RAS question
The Widow Remarriage Act was passed in:
Correct answer: (B) 1856.
The Hindu Widows' Remarriage Act was passed in 1856, with the Act dated 25 June 1856.
Explanation
The Hindu Widows' Remarriage Act, 1856 is the statute associated with the legalisation of Hindu widow remarriage. It was Act 15 of 1856, dated 25 June 1856, and its purpose was the removal of legal obstacles to the marriage of Hindu widows. Its core provision says that no marriage between Hindus would be invalid merely because the woman had previously been married to a man who had died, and that the issue of such a marriage would not be illegitimate. In standard modern-history chronology, the measure came during the Dalhousie/Canning period, followed the efforts of Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar, and gave legal status to widow remarriage and to children born from such remarriages.
Why the other options are wrong
- (A) 1872 is not the year of the Hindu Widows' Remarriage Act, 1856, which was Act 15 of 1856 and was dated 25 June 1856.
- (C) 1829 refers to the abolition of Sati, not to the Hindu Widows' Remarriage Act.
- (D) 1891 refers to the Age of Consent Act, whereas the widow-remarriage law was an 1856 Act.
Concept
Social-reform legislation is a major segment of Modern Indian History. RAS preparation gives high importance to factual links between reformers, colonial law, and landmark Acts in nineteenth-century India.