Coin45bazzar at 18:00, 25 March 2026

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{{short description|Legislation enacted in British India}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2020}}
{{Use Indian English|date=November 2018}}
{{Infobox legislation
| short_title = Indian Criminal Law Amendment Act, 1891
| long_title = An Act to amend the Indian Penal Code and the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1882.
| citation =
| enacted_by = [[Imperial Legislative Council]]
| date_enacted = 19 March 1891
| date_assented =
| date_signed =
| date_commenced =
| date_repealed = 26 January 1950
| bill = Indian Penal Code and Code of Criminal Procedure, 1882 Amendment Bill
| bill_citation =
| bill_date = 9 January 1891
| introduced_by = Sir Andrew Scoble
| 1st_reading =
| 2nd_reading = March, 1891
| 3rd_reading =
| white_paper =
| committee_report =
| amendments =
| repeals =
|repealed_by = Act 1 of 1938
| related =
| summary =
| keywords =
| status = repealed
}}

The '''Age of Consent Act, 1891''' (Act X of 1891) was a statute enacted in [[British India]] on 19 March 1891 which raised the [[age of consent]] for sexual intercourse for all girls, married or unmarried, from ten to twelve years in all jurisdictions, its violation subject to criminal prosecution as rape.<ref name="Sinha1995">{{cite book|last=Sinha|first=Mrinalini|title=Colonial masculinity: the 'manly Englishman' and the' effeminate Bengali' in the late nineteenth century|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8RQNAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA138|year=1995|publisher=Manchester University Press |location=Manchester|isbn=978-0-7190-4653-7|page=138}}</ref>{{#tag:ref|For text of the Act, see: {{cite book|last=Cranenburgh|first=D. E.|title=Unrepealed Acts of the Governor-General in Council, Volume III, Containing acts from 1883 to 1893|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1FESAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA864|year=1894|publisher=Law Publishing Press|location=Calcutta|page=864}}|group=nb}} The act was an amendment of the Indian Penal Code and Code of Criminal Procedure, Section 375, 1882, ("Of Rape"),{{#tag:ref|For the text of the amended section 375, see {{cite book|last=Agnew|first=William Fischer|title=The Indian penal code: and other acts of the Governor-general relating to offences, with notes|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9u8SAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA212|year=1898|publisher=Thacker, Spink, Co.|location=Calcutta|page=212}}|group=nb}} and was introduced as a bill on 9 January 1891 by Sir [[Andrew Scoble]] in the [[Imperial Legislative Council|Legislative Council]] of the [[Governor-General of India]] in [[Calcutta]].<ref name="heimsath1962">{{Citation|last=Heimsath|first=Charles H.|title=The Origin and Enactment of the Indian Age of Consent Bill, 1891|journal=Journal of Asian Studies|volume=21|issue=4 |year=1962|pages=491–504|jstor=2050879|doi=10.2307/2050879}}, pages 502–503.</ref> It was debated the same day and opposed by council member Sir [[Romesh Chunder Mitter]] (from [[Bengal Presidency|Bengal]]) on the grounds that it interfered with orthodox Hindu code, but supported by council member Rao Bahadur Krishnaji Lakshman Nulkar (from [[Bombay Presidency|Bombay]]) and by the President of the council, the Governor-General and Viceroy [[Henry Petty-Fitzmaurice, 5th Marquess of Lansdowne|Lord Lansdowne]].<ref name="heimsath1962"/><ref name="Sinha1995-p146">{{cite book|author=Mrinalini Sinha|title=Colonial masculinity: the 'manly Englishman' and the' effeminate Bengali' in the late nineteenth century|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8RQNAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA146|year=1995|publisher=Manchester University Press ND|isbn=978-0-7190-4653-7|page=146}}</ref>{{#tag:ref|For the abstract of the debate, see: {{cite book|author= Imperial Legislative Council, India|title=Abstract of the proceedings of the Council of the Governor-General of India assembled for the purpose of making laws and regulations|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1IAZAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA8|year=1892|publisher=Office of the Supt. of Govt. Print., India.|location=Calcutta|pages=8–27}}|group=nb}}

While an 1887 case in a [[Bombay]] high court of a child-bride [[Rukhmabai]] renewed discussion of such a law, it was the death of a ten-year-old Bengali girl, [[Phulmoni Dasi rape case|Phulmoni Dasi]], due to forceful intercourse by her 35-year-old husband in 1889 that drove intervention by the British.<ref name="sarkar">Sarkar, Tanika. "[http://www.accessmylibrary.com/coms2/summary_0286-28757682_ITM A Prehistory of Rights: The Age of Consent Debate in Colonial Bengal, Feminist Studies]." 2000.</ref> The act was passed in 1891. It received support from Indian reformers such as [[Behramji Malabari]] and women social organisations. The law was never seriously enforced and it is argued that the real effect of the law was reassertion of Hindu patriarchal control over domestic issues as a nationalistic cause.<ref name="veer" />

In 1884, Rukhmabai, a 20-year-old woman was taken to Bombay high court by her husband Bhikaji after she refused to live with him. Having married him at the age of 11 years, never having [[Consummation|consummated]] the marriage and having lived separately for nearly 8 years she refused to move back with him. She was ordered by the court to live with her husband or face a six month imprisonment. She refused to comply and the rising costs of the trial forced Bhikaji to withdraw the case in July 1888 upon a settlement of 2000 rupees.<ref name="sudhirchandra1">{{cite journal|title=Rukhmabai: Debate over Woman's Right to Her Person| author=Chandra, Sudhir| journal=Economic and Political Weekly| volume=31| issue=44| year=1996| pages=2937–2947| jstor=4404742}}</ref><ref name="plassey">Bandyopādhyāẏa, Śekhara. ''From Plassey to Partition: A History of Modern India.'' Orient Blackswan, 2004. 237-238. {{ISBN|81-250-2596-0}} ([https://books.google.com/books?id=0oVra0ulQ3QC&q=From+Plassey+to+Partition Google book search])</ref><ref>{{cite book |author=Burton, Antoinette |title=Disorder in the Court. Trials and Sexual Conflict at the Turn of the Century |publisher=Macmillan Press |year=1999 |editor1=Robb, George |pages=33–56 |chapter=Conjugality on Trial: the Rukhmabai Case and the Debate on Indian child-marriage in late-Victorian Britain |editor2=Erber, Nancy}}</ref> This trial was one of the precursors for the passage of this legislation.<ref name="disorder">George Robb and Nancy Erber, eds. ''Disorder in the Court: Trials and Sexual Conflict at the Turn of the Century''. New York University Press, 1999. 33-35. {{ISBN|0-8147-7526-8}}</ref>

In 1889, the death of a 10-year-old married Hindu girl, Phulmoni Dasi, after being brutally raped by her 35-year-old husband, Hari Mohan Maitee, served as a catalyst for its legislation.<ref name="veer">Van der Veer, Peter. ''Imperial Encounters: Religion and Modernity in India and Britain.'' Princeton, 2001. 96. ([https://books.google.com/books?id=vuOQkWMuWkYC&q=Imperial+Encounters+van+der+veer Google book search])</ref><ref name="silent">Majumdar, Rochona. "[http://indiatoday.digitaltoday.in/index.php?issueid=24&id=1659&option=com_content&task=view Silent no longer]." ''India Today'' 26 October 2007.</ref> Hari Mohan Maitee was acquitted on charges of rape, but found guilty on causing death inadvertently by a rash and negligent act.<ref name="sarkar" />

A committee consisting of influential British and Anglo-Indian statesmen established in London had submitted recommendations to the colonial government including the change in age of consent. The law was signed on 19 March 1891 by the government of [[Henry Petty-Fitzmaurice, 5th Marquess of Lansdowne|Lord Lansdowne]] raising the [[age of consent]] for [[Consummate|consummation]] from ten to twelve years.<ref name="plassey" /><ref name="malabari">Karkarjkia, Rustomji Pestonji. ''India: Forty Years of Progress and Reform, Being a Sketch of the Life and Times of Behramji M. Malabari.'' H. Frowde, 1896. 128. ([https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.213204  Google book search])</ref><ref name="sudhirchandra1" />

== Support ==
{{Main|Rukhmabai|Phulmoni Dasi rape case}}
[[Behramji Malabari]], a [[Parsi]] reformer and a journalist from Bombay advocated for this legislation. He published his messages in "Notes on Infant marriage and enforced widowhood" in 1884. Although a Parsi, he claimed to be as critical of Hindu customs and domestic practices as the British.

Though women were not consulted for determining the effect of child-marriage, women in Bombay presidency including Rukhmabai and [[Pandita Ramabai]] made a cogent case for the ban on child-marriage in their magazines and social reform organisations. [[Anandi Gopal Joshi]], a [[Marathi people|Marathi]] woman who also happened to be the first female medical doctor in [[India]] advocated interference of the [[United Kingdom|British]] Government in child marriage.<ref name="disorder" />

==Opposition==
The Bill was opposed by many orthodox leaders who believed it as an interference in the [[Hindu]] religion. [[Bal Gangadhar Tilak]] opposed the bill stating: {{blockquote|We would not like that the government should have anything to do with regulating our social customs or ways of living, even supposing that the act of government will be a very beneficial and suitable measure.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.thehindu.com/thehindu/mp/2003/05/26/stories/2003052601080200.htm | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030710212458/http://www.thehindu.com/thehindu/mp/2003/05/26/stories/2003052601080200.htm | url-status=dead | archive-date=10 July 2003 | title=Lokmaya Tilak (1856 - 1920): He proclaimed self-rule as birth right | date=26 May 2003 | work=[[The Hindu]] | access-date=20 January 2019}}</ref><ref name="Khan1992">{{cite book|author=Mohammad Shabbir Khan|title=Tilak and Gokhale: A Comparative Study of Their Socio-politico-economic Programmes of Reconstruction|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=t3N7tT5kmOsC&pg=PA36|year=1992|publisher=APH Publishing|isbn=978-81-7024-478-3|page=36}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal | title=Girl-Brides and Socio-Legal Change: Age of Consent Bill (1891) Controversy. | author=Meera Kosambi | author-link=Meera Kosambi | journal=[[Economic and Political Weekly]] | year=1991 | volume=26 |issue = 31/32| pages=1857–1868|jstor = 41498538}}</ref>}}

The Bill was also opposed by revivalist nationalists who were against any colonial interference.<ref name="Menski2008">{{cite book|author=Werner Menski|title=Hindu Law: Beyond Tradition and Modernity|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-H8yDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT471|year=2008|publisher=OUP India|isbn=978-0-19-908803-4|page=471}}</ref>

==Notes==
{{Reflist|group=nb}}

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

[[Category:1891 in Indian law|Age of Consent Act]]
[[Category:Sex laws in India]]
[[Category:Legal history of India]]
[[Category:Acts of the Imperial Legislative Council]]
[[Category:Age of consent]]
[[Category:Child marriage in India]]
[[Category:Marriage law in India]]
[[Category:Repealed Indian legislation]]

Age of Consent Act, 1891 - Revision history

Coin45bazzar at 18:00, 25 March 2026