The first woman Doctor who started practicing
in India was Kadambini Ganguly who started her practice in 1886. After her came
Rukhmabai who was born in 1864 to Maharashtrian parents. She was involved in a
landmark legal case involving child marriage.
After the death of her father, her mother
married Jayantibai married Sakharam Arjun, an eminent physician and social
activist of Bombay. Remarriage of widows was permitted in the caste (
carpenter) to which her mother belonged.
2 and half years later, the 11 year old
Rukhmabai was married to Dadaji Bhikaji, a cousin of Sakharam Arjun. It was
agreed that Dadaji would stay with Rukhmabai’s family and would be looked after
by them (illarikam). 6 months after marriage when she attained puberty a “Garbhadan”
ceremony was held but Sakharam Arjun who
had reformist tendencies did not let the marriage be consummated.
Bhikaji was then 20 years old but he was made
to attend school in 6th standard which made him unhappy. (I think
that is an absurd thing that was done by her stepfather. Surely a 20 year old
would not sit in the 6th class with young children) After his mother
died Bhikaji started living with his maternal uncle and developed a life of
indolence doing precisely nothing and accumulated debts which he hoped to clear
by using the property that would come along with Rukhmabai. So it looks like he
saw his wife as a Bank from which he can draw and do nothing. She however,
refused to move in with Bhikaji into his maternal uncle’s house.
During those years Rukhmabai studied at home
with books from the Church library. Because of her father, she came into
contact with religious and social reformers of Western India at that time which
exposed her to liberal reformism.
Finally in the year 1884, Bhikaji sent a legal
notice to Rukhmabai’s parents asking them to stop telling Rukhmabai not to join
him. Her father replied it through their lawyers.
In 1885 Bhikaji instituted a suit on Rukhmabai
for “Restitution of conjugal rights”. This is a legal remedy in the English law
which lets one spouse ask a court to order the other spouse to return to live
with them when they have left without a fair and reasonable excuse. The Judge
who was an Englishman ruled that the law does not apply in this case and that
she was forcibly married in her infancy.
The case drew criticism from Hindu sources like
media which included Bal Gangadhar Tilak’s
“Mahratta (Maratha)” which said that the Judge did not understand Hindu
law and he sought reforms by violent means.
In 1886 the case was brought up for retrial and
was upheld by another English Judge. Later in 1887 another Judge ordered that
either Rukhmabai should go and live with her husband as per Hindu custom or
face 6 months imprisonment. Rukhmabai responded
that she would rather go to jail than to obey the verdict. This again ignited a
big social debate and Bala Ganagdhar Tilak’s “Kesari” said that Rukhmabai’s
rebellion was because of English education and Hinduism is in danger while Max
Mueller supported Rukhmabai’s thought.
After a series of court cases which resulted in
the affirmation of the marriage, she appealed to Queen Victoria. It has been
claimed that Queen Victoria overruled the courts and dissolved the marriage but
no documentary evidence was available for that.
In 1888 a settlement was reached by which Rukhmabai
paying Bhikaji Rs 2000 and relinquished her claim on her. She went on
to become a widely regarded feminist and medical practitioner.
She travelled to England in 1889 to study
medicine and studied at the Royal School of Medicine for Women in London. As women were then not eligible for qualifying
examinations at the London Medical Colleges, she travelled to Edinburg in Scotland
and obtained a Triple Qualification in 1894 which enabled her to practice Medicine
in Britain.
The case generated a lot of debate both within
India and England. Ultimately this case influenced the enactment of the “Age of
Consent Act” in 1891. But that was not much really because it raised age of
consent from 10 to 12 years across British India and Rukhmabai became the 2nd
woman from India to qualify and practice medicine after Kadambini Ganguly. In 1895 she returned back to India and worked
as the Chief Medical Officer at the women’s hospital in Surat. She then joined
the Zenana Women’s hospital in Rajkot where she stayed till her retirement in
1929. She chose to settle at Bombay after her retirement. She died in 1955 aged
90.
Her life points out the primitive laws India
has followed at that time regarding women. There was resistance at every level
by Hindu organizations to level them. One cannot imagine Bal Gangadhar Tilak
who is one of the leading political leaders at that time opposing reforms on women.
This piece on Rukhmabai would not be complete without
small mention about Kadambini Ganguly. She was the 1st female Indian
medical doctor of western medicine along with Anandibai Joshi and both have got
their degrees in 1886. However the latter died soon after obtaining the Medical
degree. Kadambini was also the 1st woman speaker of the Indian
national Congress. She was heavily criticised by the conservatives and in the
Bengali magazine named “Bangabashi” she was indirectly called a whore. Her
husband Dwarakanath Ganguly took the case to the court and won. That got a jail
sentence of 6 months for the editor of the magazine.
