In which year was the 'Native Marriage Act' passed ?
- (a)1870
- (b)1872
- (c)1874
- (d)1876
Correct — B, 1872. The Native Marriage Act is Act III of 1872, also known as the Special Marriage Act, 1872 and, because of who campaigned for it, as the Brahmo Marriage Act. It was passed after a long push by Keshab Chandra Sen and the Brahmo Samaj, whose members had no legal way of marrying once they had given up idolatrous Hindu rites: a Brahmo marriage was recognised by no personal law, which left the wife's status and the children's inheritance in doubt. The 1872 Act created a civil form of marriage for people who declared that they professed none of the recognised religions of India. In doing so it did three things at once — it made inter-caste and inter-religious marriage lawful, it fixed minimum ages of marriage at 14 for girls and 18 for boys, and it barred a person married under it from taking a second spouse.
- (a)1870 — 1870 belongs to a different piece of colonial social legislation — the Female Infanticide Prevention Act, which required the registration of births and of female children in districts where infanticide was suspected. It is a favourite distractor precisely because it sits two years before the right answer in the same reforming decade.
- (c)1874 — No marriage statute of this description belongs to 1874. The year is offered only to blur the boundary of the early 1870s — the point of the question is that the civil-marriage law arrived in 1872, not later in the decade.
- (d)1876 — 1876 is remembered in Indian history for the Royal Titles Act, under which Queen Victoria took the title 'Empress of India' — proclaimed at the Delhi Durbar of 1 January 1877 — not for any marriage law.
Nineteenth-century social reform in India worked through a partnership: Indian reformers built the public case and colonial legislation gave it teeth. The familiar sequence is the abolition of sati in 1829, the Hindu Widows' Remarriage Act of 1856, the Native (Special) Marriage Act of 1872, the Age of Consent Act of 1891 and, much later, the Sharda Act — the Child Marriage Restraint Act — of 1929. The 1872 Act is the odd one out in that list, because it does not reform an existing religious practice: it steps outside religious personal law altogether and offers a purely civil marriage to those willing to declare they belong to none of the recognised faiths.
Two anchors make this a one-second question. First, tie the Act to Keshab Chandra Sen and the Brahmo Samaj — Brahmos needed a marriage that Hindu law would not give them, and 1872 is the year they got it. Second, remember that the price of that concession was the declaration clause: the Act was open only to those who disclaimed the recognised religions, which is exactly why it stayed a small, minority statute until independent India replaced it with the far broader Special Marriage Act, 1954, under which any two Indians may marry civilly without renouncing their religion. There is a sharp postscript worth carrying: in 1878 Keshab Chandra Sen married his own daughter to the young Maharaja of Cooch Behar below the ages his Act had set, and the resulting revolt inside the Samaj produced the breakaway Sadharan Brahmo Samaj.
- The Native Marriage Act is Act III of 1872, also called the Special Marriage Act, 1872 or the Brahmo Marriage Act.
- It was driven by Keshab Chandra Sen and the Brahmo Samaj, who needed legal recognition for marriages performed without Hindu ritual.
- It legalised inter-caste and inter-religious marriage for those who declared that they professed none of the recognised religions.
- It set minimum marriage ages of 14 for girls and 18 for boys and prohibited a second marriage while the first subsisted.
- It was superseded in independent India by the Special Marriage Act, 1954, which dropped the requirement of renouncing one's religion.
- Neighbouring landmarks: sati abolished 1829, Hindu Widows' Remarriage Act 1856, Female Infanticide Prevention Act 1870, Age of Consent Act 1891, Sharda Act 1929.
- Confusing the Native Marriage Act, 1872 with the Special Marriage Act, 1954 — the modern Act carries almost the same name but does not require renouncing one's religion.
- Assuming a marriage law from this period must be about widows or child marriage; 1872 is about creating a civil form of marriage, which is a different idea altogether.
- Mixing up 1870 (Female Infanticide Prevention Act) with 1872 — both fall inside the same brief burst of reform legislation.
UPPSC asks this as pure year-recall, so the safest preparation is a single dated list of colonial social legislation. UPSC almost never asks the bare year — it asks what a reformer founded, what a famous case turned on, or which statements about a reform body are correct, so learn the Act together with the person and the controversy behind it.
Consider the following: 1. Calcutta Unitarian Committee 2. Tabernacle of New Dispensation 3. Indian Reform Association Keshab Chandra Sen is associated with the establishment of which of the above?
- (a) 1 and 3 only
- (b) 2 and 3 only
- (c) 3 only
- (d) 1, 2 and 3
Answer(b) 2 and 3 only
The man behind the 1872 Act, tested directly. UPPSC asks for the year of Keshab Chandra Sen's statute; UPSC asks which bodies he actually founded — the Indian Reform Association of 1870 was in fact the vehicle through which he pressed for the marriage law.
In the context of Indian history, the Rakhmabai case of 1884 revolved around 1. Women's right to gain education 2. Age of consent 3. Restitution of conjugal rights Select the correct answer using the code given below:
- (a) 1 and 2 only
- (b) 2 and 3 only
- (c) 1 and 3 only
- (d) 1, 2 and 3
Answer(b) 2 and 3 only
The next chapter of the same story. The 1872 Act fixed minimum marriage ages for the tiny group who married under it; the Rakhmabai litigation of the 1880s forced the age-of-consent question onto everyone else and led to the Act of 1891.
Consider the following events and arrange them into chronological order : I. Sharda Act II. Nehru Report III. Constitution of Simon Commission IV. Dandi March Select the correct answer using the codes given below. Codes :
- (a) III, II, I and IV
- (b) I, II, III and IV
- (c) IV, III, II and I
- (d) I, IV, II and III
Answer(a) III, II, I and IV
The other end of the same legislative chain — the Sharda Act of 1929 is the child-marriage statute that grew out of the debate the 1872 and 1891 Acts began. UPPSC keeps returning to dated social legislation, whether as a bare year or inside a chronology set.
- practice — not a real PYQ
The Native Marriage Act of 1872 was primarily enacted to meet the demand of which of the following?
- (a)The Arya Samaj
- (b)The Brahmo Samaj
- (c)The Prarthana Samaj
- (d)The Satyashodhak Samaj
Answer(b) The Brahmo Samaj — Keshab Chandra Sen led the campaign because Brahmo marriages, performed without Hindu ritual, had no standing in personal law; the Act gave them a civil form of marriage.
- practice — not a real PYQ
Consider the following colonial statutes and arrange them in chronological order: I. Hindu Widows' Remarriage Act II. Age of Consent Act III. Native Marriage Act IV. Child Marriage Restraint Act (Sharda Act)
- (a)I, III, II, IV
- (b)III, I, II, IV
- (c)I, II, III, IV
- (d)II, I, IV, III
Answer(a) I, III, II, IV — Hindu Widows' Remarriage Act 1856, Native Marriage Act 1872, Age of Consent Act 1891, Sharda Act 1929.