Declaring Dharma Yudhdham: Conservative Reaction Against the Child Marriage Restraint Act in Colonial Andhra, 1928–1938

Abstract

Hindu women’s marriage reform remained a contentious issue in colonial Andhra. The Child Marriage Restraint Act of 1929, popularly known as the Sarda Act, originally fixed the minimum age of marriage of girls and boys at 14 and 18 years, respectively, and thus restrained child marriages. Conservative sections of Andhra society bitterly opposed the Sarda Act. They declared a dharma yudhdham (holy war defending the Hindu religion) on the social reformers, the Congress nationalists and the British government for trying to intrude into the sacred domain of the Hindu family. As they could not stop the Act from being made, they defeated it by making use of the various loopholes present in it. Conservative men mobilised a section of women who took part in the anti-Sarda campaign and agitation. This article is based on a variety of primary sources, especially the woefully neglected conservative journals such as Abhinava Saraswati and Swadharma Prakashini, which undertook a rigorous campaign against the Sarda Act. Pro-reform women’s monthlies such as the Grihalakshmi and newspapers like the Andhra Patrika and Golakonda Patrika, and progressive women’s writings published in contemporary women’s journals are also used.