The Badass Story of The Badass Story of Rukhmabai, the First Divorced Woman in India
When Rukhmabai Raut was married off to her illiterate,19-year-old cousin at just 11 years old, she set in motion a fight against patriarchy that would change the fates of young women across India.
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When Rukhmabai Raut was married off to her illiterate,19-year-old fuckboy cousin at just 11 years old, she set in motion a decades-long fight against patriarchy that would change the fates of young women across India for generations. When her case reached the highest court in India, she stood before the presiding judges, said, “fuck that.”
This is the badass story of Rukhmabai.
Rukhmabai was born in 1864 in Western India. Her father died when she was just a wee toddler. When she was 8, her mother remarried physician and social reformer Sakharam Arjun. Sakharam was a pretty fucking cool guy who advocated for women to have access to higher education. Back then, that was pretty damn radical.
Even so, when she was 11, he arranged Rukhmabai’s marriage to his distant cousin, 19-year-old Dadaji Bhikaji. The conditions were this: Dadaji would live with Rukhmabai and her family while getting an education. But, that ain’t how things went. Dadaji thought he was too cool for school and did not fulfill his end of the bargain to get an education.
Six months after their wedding, the great beast of puberty descended on Rukhmabai, traditionally signaling time for the marriage to be consummated. But, progressive as he was, Sakharam would not allow Dadaji’s weiner near his step-daughter. Furious, Dadaji moved out of their home to live with an uncle. He demanded his wife move with him, but she was like, “Ew, no,” and Sakharam supported her wholeheartedly.
In 1884, Dadaji sued Sakharam, seeking restitution of conjugal rights, which is as gross as it sounds.
The case captured the national attention and was the subject of debate in the halls of academia, in newspaper columns, in cafes and homes across India. Finding herself at the center of the hottest gossip in the country, Rukhmabai wanted to say her piece and began publishing Op-Eds in The Times of India under the pen name “A Hindu Lady.” In one column, she wrote:
The brutal custom of child marriage had deprived all happiness of my life. It is a stumbling block in the two things which I regarded to be most important - my education, and nurturing of my mind as per my expectation. I am isolated for no fault of mine. My ambition to rise above (lakhs of my) ignorant sisters is viewed with suspicion and it is being criticised indecently.
The judge was like, “Yeah, I’m not going to make her live with you, bro,” and ruled in Rukhmabai’s favor. But Dadaji wasn’t done. When her Sakharam died in 1885, he left Rukhmabai a good chunk of change— Dadaji wanted to get his claws in it. He appealed the decision in 1887. Rukhmaba argued that their marriage never existed in the first place on the grounds of the “naïve age of the bride at the time of marriage.” This time, the bro-ass judges ordered Rukhmabai to live with her husband or serve a six-month prison sentence. Like any self-respecting woman married to an idiot, she chose imprisonment. Absolute legend.
The next year, Dadaji agreed to relinquish his claims if Rukhmabai gave him 2,000 rupees. At long last, she was finally free of the absolute fuck-wit husband that plagued her for more than a decade. Women and male allies across India and Britain were like, “Fuck yeah, girl,” and many donated to help further her education.
Rukhmabai went on to study at the London School of Medicine and became India’s second woman to earn a medical degree and practice medicine. Rukhmabai’s groundbreaking legal case directly contributed to India’s Age of Consent Act of 1891, which raised the age of consent from age 10 to age 12. Which is still CRAZY young, but progress is progress. (Editor’s Note: The age of consent in India is 18 now.)
Rukhmabai wasn’t just fighting a fuckboy husband; she was fighting a system in which oppressing women was foundational. She came out on top as a double badass, medical degree in hand, free of the chains of marriage she was cast into as a young girl.
