Rukhmabai is best known for being one of the first practicing women doctors in colonial India as well as being involved in a landmark legal case involving her marriage as a child bride between 1884 and 1888.
19 Facts About Rukhmabai
1.
2.
Rukhmabai was born to Janardhan Pandurang and Jayantibai in a Marathi family.
3.
Janardhan Pandurang passed away when Rukhmabai was aged two and six years after her husband's demise, Jayantibai married the widower Sakharam Arjun, an eminent physician and social activist in Bombay.
4.
Two and a half years later, 11-year-old Rukhmabai was married to the 19 year old Dadaji Bhikaji, a cousin of her step-father.
5.
Six months into the marriage, Rukhmabai having reached puberty, the traditional event of Garbhadhan was held signalling the time for ritual consummation of marriage.
6.
Rukhmabai eventually accumulated debts which he hoped to clear using the property that accompanied Rukhmabai into the house.
7.
Rukhmabai refused to move in to the household of Dhurmaji to live with Bhikaji, a decision supported by her step-father.
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Edith Pechey 8.
In contrast, in the same years Rukhmabai studied at home using books from a Free Church Mission library.
9.
In March 1884, Bhikaji sent a legal notice to Sakharam Arjun via his lawyers Chalk and Walker, asking him to desist preventing Rukhmabai from joining him.
10.
In 1885, the case of Bhikaji seeking "restitution of conjugal rights" titled "Bhikaji vs Rukhmabai, 1885" came up for hearing and the judgement was passed by Justice Robert Hill Pinhey.
11.
Rukhmabai found fault with the English law cases and found no precedent in Hindu law.
12.
Rukhmabai declared that Rukhmabai had been wed in her "helpless infancy" and that he could not compel a young lady.
13.
On 4 March 1887, Justice Farran, using interpretations of Hindu laws, ordered Rukhmabai to "go live with her husband or face six months of imprisonment".
14.
Rukhmabai responded that she would rather face imprisonment than obey the verdict.
15.
Balgangadhar Tilak wrote in the Kesari that Rukhmabai's defiance was the result of an English education and declared that Hinduism was in danger.
16.
Bhikaji remarried in 1889 and Rukhmabai went on to become a widely revered feminist and medical practitioner.
17.
Rukhmabai received support from the likes of Edith Pechey who not only encouraged her but helped raise funds for her further education.
18.
In 1889, Rukhmabai set sail to study medicine in England.
19.
Rukhmabai died, aged 90, from lung cancer on 25 September 1955.