissa,- had the
highest rate of inf ant marriages-a custom
that cut across caste and community lines
and did not markedly decrease even af ter
the Act of 1891.31 Bef ore it was banned, as
we know, Bengal had also been the heart-
land of the practice of sari. The Ilindu
women'sdemonstrated capacity f or accept-
ing pain and harshi discipline thus became
the last measuate of hope and greatness f or a
doomed people. BankimChandra linked up
sati with national regeneration: "I can see
the f uneral pyre burning, the chaste wif e
sitting at the heart of the blazing f lames,
clasping the f eet of her husband lovingly to
her breasts. Slowly the f ire spreads, de-
stroying one part of her body and entering
another. tier f ace is joyf ul ...The f lames
burn higher, lif e departs and the body is
burint to ashes. ...When I think that only
some time back our women could die like
this, then new hope rises up in me, then I
have f aith that we, too, have the seeds of
greatness within us. Women of Bengal You
are the truejewels of this country ."3 Bankim
had plenty of reservations f or other aspects
of llindu conjugality,37 but he seemed to
identif y with it at its most violent point of
termination, through a highly sensualised
spectacle of pain and death, a barely dis-
guised parallel between the actual f lames
destroying a f eminine body and the con-
suming f ires of desire.
III
There were two equally strong compul-
sions and possibilities of construction of
Ilindu womenhood-love and pain-which
produced a deep anxiety within early na-
tionalism.
The accent on love, had, f rom the begin-
ning, underlined acute discomf ort about
mutuality and equality. Pandit Sasadhar
Tarkachuramani, the doyen of Hindu ortho-
doxy, argued that a higher f orm of love
distinguished between western and Hindu
marriages. While the f ormer seeks social
stability and order through control over
sexual morality, the latter apparently as-
pires only towards "the unif ication of two
souls. "Mere temporal happiness, the be-
getting of children are very minor and sub-
ordinate considerations in Hiindu mar-
riage."" The revivalist-nationalist segment
of the vernacular press, polemical tracts
and manuals translated the notion of mar-
riage of souls as mutual love, ensured and
proved by a lif etime of togetherness since
inf ancy such a uniquely Ilindu way of lov-
ing anchors the woman's absol ute chastity,
extending beyond the husband's death, in
mutual desire alone." Yet the very empha-
sis on love, so necessary as a critique of
alien oppression and misunderstanding of
the Hindu order, was a double-edged
weapon: once it was raised, sooner or later,
the question of mutuality was bound to
come. Was it equally binding on botb part-
ners? If it was not so, since hlindu males
were allowed to be polygamous, could its
jurisdiction on the women be anything more
than prescriptive? Particularly, if -marriage
was imposed on her at inf ancy without a
question of her consent or choice?
Nothing in the Hindu shastras would con-
f irm the possibility of mutually monoga-
mous ties. To redeem the past absence, f or
the f irst time in the history of Hindu mar-
riage, a wave of polemical literature ap-
peared that valorised, inideed, insisted on
male monogamy: "We f ind tracts that ad-
vise widowers never to remarry."' Some
manuals that advocate self -immolation f or
the adult widow, simultaneously advise that
child widows should be remarried. They
could have no obligation towards a husband
whom they had not, as yet, come to love.4"
Not just sacred texts but custom, too al-
lowed a very wide spectrum of castes to
make a second marriage f or men possible if
the f irst wif e was barren or bore no sons.42
In the absence of a shastricor custom-based
injuniction against polygamy and given the
reluctance among Hiindu revivalist-nation-
alists to invite ref 'ormist- legislation, male
chasti ty was f ated to remain normative rather
than obligatory, while the woman's chas-
tity was not a f unction of choice or willed
consent. Tlhis was a compromise that be-
came f undamentally dif f icult to sustain.
Through much of the 1880s we f ind a
studied silence on such uncomf ortable po-
tential within Hindu marriage and a self -
mesmerising repetition of its innately.af -
f ective qualities. The inf ant-marriage ritual
is drenched in a warm, suf f using glow of
loveability. "People in this country take a
greatpleasure in inf ant-marriage. The little
bit of a women, the inf ant bride, clad in red
silk, her back turned towards her boy hus-
band... Drums are beating, and men, women
and children are running in order to have a
glimpse of that f ace... f rom time to time she
breaks f orth into little ravishing smiles. She
looks like a littlelovely doll"' (italics mine).
T'he key words here are little, lovely, ravish-
ing, pleasure, inf ant, doll." They are care-
f ully inserted at regular intervals to make
the general account of f estivities draw its
warmth f rom this single major source-the
delightf ul and delighted inf ant bride. The
community of "men, women and children"
f ormed round the occasion is bonded to-
gether by a deeply sensuous experience, by
great visual pleasurc, by happiness; happi-
ness is the operative word. We need to note
that the radiant picture of innocent celebra-
tion is rounded of f through the cleverly
casual insertion of one phrase: 'boy hus-
band'. Inf ant marriage, however, was pre-
scriptive f or the girl alone and the groom at
the side of the 'lovely doll' could be, and
f requently was, a mature, even elderly man,
possibly
muchz-marriedl already. A strategic
and organisingsilence lies at the heart of the
projected image of desire and pleasure.
Even if the quality of Ilindu love was
assumed to be a higher one, Hindu marriage
was still placed f irmly within mainstream
developments in the universal history of
marriages which had supposedly trodden a
unif orm path f rom the 'captive' stage to
f airly permanent, of ten sacramental sys-
tems. Any consent-based alternative,
whether in ancient Indian or in class-based
modem western traditions, were dismissed
as aberrations or minor variations.45 A long
editorial, signif icantly entitled The Bogus
Science, questioned the sources and authen-
ticity of ref ormist knowledge: the nature of
their evidence, of deduction, of arrange-
ment, of proof .6 The powerf ul eugenics-
based argument against inf ant-marriage (in-
f ant marriages produce weak progenies)
was countered by a climatic view of his-
tory:47 irrespective of the age of parents, a
tropical climate was bound to produce weak
children. Ref ormers were accused of casu-
istry or weak logic. Since the Penal Code
had earlier laid down 10 as the minimum
age of consent, how would raising it to 12
ensure genuine consent? "A girl of f ourteen
or sixteen is not capable of legally signing
a note of hand f or 5 rupees and she is ipso
f acto a great deal more incompetent to give
herconsent todef ile her person at twelve."'8
It was also considered to be more than a
little dishonest to place such importance on
the woman's consent in this one matter
since within post marital of f ences, "in the
case of the wif e the point does not turn on
consent, f or, if that had been the case, there
would have no such of f ence as adultery in
the Penal Code."49 A high premium was
thus placed on the rule of rationality in the
def ence of Hindu marriage.
Hindu rationality was represented as a
more supportive world view than ref ormist
or colonial projects. Given the physical and
economic weakness of women, an indis-
soluble marriage tie had to be her only
security-a contention that once again con-
veniently overlooked the f act, that, in a
polygamousworld, indissolubilitywasbind-
ing, in ef f ect, on the women alone. A clear-
eyed kulin brahmin widow haj remarked:
"People say that the seven ties that bind the
f lindu wif e to the husband do not snap as
they do with Christians or Muslims. This is
not true. According to Ilindu law, the wif e
cannot leave the husband but the husband
may leave her whenever he wants to."'' It
was also maintained that consent was im-
material since parents were better equipped
to handle the vital question of security than
an immature girl.5" Security also largely
depended upon perf ect integration with the
husband's f amily, so the sooner the process
began, the better it was f or the girl.52
lIindu marriage, in the rather def ensive
discourse of the 1880s, tlhen, was more
pleasurable and more beautif ul, kinder and
saf er, more rational and guaranteed by a
sounder system of knowledge. In any case,
1872 Economic and Political
Weekby September 4, 1993
it was essentially a part of universal devIl-
opments in the history of civilisationrs.
Dif f erences in marriage system between
the Hindu and the non-Hindu, theref ore,
were, so f ar played down, if not obliter-
ated.
The Rukma Bai episode of 1887 made it
imperative at last to rewrite the narrative of
love and pleasure in the language of f orce.
The earlier lyricism had already been rup-
tured f rom time to time to underline and
recuperate the basic logic of non-
consensuality. At a meeting convened at the
palace of the Shova Bazar Raj, Rajendralal
Mitra had insisted: "in it
[Hindu marriage]
there is no selection, no self -choice, no
consent on the part of the bride. She is an
article of gif t, she is given away even as a
cow or any other chattel." Laughter greeted
his exposition approvingly and he went on:
"There is in Hinduism not the remotest idea
of choice and whoever changed any small
part of it was no Hindu."53 Rukma Bai's
action violently f oregrounded the sexual
double standards and made a mockery of
the notion of the loving heart of hlindu
conjugality. A lot of the debate centred
around the vexed question-whether a
women could sue f or separation f rom an
adulterous husband. 'Among the Hindus,
unchastity on the part of the husband is
certainly a culpable of f ence but they set
much higher value upon f emale chastity":
its erosion would lead to the loss of f amily
honour, growth of half -castes and the de-
struction of ancestral rites.' Bare, stark
bones that f ormed the basic f oundation of
Hindu marriage nowbegan tosurf ace, threat-
ening to blow the edif ice of love away. "A
good Hindu wif e should always serve her
husband as God even if that husband is
illiterate, devoid of good qualities and at-
tached to other women. And it is the duty of
the govemment to make Hindu women
conf orm to the injunctions of the Shastras."55
The basis of conjugality now openly shif ts
to prescription.
Rukma Bai had f orced a choice upon her
community-between the women's right to
f ree will and the f uture of the pristine es-
sence of Hindu marriage. The two could no
longer be welded togetheras a perf ect whole.
Revivalist-nationalists had to treat the two
as separate, conf licting units and indicate
their partisanship.
That came f orth in no time at all. "It is
very strange that the whole of Hi ndu society
will suf f er f or the sake of a very ordinary
women."56 Or, "kindness to the f emale sex
cannot be a good plea in f avour of the
proposed alteration."57 Interestingly, the
episode had shown up another f ault in the
imageof thef Hinducommunity. Rukma Bai
belonged to the carpenter caste where di-
vorce had been customary. Whose custom
must colonial law recognise now? Was
Hinduism a heterogeneous, indeed, self -
divided, self -contradictory f ormation, or
was it a unif ied monolithic one? The reviv-
alist-nationalist answer, once again, was
unambiguous. "The Brahmin caste occu-
pies the highest position and all laws and
ordinances have been f ormed with special
ref erence to that. All the other castes con-
duct themselves af ter the f ashion of the
Brahminical castes."58 Or, "it is true that
divorce obtains among some low caste
people and the government should be really
doing an important duty as a ruler if it
should make laws f ixing and negotiating
the uncertain and unsettled marriage cus-
toms of the people."'9
The debate prised open the imagined
community along the lines of caste and
gender and delineated the specif ic
contours
of the revivalist-nationalist agenda. It could
no longer base its hegemonistic claims on
its supposed leadership to the struggles of a
whole subjected people f or autonomy and
self -rule in their 'private' lives. Its nation-
alism became more precisely def ined as the
ruie of brahmanical patriarchy. Its rational-
ity was one of f orced and absolute domina-
tion of upper-caste, male standards, not one
of universal reason leading towards f ree-
dom and self -determination f or the dispos-
sessed. If it aspired to detach Hindus f rom
a colonised reason and lead them to self -
rule, it would only do so by substituting f or
it a brahmanical, patriarchal reason based
on scripture-cum-custom, both of which
were as disciplinary and deprivational f or
the ruled subjects as was the colonial re-
gime in the sphere of Indian political
economy. Contestation of colonisation was
no simple, escape f rom or ref usal of power:
nor had colonialism equally and entirely
disempowered all Indians. Resistance was
an agenda itself irrevocably tied to schemes
f or domination, an exercise of power that
was nearly as absolute as that which it
resisted.
IV
Very curiously, one possibility within
Ilindu marriage had not occurred to ref orm-
istsor to Bengali ilindu militants-the pos-
sibility of sexual abuse of inf ant wives.
There had been, f rom time to time, the
occasional stray report. TheDaccaPrakash
of June 1875 reported that an 'elderly' man
had beaten his child wif e to death when she
ref used to go to bed with him. Neighbours
had tried to cover it up as suicide but the
murdercharge waseventually proved against
him. The jury, however, let him of f with a
light sentence.60 The E(ucation Gazette of
May 1873 had reported a similar incident
when the 'mature' husband of a girl of 11
"dragged her out by the hair and beat hcr till
he killed her" f orsimilarreasons. Hewaslet
of f with a light sentence as well.6' Report-
ing remained sporadic and the accounts
were not picked up and woven into any
general discussion about Hlindu marriage as
yet. The controversy about the right age of
consent continued to hinge on eugenics,
mortality, child rearing and f amily inter-
ests.
In 1890, Phulmonee, a girl of about 10
or 11, was raped to death by her husband,
Hari Mati, a man of 35. Under existing
Penal Code provisions, however, he was
not guilty of rape since Phulmonee had
been well within the statutory age limit of
10. The event, however, added enormous
weight and urgency to Malabari's cam-
paign f or raising the age or consent f rom
10 to 12. The ref ormist press began to
systematically collect and publish ac-
counts of similar incidents f rom all over
the country. Forty-f our women doctors
brought out long lists of cases where child-
wives had been maimed or killed because
of rape.62 From the possible ef f ects of
child marriage on the health of f uture
generations the debate shif ted to the lif e
and saf ety of Hindu wives.
Phulmonee was the daughter of late
Kunj Behari Maitee, a man f rom the 'Oriya
Kyast' caste, who had been a 'Bazar Sircar'
at Bow Bazar Market. It was a well paid
job and it seems that by claiming 'Oriya
Kyast' status, the f amily was trying f or a
superior caste posi tion in consonance with
their economic viability since Maitees are
otherwise categorised as a low sudra group.
The ramily f requently ref erred to its spe-
cif ic caste practices in court with somne
pride. They said that while they adhered to
child marriage, they f orbade cohabitation
bef ore the girl menstruates, and that in this
case, Phulmonee had not done so. Their
version was that the newly-married couple
had been kept apart according to caste
rules, and that Hari, on a visit to his in-
laws, had stolen into Phulmonee's room
and had f orced himself upon her, thereby
causing her death. Hlari Maiti, however,
insisted that since the marriage she had
spent at least a f ortnight at his house and
they had slept together all the time. He
made no mention of caste rules against
pre-menstrual cohabitation. It seems then
that caste customs remained loose and
f lexible, and that each f amily would allow
considerable manipulation within them.
Even though Ilari Maiti had insisted that
on the last night they had not had inter-
course, medical opinion was unanimous
that the girl had died of violent sexual
penetration. If the court accepted that Hlari
was right and that Phulmonee had slept with
him earlier, then it could go a long way to
show that since nothing untoward had hap-
pened earlier, on the f atal night in question,
Ilari would not have any reasbn to suspect
that a more vigorous penetration might lead
to violent consequences. lIe would, in f act,
have been convinced that intercourse was
perf ectly saf e. The English judge, Wilson,
clearly indicated that he chose to accept
llari's version, thus exonerating him f rom
the charge of culpable homicide. The charge
of rape in any case, was not permissible
since the Penal Code provisions ruled out
the existence of rape by the husband if the
wi f e was above the age of 10. Thejudge was
equally opposed to any extension of the
Economic and Politic"' Weekly September 4, 1993
1873
strict letters of the law in this case to devise
exemplary punishment f or a palticularly
horrible death: "Neither judges nor Juries
have any right to do f or themselves what the
law has not done."
The judge, then, built up his case on the
hypothetical argument that the couple had
slept togetherearlier. lie chose to ignore the
version given by the women in the girl's
f amily-of Radhamonee, Bhondamonee and
Sonamonee, the mother, aunt and grand-
mother of the girl.
I think it is my duty to say that I think there
exists hardly such solid and satisf actory
ground as would make it saf e to say that this
man must have had knowledge that he was
likely tocause thedeath of the girl ... You will,
of course, in these, as in all matters, give the
benef it of any doubt in f avour of the prisoner.
The weight of concern is, very blatantly, on
the exoneration of the man rather than on
the f ate of the women. The law itself was
shaped so as to
preserve
custom as well as
the male right to the enjoyment of an inf an-
tile f emale body. What needs to be particu-
larly noted here is that throughout the trial,
the judge was saying -nothing about a hus-
band who insisted on sleeping with a child,
or about the custom which allowed him to
do so with impunity. Above all, he was not
making any judgmental comparison be-
tween the ways of husbands, eastern or
western. In f act, he bent over backwards to
exonerate the system of marriage that had
made this death possible.
Under no system of law with which Courts
have had to do in this country, whether Hindu
or Mohammedan, or that f ormed under Brit-
ish rule, has it ever been the law that a
husband has the absolute right to enjoy the
person of his wif e without regard to the
question of saf ety to her.63
Both the Hindu husband and the Hindu
marriage system are generously exempted
f rom blame and criticism. There is, in f act,
an assertion about the continuity in the
spirit of the law f rom the time of the Ilindu
kingdoms to the time of British rule.
A signif icant body of English medical
opinion conf irmed the clean bill of health
that the colonial judiciary had advanced to
thellindu marriagesystem. Eveninastrictly
private communication, meant f or the colo-
nial of f icialdom alone, the secretary to the
Public hlealth Society wrote to the govern-
ment of Bengal:
The council direct me to lay special stress
upon the point...that they base no charge
against the native community.
They reverently cited the work on Ilindu
law by Sir Thomas Strange to evoke, in
near-mystical terms, the supreme impor-
tance of his marriage rules to the
llindu,,pnd
the inadvisability of external interf erence
with them:
The council admit that our native f ellow
subejects must be aallowed the f ullest possible
f reedom in deciding when their children
should be ceremonially married. That, in the
constitution of Hlindu society, isa matter with
whlich no Government could meddle and no
Government ought to meddle.
They proceeded to review the considerable
medico-legal data on sexual injuries in-
f licted on child wives and concluded that
whatever the weight of evidence on the
matter, the system of inf ant marriage must
continue unabated. The age of commencing
cohabitation could be raised otly if Hiindus
themselves expressed a great desire f or
change (emphasis mine).
Contrary to received wisdom, then, there
is hardly a vision of remaking the Hindu as
a pale image of his master, of designs of
total change and ref orm. Macaulay's noto-
rious plan of recasting the native as a brown
sahib was not necessarily a design that
remained unif ormly dominant f or the entire
spectrum of colonial rule. Even when domi-
nant, it had to make crucial negotiations
with other imperatives and value pref er-
ences and, above all, with the everlasting
calculation of political expediency. If , at
the time of Macaulay, the Anglicist vision
of a westernised middle class had appeared
as the strongest reservoir of loyalism, soon
enough other al ternatives emerged and were
partially accommodated, modif ying the ear-
lier f ormula and crucially mitigating its
ref ormist thrust. Our moment of the 1890s
comes af ter a long spell of middle class
agitation over demands of constitutional
rights, of Indianisation of the services, of
security against racial discrimination and
abuse. It comes af ter the outburst of white
racism over the Ilbert Bill issue when the
educated middle class was temporarily
vested with the possibility of standing in a
position of judicial authority over Euro-
pean. Empowering the Indian through
westernisation, consequently, came to be
envisaged as the most threatening menace
to the colonial racial structures. It was a
moment when the slightest concession to
Indian liberal ref ormism would be made
most unwillingly and only on the belief that
it represented a majority opinion.
The new legislation was conceived af ter
the ref ormist agitation had convinced the
authorities that the 'great majority' was
ready f or change.65 Right af ter the
Phulmonee episode, the revivalist-nation-
alists were maintaining a somewhat embar-
rassed silence which was broken only af ter
the proposed bill came along. During the
interval, it was the ref ormist voice alone
that could be audible. Since this, f or the
moment, looked like the majority demand,
political expediency coincided temporarily
with ref ormist impulse and the government
committed itself to raising the age of con-
sent. At the same time, of f icial opinion in
Bengal did not extend the terms of the
specif ic ref orm to any larger plans f or
invasive changes. On the contrary, if dis-
played a keenness to learn f rom the codes of
h-indu patriarchy. D)id a recognition that
they were conf ronted with the most abso-
lute f orm of patriarchal domination evoKe a
measure of unconsciotus respect and f ellow
f eeling among the usually conservative,
male English authorities, rather than the
instinct f or ref orm? As the Secretary to the
Public I-Health Society put it: "The history of
British rule and the workings of British
courts in India manif est a distinct tender-
ness towards...the customs and religious
observances of the Indian people."'
There was still the mangled body of "that
unhappy child, Phulmonee I)assee," a girl
of ten or eleven, sexually used by a man
whom she had known only f or a f ew weeks,
who was twenty-nine years her senior, and
who had already been married once (aunt
Bhondamonee's evidence in court). There
was the deposition of her mother
Radhamonee: "I saw my daughter lying on
the cot, weltering in blood... I-ler cloth and
the bedcloth and lari 's cloth were wet with
blood."6' There was unanimous medical
opinion that Hlari had caused the death of a
girl whose body was still immature and
could not sustain penetration. She died af ter
13 hoursof acute pain andcontinuousblecd-
ing. The dry medical terminology somehow
accentuates the horror more than words of
censure:
A clot, measuring 3 i nches by one-and-a-half
inches in the vagina... a longitudinal tear one
and three quarters long by one inch broad at
the upper end of the vagina... a haematoma
three inches in diameter in the cellular tissue
of the pelvis. Vagina, uterus and ovaries
small and undeveloped. No sign of ovula-
tion."
Phulmonee's was by no means an iso-
lated case. Dr Chever's investigations of
1856 had mentioned at least 14 cases of
premenstrual cohabitation that had come to
his notice, and the subsequent f indings in-
corporated in Dr McLeod's report on child
marriage amply corroborated his data .0 We
may presume that only such cases as would
have needed police intervention or urgent
medical attention would be entered into the
records. These were, then, cases of serious
damages that resulted f rom premature sexual
activity. An Indian doctor reported in court
that 13 per cent of the maternity cases that
he had handled involved mothers below the
age of thirteen. The def ence lawyer threw a
challenge at the court: cohabiting with a
pre-pubertal wif e might not have Shastric
sanction, yet so deep-rooted was the custom
that he wondered how many men present in
court were not in some way complicit with
the practice? 70
The divisional commissioners of Dacca,
Noakhali, Chittagong and Burdwan deposed
that child marriage was widely prevalent
among all castes, barring the tribals, in their
divisions. The commissioner of Rajshahi
division f ound that only in Jalpaiguri dis-
trict "Mechhes and other aboriginal tribes
do not f avour child marriage... amongst the
Muhammadans and Rajbungshis, f emales
being usef ul in f ield work, are not generally
marriedl until they are more advanced in
1874 Economic and Political Weekly September 4, 1993
age". On the whole, it was more common
among lower castes. The average age of
marriage f or upper caste girls was slowly
moving up to 12 or 13 due to the relatively
large spread of the new liberal education
among them, and, ironically, to the growing
pressurcs of dowry which f orced parcnts to
keep daughters unmarried till they could
put togetheran adequate amount of dowry.7"
In f act, the compulsion to delay marriage
till the dowrycould becollected would have
f ound a convenient ally in the new liberal-
ism. Among the lower castes, on the other
hand, emulation of brahmanical orthodoxy
rather than of liberal values would be a
more assured way of claiming a pure ritual
status. Wherever inf ant marriage prevailed,
there was no way of ensuring that cohabita-
tion would be delayed till the onset of
puberty.
While both scriptural and customary in-
junctions were too strongly weighted in
f avour of early marriage to allow a raising
of the age of marriage f or girls, certain parts
of the shastras did prescribe against pre-
pubertal cohabitation among married
couples. Nobin Chandra Sen, poet and dis-
trict magistrate of Chittagong, suggested
that this injunction could be reinf orced with
legislation. Of f icial opinion tried to distin-
guish between two distinct levels in mar-
riage; the wedding ceremony itself was
interpreted as a sort of a betrothal, af ter
which girls remained in their parent's homes.
It was only af ter the onset of puberty that
they went through a 'second marriage' and
went of f to live with their husbands. A
group of 'medical ref ormers' (Indian as
well as European doctors who advocated
changes in marriage rules on strictly medi-
cal grounds) as well as administrators ad-
vised legislation to ban marital cohabita-
tion bef ore the perf ormance of the second
marriage. They hoped that there was suf f i-
cient shastric as well as customary sanction
behind the practice.72
It was soon clear, however, that too much
was being made of the 'second marriage'. It
was not generally taken to constitute a
distinct separate stage within marriage as a
whole. While there was a widespread rec-
ognition that girls should begin regular
-cohabitation only af ter they attained pu-
berty, the custom was customarily violated.
Once the marriage had been perf ormed, a
lot of domestic, especially f eminine, pres-
sure pulled the wif e into the husband's
f amily. In any case, itwasdif f icult todecide
exactly at what age girls attained puberty
and to make sure that no girl was sent of f to
her husband bef ore that. Any viable piece of
legislation would have tospell out a di f inite
age at which puberty starts rather than indi-
cate a gceneral physical condition.
T
he def inition of puberty proved to be the
stumbling block. According to custom, it
was cquated with the onset of regular men-
struation. And here, revivalist-nationalists
were trcading delicate ground. While they
wantedl to oppose the proposed age of 12,
they could not push the age too f ar back,
since they hadnot opposed the earlier Penal
Code ban on marital cohabitation bef ore the
girl was 10. If they now chose to construe
the earlier ban as an oppressive intrusion
that had already interf ered with Hindu mar-
riage practices, then they could no longer
sustain their present agitational rhctoric:
that the currrent intervention was the f irst
f undamental violation of I Iindu conjugality
and theref ore spelt the beginning of the end
of the only f rec space lef t to the Ilindu.
Without this sense of a new, momentous
beginning of doom, the pitch of the highly
apocalyptic rhetoric would f all f lat. If the
new legislation were to be seen as merely a
part of a long-drawn out process, then oppo-
sition to it could hardly invest itself with a
lif e or death mission. TIhey, theref ore, in-
sisted that 'true puberty' only occurred
between the ages 10 and 12. Even if men-
struation occurred earlier, it would be a
f luke and not a regular f low. The earlier
IPenal Code regulation had not theref ore
interf ered with the garbhadhan ceremony.
Since in the hot climate of Bengal, men-
arche was sure to start between 10 and 12,
the f urther raising of the age of consent
would constitute the f irst real breach in
ritual practice.
Ref ormers argued that puberty sets in
properly only af ter 12. In this, they used a
dif f erent notion of puberty itself . While
revivalist-nationalists unequivocally
equated puberty with menarche, medical-
ref ormers argued that puberty was a pro-
longed process, and menarche was the sign
of its commencement, not of its culmina-
tion. The beginning of menstruation did not
indicate the girl's 'sexual maturity' which
meant that her physical organs were devel-
oped enough to sustain sexual penetration
without serious pain or damage. Until that
capability had been attained, they argued,
the notion of her consent was meaning-
less.
It is remarkable how all strands of opin-
ion-colonial, revivalist-nationalist, medi-
cal-ref ormer-agreed on a def inition of
consent that pegged it to a purely physical
capability, divorcedentirely f rom f reechoice
of partner, f rom sexual, emotional or mcn-
tal compatibility. Consent was made into a
biological category, a stage when the f e-
male body was ready to accept sexual pen-
etration without serious harm. The only
dif f erence lay in assessing when this stage
was reached.
It would be simplistic, however, to con-
clude that there was a complete identity in
patriarchal values betwecn ref ormers and
revivalists. Whatever their broader views,
ref ormers always had to struggle with a
minimalist programme since nothing else
would havc the remotest chance of accept-
ability cither with the legislative authori-
ties, orwith Ilindu socicty. Wconly have to
remind ourselves about the explosive pro-
tests that this legislation provoked. Rte-
f ormist campaigning f or legislation was
more of a consciousness raising device, a
f oregrounding.of issues of domestic ideol-
ogy than pinning ef f ective hopes of real
social change to acts. Norwas the minimalist
programme of insisting on the woman's
physical saf ety an.insignif icant matter, un-
der the circumstances. Revivalist-national-
istson theother hand, grounded theiragenda
on the most violently authoritarian regime
of patriarchal absolutism. Their insistence
on self -rule in the domestic sphere coin-
cided with their insistence that the hIindu
girl should sacrif ice her physical saf ety,
and even her lif e, if necessary, to def end the
community's claim to autonomy.
As the ref ormist campaign gathered mo-
mentum and as the government, by the end
of 1890, seemed committed to Malabari's
prosals, I-lindu militants were f aced with
two options. They could accept a radical
reorientation of their earlier emphasis: that
is, they could admit of a basic problem
within present marriage practices and then
delink them f rom past, supposedly authen-
tic norms. This way, they could still main-
tain their distance f rom ref ormers by insist-
ing on ref orm f rom within in place of alien
legislation f rom outside. While this would
have amounted to an honourable f ace-saving
device, it would still have implied an as-
sault on the totality and inviolability of
what had so f ar been exalted as the essential
core of the system. Worse still, it would
have amounted to a surrender to mission-
ary, ref ormist and rationalist critiques of
Hindu conjugality. On the other hand, it
could come to terms with the phenomenon
of violence and build its own counter cam-
paign around its presence. If dif f erence was
f ound to lie not in superior rationality,
greater humanism, pleasure or love, but,
rather, in pain and coercion, then these
constituents of dif f erence should be admit-
ted and celebrated.
V
The Age of Consent Bill could have rea-
sonably been f aulted on many counts. It was
an unbelievably messy and impractical mea-
sure. Reporting and verif ication of crime
were generally impossible in f amilial situ-
ations. Even if the girl (if she survived) and
her parents were willing to depose against
the husband, neighbours, whose evidence
was crucial in such cases, usually protected
the man. Proving the girl's age was f airly
impossible in a country where births are
still not registered. Medical examination
was of ten inconclusive. Where matters did
eventually reach the court, the jury, and
Bri tish judges, f earf ul of of f ending custom,
rarely took up a f irm stand. In 1891, the
mother of a young girl had pressed f or legal
action in such a case and the girl herself
gave very def inite evidence in court. On the
basis of a dental examination the English
magistrate, however, could not be abso-
I utely certai n that she was not oover 12. The
11usbandl was consequently discharged.73
Economic and(i Political Weekly September 4, 1993
1875
Unnerved by the massive anti-bill agita-
tions, the government itself hastened to
undermine the scope of the act. Five days
af ter its enactment, Lord Lansdowne sent
circulars instructing that enquiries should
be held by "native Magistrates" alone and
in any case of doubt, prosecution should be
postponed.74
The nationalist press ref erred to thesc
problems f rom time to time but used them
as auxiliary arguments rather than as cen-
tral ones. Certain other kinds of political
criticism f ound a stronger resonance. There
was a powerf ully articulated f ear about the
extension of police intrusion right into the
heart of the I-lindu household.75 There was
alsostrong opposition on the ground that an
unref ormed and unrepresentative legisla-
ture should not legislate on such controver-
sial matters 76- a criticism that sought to
link up the anti-Bill agitation with current
Moderate Congress-type constitutional de-
mands. These protests too remained rather
marginal to the true core of the Ilindu
revivalist-nationalist debate which wascar-
ried on by hardliners like the newspapers
BaJtgabas hi,DainikOSamacharChaf ndrika
or the Amritabazar Patrika.
IHindu nationalists started on a very f a-
miliar note that had been struck on all sorts
of issues since the 1870s: a f oreign govern-
ment was irrevocably alien to the meaning
of Hindu practices. And, where knowledge
does not exist, there power must not be
exercised. A somewhat long illustration
f rom the Daintik 0 Samachar Chlantdrika
sums up a number of typical statements on
the matter.
That a women should, f rom her childhood,
remain near !ler husband, and think of her
husband and should not even think of or see
the f ace of another man...are injunctions of
the Hlindu Shastras, the signif icance whereof
is understoodonlyby 'sasttvik'
[pure]
people
like the Hindus. The Englislh look to thc
purity of the body. But in Hindu opinion she
alone is chaste and pure who has never even
thought of one who is not her husband. No
one who does not see with a 1Hindu s eye will
not be able to understand the secret meaning
of Hiindu practices and observances.... Ac-
cording to the Ihindu the childhood of a girl
is to be determined by ref erence, to her f irst
menses and not to her age...77
The f irst point made here is a method-
ological one that disputes the attempt to
comprehend any f oreign system of mean-
ing through one's own cognitive categories
(and immediately proceeds todoso itself by
generalising on English attitudes about the
body and the soul). The meaning of Hlindu
f emale childhood is then made dif f erent
through a dif f erent arrangement of medical,
sexual, moral and behavioural conditions.
While revivalist-nationalists do not, as yet,
insist on complete autonomy in the actual
f ormulation and application of personal
laws, they do claim the sole and ultimate
right to determine their general f ield of
operations. The claim is justif ied by break-
ing up and dispersing the sources of Hindu
conjugal ity among numerous and ever-shif t-
ing points of location. Some could be based
on written texts, some located in oral tradi-
tions, yet others in ritual practices, and-
most problematic of all-a whole lot could
be simply embedded in an undef inable,
amorphous, dif f used Il-indu way of lif e,
accessible to Ihindu instincts alone. The
intention is to disperse the sources of Hindu
Law and custom beyond condif ied texts,
however, authoritative or authentic those
might be. Even an ancient authority like
Manu, who advocated 16 as the upper limit
of marriage age f or girls, was dismissed as
someone who wrote f or the colder northern
regions where puberty came later. Charak
and Susruta weredismissed even more sum-
marily as near-Buddhists who had scant
regard f or true Ili ndu val ues. The process of
wide dispersal renders Hlindu customs
opaque and inf initely f lexible, to the point
of being eternally elusive to the colonial
authorities.
The crucial emphasis lay on the reitera-
tion that the proposed law was the f irst of its
kind to breach and violate the f undamentals
of Hlinduism. The argument could only be
clinched by derecognising the importance
of earlier colonial interventions in Hindu
domestic practices. Sati, it was argued, was
never a compulsory ritual obligation and its
abolition theref ore mercly scratched the
surf acc of Hlindu existence. The Widow
Remarriage Act had a highly restricted
scope, simply dcclaring children born of
a second marriage to be legal heirs to their
f athers' properties.78 Ref ormers replied that
the new bill was no unprecedented revision
of custom either, since the Penal Code had
already banned cohabitation f orgirls bef ore
the age of 10. Since girls could attain pu-
berty bef ore that age, the sanctity of the
garbhadhan ceremony had already been
threatened. f lindu revivalist-nationalists
retaliated with a ref erence to the elusive
sources of I-lindu custom and a notion of the
llindu 'normalising' order which could be
grasped by pure-born Ilindus alone.
It seems they [the ref ormers] do not know the
meaning of
Adtya
RitlJ [real menses]. Mere
f low of blood is no sign of Adya Ritu. A girl
never menstruates bef ore she is 10 and even
if she does the event must be considered
unnatural.79This took care of the 1860 Penal
Code provision againstcohabitingwith a girl
under 10. An 'authentic' [Iindu girl accord-
ing to revivalists does not reach puberty
bef ore slhe is 10. The earlierban had theref ore
not really tampered with H-f indu practices.
Were the ceiling to be extended to 12, a
serious interf erence would take place. IFhe
meaning of physicality itself is constituted
dif f erentlyand unif orm biological symptoms
do not point to a universal bodily develop-
mentall scheme, since Ilindus alone know
what stands f or the normal and the abnormal
in the bodly's growth.
T he i nsistence: that thc English were about
to commit the primal sin against Hinduisml,
that an unprecedented attack was going to
be mounted on the last pure space lef t to a
conquered pcople, was necessary to relo-
cate the beginnings of true colonisation
here and now-so that a new chronology of
resistance could also begin f rom this mo-
ment, redeeming the earlier choice of
loyalism.
The Indians have f elt f or the last two centu-
ries that India is no longcr theirm, that it has
passed into the hands of the Yavanas. But the
Indians have, up to this time, f ound solace in
the thought that though their country is not
theirs, their religion is theirs.80
Or, even more f orcef ully and explicitly,
"No, no, a hundred battles like that of
Plassey, Assay, Multan could not in ter-
ribleness of ef f ect compare with the step
Lord ILandsowne has taken."' With the
possibility of protest in the near f uture,
apocalyptic descriptions of subjection be-
came common: "Tlhe day has at length
arrived when dogs and jackals, hares and
goats will have it all their way. India is
going to be converted into a most unholy
hell, swarming with hell worms and
hell insects. ...The hlindu f amily is
ruined.'' 82
It was this language of resistance and
repudiation that gave the Age of Consent
controversy such wide resonance among
the Bengali middle class. Tlhe Banigabaslii,
in particular, f ormulated a rhetoric in these
years with phenomenal success,' becom-
ing in the process, the leading Bengali
daily, changingover f rom its weekly status,
and pulling a whole lot of erstwhile ref orm-
ist paperswith itsorbit f orsome time. Even
Vidyasagar, the ideal-typical ref ormer f ig-
ure, criticised the bill.'
The response of a f airly pro-ref orm jour-
nal, the Bengalee, epitomises the way in
which the new agitational mood reacted on
a potentially ref orm-minded, yet largely
nationalist intelligentsia. It had supported
the bill quite staunchly up to the end of
January, 1891, af ter which there seemed to
occur an abrupt change of line. In February,
af ter reporting on "an enormous mass pro-
test meeting, the largest that had ever been
held", it started to f ind problems with the
legislation-albeit more of a constitutional
kind, with ref lections upon the unrepresenta-
tive nature of the legislature.' In March it
covered yet another mammoth protest meet-
ing and then redef ined the grounds of its
own opposition. "It is no longer the lan-
guage of appeal which opponents of the Bill
address to the rulers of the land....U-owever
much we may dif f er f rom the opponents of
the measure, we cannot but respect such
sentiments."'
We, theref ore, turnr to the 'language' of
the opponents, to the Banzgabashli. I lere was
a radical leap f rom mendicantappeals, f rom
oblique and qualif ied criticism and f rom
guilt and shame-ridden self -satirisation.
Ilere was the birth of a powerf ul, self -
conf ident nationalist rhetoric. "Who would
1876 Economic and Political Weekly September 4, 1993
have thought that a dead body would rise
up again? Whoever thought that millionsof
corpses would again become instinct with
lif e?" 8 There was an exhilarating sense of
release in the naming of the enemy.
The Englishman now stands bef ore us in all
his grim and naked hideousness. What a grim
appearance. How dreadf ul the attitude... The
demons of cremation ground are laughing a
wild, weird laugh. Is this the f orm of our
Ruling power? Brahmaraksharh, Terror of
the Universe; Englishmen... do you gnash
your teeth, f rown with your red eyes, laugh
and yell, f linging aside your matted
locks...and keeping time to the clang of the
sword and bayonet...do you engage your-
selves in a wild dance ...and we...the twenty
crores of Indians shall lose our f ear and open
our f orty crores of eyes."
Very conf idently, almost gleef ully, every
f ormer trapping of rationalisation was peeled
away f rom the core message. Admittedly
sanction f or inf ant marriage came f rom
Raghunandan alone, who was a late and
local authority. It might well lead to other
deaths.'9 It did, in all likelihood, weaken
f uture progeny and lead to racial degenera-
tion; but "the Hindu prizes his religion
above his lif e and short-lived children".'
Hindu shastras undoubtedly imposed harsh
suf f ering on women. "This discipline is the
pride and glory of chaste women and it
prevails only in Hindu society"'.9' There
were yet other practices that might bring on
her death.
FastingonEkadashi(f ortnightlyf asting with-
out even a drink of water that widows are
meant to ritually maintain) is a cruel custom
and many weak-bodied widows very nearly
die of observing it...it is prescribed only in a
small 'tatwa' of Raghunandan. Is it to be
banned, too, f or this reason, the guardian of
the widow arraigned in f ront of the High
Court and pronounced guilty by the Baboo
jurors?
92
There would be other Phulmonees who
would die similar violent deaths through
inf ant marriage. Yet,
"the perf ormance of the garbhadhan cer-
emony is obligatory upon all. Garbhadhan
must be af ter f irst menstruation. It means the
f irst cohabitation enjoined by the shastras. It
is the injunction of the Hlindu shastras that
married girls must cohabit with their hus-
bands on the f irst appearance of their menses
and all Hindus must implicitly obey the in-
junction. And he is not a true Hindu who does
not obey it...If one girl in a lakh or even a
crore menstruates bef ore the age of twelve it
must be admitted that by raising the age of
consent the ruler will be interf ering with the
religion of the Hindus. But everyone knows
that hundred of girls menstruate bef ore the
age of twelve. And garbhas (wombs) of hun-
dred of girls will be tainted and impurc. And
the thousands of children who will be born of
those impure garbhas will become impure
and lose their rights to of f er 'pindas'
lanices-
tral of f eringsj."94
Even in translation the power of the
voice comes through. The repetitive short
sentences joined by 'ands', the f requency
of the word 'must', the use of vaster and
yet vaster numbers to build up inexorably
towards a sense of inf inite doom-all add
up to an incantatory, mandatory, apoca-
lyptic mode of speech that is the typical
vehicle f or a f undamentalist mil-
lenarianism. All external reasoning has
been chipped away, just the bare mandate
is repeated and emphasised through threats
and warnings. This is an immensely pow-
erf ul, dignif ied voice, aeons away f rom
timid mendicancy or morbid self -doubt.
This is the proud voice of the community,
legislation on itself in total def iance of
f oreign rule, of alien rationalism. It speaks
the authoritative word in the appropriately
authoritarian voice. The Hindu woman's
body is the site of a struggle that f or the
f irst time declares war on the very f unda-
mentals of an alien power-knowledge sys-
tem. Yet it is not merely a displaced site
f or other arguments but remains, at this
moment,the heart of the struggle. Bengali
Hindu revivalist-nationalism, at this f or-
mative moment, begins its career by de-
f ining itself as the realm of unf reedom.
I would not like to end, howeyer, with this
speech, however, powerf ul. Its very contes-
tation of alien ref ormism and rationalism,
its def ence of community custom, represses
the pain of its women whose protest was
drowned to make way f or an alleged con-
sensus. It is no longer possible to resurrect
the protest of Phulmonee and of many,
many other battered child wives who died
or nearly died asa result of marital rape. We
have, however, several instanceswhen cases
were lodged at the initiative of the girl's
mothers, sometimes f orcing the hands of
the male guardians-a rare demonstration
of the woman's protest action f or those
times. We also have a court deposition lef t
by a young girl who was severely wounded
and violated by her elderly husband.
"I cannot say how old I am. I have not reached
puberty. I was sleeping when my husband
seized my hand....I cried out. He stopped my
mouth. I was insensible owing to his outrage
on me. My htusband violated me against my
will. ...When I cried out he kicked me in the
abdomen. My husband does not support me.
He rebukes and beats me. I cannot live with
him.
The husband was discharged by the British
magistrate and the girl was restored to
him.94
Notes
1 1 use the term 'militant nationalism' in a
somewhat unconventional sense here: not
as a part of a dcef initc and continuous
historical trend but as a moment of abso-
lute and violent criticism of f oreign rule
that was developed by a group of Hindus
in the late 1880s and e.rly 1890s, largcly
over Hindu marripge controversies.
Certain newspapers, especially the
Bangabashti, took the lead in mobilising
protest, organising mass rallies and pro-
voking of f icial prosecution. That par-
ticular group, however, soon withdrew,
f rom the scene of conf rontation. In the
Swadeshi movement of 1905-08, the
Bangabashi would remain quiescent, even
loyal to the authori ties. I owe this piece of
inf ormation to Sumit Sarkar. For an ex-
cellent study of the newspaper see Amiya
Sen, 'Hindu Revivalism in Bengal' (un-
published thesis, Delhi University, 1980).
2 Charles H Heimsath, Indian Nationalism
andHindu SocialRef orm, Princeton Uni-
versity Press, pp 91-94; Ajit Kumar
Chakraborti, Maharshi Dabendranath
Tagore, Allahabad, 1916, Calcutta, 1971,
pp 406-35.
3 The act of 1877 was a colonial interven-
tion to tighten up the marriage bond which
the Eindu orthodoxy strongly def ended
on the ground that it coincided with, and
reinf orced the true essence of Hindu con-
jugality.
4 See Dagmar Engels, 'The Limits of Gen-
der Ideology: Bengali Women, the Colo-
nial State and the Private Sphere, 1890-
1930, Women Studies', International Fo-
rum, Vol 12, 1989.
5 Heimsath, op cit, pp 147-75.
6 See extracts f rom BangabashiandDainik
O Samachar Chandrika between 1889
and 1891 in Report on Native News-
papers, Bengal (hencef orth RNP,
Bengal).
7 For this version of Cambridge historiog-
raphy on Indian nationalism see,
Gallagher, Seal and Johnson, Locality,
Province and Nation, Cambridge, 1973.
8 I have discussed this in Hindu Household
and Conjugality in Nineteenth Century
Bengal, paper read at the Women's Stud-
ies' Centre, Jadavpur University, Calcutta,
1989.
9 N K Sinha, Economic History of Bengal,
Calcutta, n d.
10 N K Sinha (ed), The Iistory of Bengal.
11 See f or instance Prasad Das Goswami,
Amader Sanmaj, Serampore 1896;
Ishanchandra Basu, Stri Diger Prati
Upadeslh, Calcutta, n d; Kamakhya Charan
Bannerji, Stri Shiksha, Dacca, 1901;
Monomohan Basu, Hindur Achar
VRYavahar, Calcutta 1872; Chandranath
Basu, Garlhast/iya Pat/i, Calcutta 1887;
Bhubaneswar Misra, Hindu Viva/ha
Samaloclhan, Calcutta 1875; Tarakhnath
Biiswas Bangiya Mahila, Calcutta 1886;
Anubicacliaran Gupta, Grilhastha Jivan,
Calcutta 1887; Narayan Roy, Banga-
mahila, n d, Calcutta; Chandrakumar
Bhattacliarya, Bangavivaha, Calcutta
1881; Pratapchandra Majumdar, Stri
C/aritra, Calcutta n d; Purnachandra
Gupta, Banigali Bau, Calcutta 1885; and
many others.
12 See the preponderance of this theme in
the collection Of W C Archer, Bazaar
Economic and Political Weekly September 4, 1993 1877
Paintings of Calcutta, London, 1953.
13 See, f or instance, plots in the novels of
Bankimchandra, Bankinm Rachanabali,
Vol 1, Calcutta.
14 Prasad Das Goswami, op cit.
15 See, f or instancc, Sir William Markby,
Fellow, Balliol College an(d erstwhile
judge in Calcutta HIigh Court, Ilindu and
Mohamnmadant Law, 1906, Delhi, 1977,
pp 2-3.
16 See, f requent ref erences to the Queen's
Proclamation in the agitational writings
in the nationalist press, RNP Bengal,
1887-91.
17 Markby, op cit, f or a convergence of the
views of -this Orientalist scholar-cum-
colonial judge with Hindu Legal opinion,
compare him with Sripati Roy, Ctustonts
antd Cutstomary Law in Britislh India,
Tagore Law Lectures-, 1908-09, reprinted
in Delhi 1986, pp 2-6.
17a See J D N Derrett, Religioni, Law and the
State in India, London, 1968.
18 For a clarif ication of the notion of unwrit-
ten law, see Robert M Ireland, TheLiber-
tine Mlust Die: Sexuial Dishonour and the
Unwritten Law in thte 191/i Centur)
United
States, Journal of Social History, Fall
1989.
19 The Bengalee, March 7, 1873.
20 Markby, op cit, p 100.
21 This relates to a case involving the dis-
position of a Shalgram-shila in case of
Surendranath Bannerjee vs the chief
justice and judges of the high court at
Fort William, July 1883. See an account
in Subrata Choudhary, 'Ten Celebrated
Cases Tried by the Calcutta High Court'
in the High Coutrt at Calcutta, Centenary
Souvenir 18Q.2-1962, Calcutta, 1962.
22 Sharmila Bannerjee, Studies in the Ad-
ministrative History of Bengal, 1880-
1989, New Delhi, 1978, pp 151-55.
23 Cited in The Bengalee, April 26, 1873.
24 See extracts f rom Murshidabad Patrika,
Dacca Prakash and the Education Ga-
zette in April 1875, RNP Bengal.
25 See Philippa Levine, VictorianFeminism,
1850-1900, London 1987, pp 128-43.
Also see Holcombe, Wives and Prop-
erty-Ref orm of tIhe Married Women's
Property Law in 19th Century England,
Oxf ord 1983.
26 Markby, op cit, p 100.
27 Mendus and Rendall (eds),Sexuality and
Subordination, Interdisciplinary Studies
of Genders in the 19th Century, RKP,
1989, p 133.
28 See also Holcombe, Victorian Wives and
Property: Ref orm of the Married
Wonmen's Property Law, 1857-82 in
Martha Vicinus, A Widening Sphere:
Chtaniginig Roles of Victorian Womneni,
London.
29 Markby and Sripati Roy, op ciL
30 The Amrita Bazar Patrika, February 4,
1873.
31 Thte Ilindoo Paf riot, August 16, 1887.
32 Tf he Amrita Ba-ar Patrika, January 28,
1875, RNP' Bengal, 1875.
33 See SumitSarkar, 'The Kalki-Avatar of
Bikrampur: A Village Scandal in Early
20th Century Bengal' in Ranajit Guha
(ed), Suibaltera Studies VI, Delhi,
1989.
34 See Tanika Sarkar, Nationalist Iconogra-
phy.
35 Report of the Age of Consent Comimittee,
1928-29, Government of Bengal, Calcutta
1929. For some statistical observations
on this matter, see pp 65-66.
36 Kamlakanter Daptar.
37 Tanika Sarkar, Bankimchandra and the
Imipossibility of a Political Agenda: A
Predicament f or 19th Century Bengal,
NMML Occasional Papers, Second Se-
ries, No XL, 1991
38 Bangabashi, July 9, 1887, RNP Bengal
1887. For a critical discussion of such
views see Rabindranath Tagore, Hindu
Vivaha, 1294. Rabindranath, himself , in
this extremely involuted logical exer-
cise, grants a practical purpose to inf ant
marriage purely f or better breeding pur-
poses but, in the process, Hindu con-
jugality is denied all ef f ective orspiri-
tua l pretensions. RabindraRachanabali,
Vol 12, Calcutta, 1349.
39 Chandrakanta Basu, Hindui Patni and
Hindu Vivaha Bayas 0 Uddeshya, cited
in Hindu Vivaha, op cit, also by the same
author, Hhinduttva, op cit.
40 See f or instance Prasad Das Goswami,
op cit, Bhubaneshwar Misra, op cit,
Kalimoy Ghatok, Ami, Calcutta 1885.
41 Monomohan Basu, op cit.
42 Manmohan Basu, op cit.
4-3 Sulabh Samachar 0 Kushadahe, July 22,
1887, RNP Bengal, 1887.
44 Far f rom invariably evoking a sense of
superiority and disgust among English-
men, the spectacle would very of ten
arouse similar sentiments. Compare a
description of a marriage procession by
an English tourist with our earlier ac-
count: 'It was the prettiest sight in the
world to see those gorgeously dressed
babies...passer-bys smiled and blessed
the little husband and the tiny wif e'; John
Law, Glimpses of hIidden India, Calcutta
circa 1905.
45 The Hindoo Patriot, July 25, 1887.
46 Ibid, August 16, 1887.
47 Ibid, September 12, 1887.
48 Ibid, August 1, 1887.
49 Surabhi 0 Patrika, January 16, 1887,
RNP Bengal, 1887.
50 Nistarini Devi, Sekaler Katha, f irst pub-
lished serially in Blharatbarsha between
1913-14. Jana and Sanyal (eds),
Atnmakatlla, Calcutta, 1982, p 11
5 1 Chandrakanta Basu, op cit.
52 Tte IIinidooPatriot, Septenbe r 19, 1887.
53 Cited in The IIintdoo Patr-iot, ibid.
54 Dainwik 0 Saniaclhar Chiandrika, June 22,
1857. Also Dacca Prakash.
55 Bardhawani Sanjiv'aii, July 5. 1887, RN II
Bengal, 1887.
.56 Dihrntkcu, July 4, 1887, RNP l3cngal.
1887.
57 Sanibad Prabhakar, June 30, 1887, RNP
Bcngal, 1887.
58 Bangabashti, June 25,1887, RNP Bengal,
1887.
59 Nababibhakar Sadhtarani, July 18,1887,
RNP Bengal, 1887.
60 Dacca1Prakash, June 8, 1875, RNP Ben-
gal, 1A75.
61 Education Gazette, May 11, 1873, RNP
Bengal, 1873.
62 Heimsath, op cit
63 Bengal Government Judicial J C/17/,
Proceedings 96-102, 1892, Nos 101-02.
File J C/17-5. Honourable justice
Wilson's charge to jury in the case
Empress vs Main Mohan Maitee, Cal-
cutta High Court. Report sent by Arcar,
Clark of the Crown, High Court, Calcutta,
to of f iciating chief secretary 90B,
No 6292-Calcutta, September 8, 1890.
64 See Rajat Kanta Ray.
65 Bengal Government Judicial NF J C/17/,
Proceedings 104-17, June 1893. From
Simmons, honorary secretary, Public
I-lealth Society of India to chief secre-
tary, Government of Bengal, Calcutta
September 1, 1890.
66 Ibid, C C Stevens, of f iciating, chief sec-
retary 90B, to secretary, home depart-
ment, Government of India, Darjeeling,
November 8, 1890.
67 Letter f rom Simmons, op cit.
68 Bengal Government Judicial, J C/17/,
op cit.
69 Bengal Government Judicial, NF J/C/
171, op cit.
70 McLeod'sMedicalReporton ChildWives
Bengal Government Judicial, ibid.
71 Ibid.
72 Ibid.
74 Dagmar Engels, op cit.
75 Surabhi 0 Patrika, January 16, 1891,
RNP Bengal 1891.
77 Dainik 0 Saniachar Chandrika, January
14, 1891, RNP Bengal, 1891.
78 Nabayug, January 15,1891, RNP Bengal,
1891.
79 Dainik 0 Samnachar Chandrika, April 15,
1896, RNP Bengal, 1891.
80 Nabayug, op cit.
81 Bangabashti, March 21, 1891, RNP Ben-
gal, 1891.
82 Ibid.
83 See Amiya Sen, op cit.
84 Mentioned in The Bengalee, March 7,
1891.
85 Tlte Bengalee, February 28, 1891.
86 Ibid, March 21, 1891.
87 Bangabashi, March 28, 1891.
88 Ibid.
89 Dainik 0 Santachar Chandrika, January
15, 1891.
90 Bangabashi, December 25, 1890.
91 Dainik 0 Sarnacliar Chlanidrika, January
14, 1891.
92 Ibid, January J11, 1891.
93 Ihid.
94 ThXe Ben galee, Jully 25, 1891 .
1878
Economic and Political Weekly September 4, 1993

Rhetoric Against Age of Consent - Resisting Colonial Reason and Death of A Child-Wife - Sarkar

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Rhetoric against Age of Consent: Resisting Colonial Reason and Death of a Child-Wife

Author(s): Tanika Sarkar

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