Misusing the Neighbours: Performing Andhra Child Marriages in Hyderabad State, 1930–1938

Abstract

The British Government passed the Child Marriage Restraint Act in 1929. The Act is popularly known as the Sarda Act. The Act fixed the minimum age of marriage of girls and boys at 14 and 18 years, respectively. The jurisdiction of the Act was confined to British India alone. However, much before the British Government restrained child marriage, few Princely States had already banned child marriages. However, Hyderabad State could not ban child marriages. This article describes how the British-Andhra subjects performed child marriages in the territories of Hyderabad State to escape punishment for violating the Sarda Act. The subjects of the Hyderabad State clearly felt that the Andhra people were ‘defiling’ their ‘sacred territories’ by performing child marriages. This also intensified the demand for a ban on child marriage in the Hyderabad State. Women intellectuals, both Hindu and Muslim, were in the forefront in making the demand. The paper is based exclusively on primary sources. Newspapers and women’s journals in the Telugu vernacular such as the Golakonda Patrika, Andhra Patrika and Grihalakshmi, and autobiographies of Telangana intellectuals like Konda Venkata Ranga Reddy are used.