Dr. Rakhmabai Writing Letters to the Times of India

Dr. Rakhmabai Raut was a pioneer in the field of medicine and women’s rights in the 19th century. Her efforts to be granted the right to choose was instrumental in raising the age of consent for women in 1891. She went on to study in the London school of Medicine for Women in 1889. When she came back to India to work in a hospital in 1894, she became India’s first practicing lady doctor.

In the months leading up to the trial, Rakhmabai began writing letters to the Times of India under the pseudonym, ‘A Hindu Lady’. The first letter was published on 26 June, 1884 and it questioned the status of Hindu Women in society.

“This wicked practice of child marriage has destroyed the happiness of my life. It comes between me and the things which I prize above all others – study and mental cultivation. Without the least fault of mine I am doomed to seclusion; every aspiration of mine to rise above my ignorant sisters is looked down upon with suspicion and is interpreted in the most uncharitable manner.”

Subsequently, The Times in London published a letter that was sent to the family of the Bishop of Carlisle in 1887.