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In the context of Indian history, the Rakhmabai case of 1884 revolved around 1. women's right to gain education 2. age of consent 3. restitution of conjugal rights Select the correct answer using the code given below :
Explanation
The correct answer is Option 2 (2 and 3 only). The 1884 case of Rakhmabai was a landmark legal battle that significantly influenced social legislation in colonial India.
- Restitution of Conjugal Rights: The case began when Rakhmabai’s husband, Dadaji Bhikaji, filed a suit seeking the "restitution of conjugal rights" after she refused to live with him, citing that the marriage was performed in her childhood without her consent.
- Age of Consent: The public debate generated by this case highlighted the horrors of child marriage and the lack of legal agency for child brides. This discourse was instrumental in the enactment of the Age of Consent Act, 1891, which raised the age of consent from 10 to 12 years.
While Rakhmabai later became a doctor, the 1884 litigation itself did not revolve around women's right to education; it was strictly a legal fight regarding marital rights and the validity of infant marriages.
PROVENANCE & STUDY PATTERN
Guest previewThis question is a classic 'Hidden Current Affairs' trap. While it looks like static history, it was likely triggered by the Google Doodle (Nov 2017) or the biopic 'Doctor Rakhmabai'. Standard books cover the Age of Consent Act 1891 but often omit the specific litigant (Rakhmabai) who sparked it.
This question can be broken into the following sub-statements. Tap a statement sentence to jump into its detailed analysis.
- Explicitly links the Rakhmabai case to debates on the age of consent, indicating the case's primary focus was marital consent and age, not education.
- Says the case was instrumental in drafting the Age of Consent Act (1891), showing legislative impact concerned consent rather than educational rights.
- Describes the immediate cause of the trial as Rakhmabai's refusal to live with her husband while still in school, showing the dispute was about marital obedience/consummation.
- Shows the court compelled compliance or imprisonment, indicating the legal issue centered on marital rights and consent rather than a legal right to education.
- Identifies Rakhmabai as a pioneer in medicine and women's rights but links her efforts to being 'granted the right to choose' and raising the age of consent, again tying the case to choice/consent.
- Mentions her medical studies as biographical context, not as the legal issue at stake in the 1884 case.
Quotes Begum Rokeya arguing that religion should not be used to withhold women's education, presenting a contemporaneous discourse linking women's rights and access to education.
A student could use this to infer that late‑19th/early‑20th social debates included claims about women's educational rights and therefore look for 1880s legal cases that engaged similar themes.
Describes reformers like Pandita Ramabai pressing for improved and professional education for women (e.g., medical education), showing organized campaigns for women's educational access in the period.
One could extend this pattern to hypothesize that legal disputes involving women then (such as Rakhmabai's) might touch on education or related social reforms, and so check case details.
Notes British-era neglect of women's education and that education was largely for the upper classes, providing background context for why legal/social challenges about women's education could arise in the 19th century.
A student could combine this structural background with knowledge of specific cases (like Rakhmabai) to assess whether such a case might involve educational access or social mobility issues.
Summarizes Mohini Jain (1992) as a legal case explicitly about the 'right to education', showing that courts have been arenas for adjudicating education rights.
Using this pattern, a student could reasonably search for whether earlier landmark cases (e.g., 19th‑century ones) similarly raised education issues, or contrast later jurisprudence with older cases like Rakhmabai.
Describes Unni Krishnan (1993) holding that right to education is connected to fundamental rights, illustrating a legal framework where private litigants can raise education claims.
A student might extend this rule to consider whether the Rakhmabai litigation could have been framed (or later interpreted) as involving educational entitlement or related personal rights.
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