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REVIEW OF WOMENS STUDIES

Economic & Political Weekly EPW april 26, 2014 vol xlix no 17 79
Anna Lindberg (anna.lindberg@sasnet.lu.se) is with the Lund University,
Sweden.
Child Marriage in Late Travancore
Religion, Modernity and Change
Anna Lindberg
An examination of the child marriage system in
Travancore a princely state in Kerala before
Independence in the 1930s and 1940s finds that
advocacy of child marriage has not been limited to
communities considered traditional. There were
gendered, community-based, official, unofficial, and
popular ideas about children in the context of marriage
and out of the competing official discourses on gender
and modernity in Travancore, the one related to
Christianity eventually became dominant. It presents the
layers of discourses related to gender and child marriage:
an official one in census reports, another in mid-level
legal discussions, and a third more popular view. It
discusses official presentations about gender relations as
found in census reports in which concepts of modernity
and civilisation are crucial and also an account of debates
in the Travancore Legislative Council about child
marriage in the 1930s. It also reviews a large number of
cases involving dialogues between citizens
and civil servants.
T
he issue of child marriage in British India has long been
studied (Anagol-McGinn 1992; Bannerji 1998; Engels
1983; Forbes 1979; Heimsath 1962; Mukherjee 2006;
Ramusack 1981; Sinha 1999). However, very few have investi-
gated its occurrence in the so-called princely states (e g, Nair
1995). This study addresses that gap, by analysing discussions
on child marriage in the early 20th century in Travancore, a
state that was situated along the south-western coast of India
in what is today Kerala. The question of child marriage per-
sists in this progressive state, although most child marriages in
contemporary India occur in the northern states of Bihar,
Jharkhand and Rajasthan (UNPF 2012). In present-day Kerala,
the majority of underage marriages (mostly of girls around
16 years old) occur in Muslim communities. An acrimonious
debate in Kerala was prompted by a government notice, issued
by the state local department of administration in June 2013
legalising the registration of marriages of Muslim women
below age 18 and Muslim men under 21. The notice was a
response to many complaints from Muslims who could not
obtain passports because their marriages were considered
illegal. Nine groups led by the Muslim League demanded that
Muslims in Kerala be exempted from the Prohibition of Child
Marriage Act of 2006. They argued that the law violated the
fundamental rights of Muslims to practise their religion and
the Muslim personal law (Radhakrishnan 2013).
Examining child marriage in the 1930s and 1940s shows that
its advocacy has not been limited to communities considered
traditional. In fact, Syrian Christians, who were viewed as the
most modern community, advocated child marriage for boys
and girls, giving pragmatic not religious reasons for their
support. In the 1940s, Muslims generally considered marriage
in their community a secular matter, in contrast to the reli-
gious arguments for underage marriages they raise in contem-
porary Kerala.
This article presents layers of discourses related to gender
and child marriage: an ofcial one in census reports, another
in mid-level legal discussions, and a third more popular view.
First this paper discusses ofcial presentations about gender
relations in Travancore as found in census reports in which
concepts of modernity and civilisation are crucial, followed by
an account of debates in the Travancore Legislative Council
about child marriage in the 1930s. Finally, a large number of
cases involving dialogues between citizens and civil servants
are reviewed. One main argument is that there were gendered,
community-based, ofcial, unofcial, and popular ideas about
REVIEW OF WOMENS STUDIES
april 26, 2014 vol xlix no 17 EPW Economic & Political Weekly 80
children in the context of marriage. Out of the competing
ofcial discourses on gender and modernity in Travancore in
the 1920s and 1930s, the one related to Christianity eventually
became dominant.
Gender and Civilisation
The analysis is placed in the context of modernisation, civili-
sation, and the regions meta-narrative

(Somers 1997), as
reected in census reports over the period from 1875 to 1931.
Informed by the ideals of the enlightenment, modernity and
civilisation included new ethics based on the individuals
rights, but also on secularism. In addition, the position of
women has often been used as a measure of a societys level of
modernity (Wilson 2004: 21). European (and particularly,
Bri tish) women were seen as morally, physically and mentally
rened: they had reached the highest level of civilisation and
were respected by a society in which a rigid gender division
was seen as another sign of an advanced culture (ibid: 24).
European discourses, linking progress with proper marriages
and patriarchal nuclear families, exerted a strong inuence in
colonial India during the 19th and 20th centuries (Hall 2004: 51;
Bush 2004: 77).
In India, the goal of the nationalists was to assert the
countrys difference from the west, while at the same time,
embra cing modernity and rationality (Chatterjee 1989; Mani
1989). Such issues as widow-burning and child marriage
were central to colonial discourse for almost 100 years, often
as a symbolic gesture to modernity, and contributed to the
belief that Christian missionaries had vital work to do in India
(Hall 2004: 54; Sinha 2006:128). As opposed to British India
(Forbes 1979; Sinha 1999), Travancore introduced several laws
beginning in 1876 in an attempt to regulate family practices
(Jeffrey 1992).
Travancore had a much larger percentage of Christians
(30% in 1931) than British India. Despite this, the chief feature
of Travancores meta-narrative of difference was not Christi-
anity but the unique situation for women (Census of India
1931: 330). The states gender relations were a matter of pride,
as expressed in the 1875 Census: If the freedom of women is
an index of civilisation, as we so often hear it stated, then
Travancore is decidedly the most advanced country in the
world, for there women enjoy the greatest liberty possible
(RCT 1876: 245). Travancores marumakkathayam (matrilineal
family system) accorded women a certain status and was
proudly cited as a proof that the state was more civilised than
British India (ibid: 244). The author was aware of the alleged
link between civilisation and gender relations, and the pre-
sumptive superiority of Christian family systems in the domi-
nant colonial discourse, but rejected the view that western
Christianity was in the forefront when it came to the rights of
women (ibid: 239-40).
Following debates in British India around 1890 over the Age
of Consent Bill (Anagol-McGinn 1992; Bannerji 1998; Engels
1983; Heimsath 1962; Sarkar 2001), Travancore censuses begi-
nning in 1891 recorded and commented on the age of marriage
of children (Census of India 1921: 68-73). The contrast with the
rest of India was remark-
able: as shown in Table 1,
children and adolescents
of both sexes below the
age of 15 had a far lower
rate of marriage in Travan-
core (ibid: 70).
The low number of child
marriage was offered as
further evidence of Travancores level of civilisation and its
otherness, as compared to British India (ibid: 47, 72). Census
reports from 1875 to 1921 ascribed the positive attitude towards
women in Travancore to the marumakkathayam system and
its institution of inheritance through the female line (Census
of India 1921: 47, 58, 60; RCT 1876: 140). A passage in the 1921
Census is illustrative:
It will be seen that female infanticide and neglect of females are un-
thinkable in a country where the law of inheritance is through females
among the majority of the population. The evil effects of early marriage
and premature childbearing and of high birth rate and primitive
methods of midwifery are out of the question (p 60).
While the marumakkathayam continued to be praised for the
positive situation of women, the 1921 Census also attri buted
Travancores uniqueness to the education of its population,
especially women, whose literacy rate had increased dramati-
cally. This achievement was no longer credited to Travancores
family system, as it had previously been, but was now ascribed
to Christianity (ibid: 69-70). Between 1901 and 1921, the pro-
portion of literate females in the Christian population rose
from below 1% to 26.5%, while among Hindus it had only
increased from 0.29% to 14.6% (ibid: 82-84). However, the
fact that educational levels among Christian women had risen
was not reected in their marrying later. Both Christian
females and males continued to marry early. A chronicle about
Syrian Christians of Kerala stated that it was not uncommon
in the early (19) 20s to see the bride, and sometimes the bride-
groom, being carried to their wedding on the shoulders of the
uncle or elder brother (Pothan 1962: 64). It seemed difcult
for the census author to nd an adequate explanation for the
relatively high prevalence of teenage grooms among Syrian
Christians as such statistics did not t into the dominant
discourse of modernity. Although child marriages among
Syrian Christians were very conspicuous, the census author
chose not to comment upon them, preferring to stress the
difference between Malayalee and non-Malayalee Hindus
instead, arguing that the matrilineal family system discouraged
early marriages (Census of India 1921: 71-72).
The 1931 Census propounded theories that reected an
ambivalent stance: the matrilineal system was praised for its
absence of child marriages, but western civilisation was
applauded for bringing about the marumakkathayams
demise. There were two competing discourses on gender and
modernity. In both of them there was a will to show that Tra-
vancore was more similar to western countries, and thus more
progressive, with regard to womens status than British India
(Census of India 1931: 161-70).

Table 1: Married Persons Per 10,000
by Gender in India and Travancore (1921)
Gender Age India Travancore
Male 0-5 71 0
Male 5-10 366 8
Male 10-15 1,289 54
Female 0-5 138 0
Female 5-10 1,051 16
Female 10-15 4,306 545
Source: Census of India (1921: 70).
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Economic & Political Weekly EPW april 26, 2014 vol xlix no 17 81
Many comments in the 1931 Census report were intended to
counter the implication that the state tolerated loose sexual
habits. Instead, the census asserted that monogamy was
practised, matrilineal households less common than believed,
and people observed the normal custom of patrilocality. They
wished to depict Travancore as a place of progressive nuclear
families, with a male family head and normal jealousy be-
tween wife and husband. This was the only possible family
structure in a civilised country of the 1930s, according to the
dominant discourse. The proud narrative of the matrilineal sys-
tem began to be questioned. At the same time, another
hegemonic discourse emerged that considered Christians
(Syrian Christians in particular) the most modern group in Tra-
vancore. This was despite the fact that the Syrian Christian
community was characterised not only by child marriages, but
also by high birth rates, and elevated mortality among adults
and children due to inadequate healthcare (Zachariah 2006).
At the beginning of the 20th century, Syrian Christians were
already active as wholesale merchants, bankers, stockbrokers
and newspaper editors. They owned lucrative rubber and pep-
per plantations, migrated, invested in undeveloped land, and
bought up property from aristocratic families at a time when
the family system was in crisis and beginning to collapse (Jef-
frey 1992: 81-83; Jeffrey 1994: 180-84; Varghese 2009). Their
modernity was based on capitalist entrepreneurship and west-
ern education, while many conditions in the reproductive
sphere, child marriage, for example, were disregarded.
Debates in the Travancore Legislative Council
During the 1920s, as vigorous debates about the evils of child
marriages were going on in British India, political leaders in
Travancore did not feel that their princely state was part of the
problem. Eventually, however, on 25 April 1932, a member of
the Travancore Legislative Council, Rama Varma, introduced a
resolution setting an age limit on marriage. He urged the state
to adhere to the British Child Marriage Restriction Act of 1929,
known as the Sarda Act, and regulate marriages of girls under
14 and boys under 18 years (TLCP 1932: 693-826). Such a law
would have the effect of strengthening the jurisdiction of the
Travancore state in areas traditionally controlled by caste and
religious organisations. When the council was provided with
gures from the 1931 Census, its members were surprised to
learn that child marriage was more common among Syrian
Christians than among non-brahmin Hindus and Muslims.
This shattered their notion of Christians as a rational, modern
community in which women enjoy a high status and marry at
a mature age. The census gures showed that Tamil brahmins
had the most girls per thousand who married before they
reached age 14, followed by Malayalee brahmins. After the
rst two groups of brahmins, Syrian Christians and primitive
tribes had considerably more females marrying under 14 than
other groups in the census. In the age group 14 to 16, Syrian
Christian girls and boys commonly married younger than non-
brahmin Hindus and Muslims (Census of India 1931: 192). The
issue of the child marriages of boys was generally absent from
the discussion in Travancore, as it had been in British India.
In previous years, child marriage was cited as one reason
India was unable to free itself from colonial rule in a general
discourse on gender, nationalism, and eugenics in British India
(GoI 1929: 10; Whitehead 1996; Sinha 2006). Whether mem-
bers of the Travancore Legislative Council were for or against
the bill, they echoed the cry heard earlier in British India to
raise sturdy citizens by cultivating strong mothers (TLCP
1932: 780, 788, 804, 814).
The assemblyman who most forcefully spoke out against the
regulation of child marriage was a Syrian Christian, named
Abraham. He denounced the resolution primarily on economic
grounds related to the dowry system. According to him, the
main reason for early marriage, which he did not consider as
an evil, was the difculty of nding appropriate marriage
partners for ones children.
Frequently, child-marriages are resorted to in the anxiety of the parents
to nd proper husbands for their daughters. If they allow their daugh-
ters to wait and grow, suitable matches may not be available when the
desired moment comes; and for mature girls it often becomes increas-
ingly difcult to get proper husbands. The amount of dowry also mul-
tiplies as years elapse. For these reasons, the Syrian Christian commu-
nity has been adopting the custom of early marriage (TLCP 1932: 810).
The kind of dowry Abraham referred to has been called a
bridegroom price or modern dowry and consists of money
or assets from the family of the bride conveyed to the groom or
his family (Billig 1991; Srinivas 1996). The Syrian Christian
community was the only one in Travancore that openly linked
dowry to the age of the parties. When the Age of Consent Act
(1891) was discussed, women in British India condemned the
dowry system for making parents of young boys agree to child
marriage. In the case of girls, they argued like Abraham that
the anxiety over having an unmarried daughter caused fami-
lies to marry her off early (Anagol-McGinn 1992: 107). In Tra-
vancore, the Syrian Christian community played a leading role
in the commercialising of marriage, and making the grooms
education a decisive factor in negotiations over the size of the
dowry early in the 20th century (cf Majumdar 2009). A report
from 1912 includes complaints of exorbitant dowries being
demanded by parents of Syrian Christian boys especially those
with some education. Concern was also expressed that the size
of dowries was no longer determined by the brides family but
by the grooms; that the original conception of dowry as the
value of a brides share in her parents estate had entirely
been lost sight of; and that marriage had become a mercantile
transaction in which the potential earning power of the bride-
groom decided the dowry (Government of Travancore 1912:
22-23). The report pointed out that a daughters inheritance had
not always been limited to the dowry she received at marriage:
This was not the ancient practice in the community. Even a
hundred years ago this does not appear to have been a universal
practice (ibid: 16). Thus, stricter patriarchal rules with regard
to inheritance and property rights seem to have evolved.
In 1936, four years after the resolution was presented,
T Narayani Amma, council member and lawyer, introduced
the Travancore Child Marriage Bill (TCMB) in the legislature.
Her bill was similar to the Sarda Act, but proposed 15 rather
REVIEW OF WOMENS STUDIES
april 26, 2014 vol xlix no 17 EPW Economic & Political Weekly 82
than 14 years as the minimum age at marriage for girls. Narayani
Amma was concerned not only with the physical health of
girls, but with their education as well. She countered an argu-
ment raised four years earlier when those opposed to the bill
claimed that girls of 12 were already fairly grown-up (TLCP
1932: 779; Cf Sarkar 2001: 128). The debates surrounding the
Age of Consent Bill of 1891, as well as the eugenic discourse in
British India (related to the Sarda Act of 1929) regarding the
future of the nation and the need to safeguard young girls
from motherhood, had focused on female bodies as vehicles of
motherhood that needed protection (Sarkar 2001: 128; Forbes
1979: 414). In Travancore, Narayani Amma tried to set another
agenda for the debate so that girls would not solely be dis-
cussed as childbearing bodies, but be given some intellectual
consideration as well, and so she argued for their education.
Still, the arguments for legislation were greatly inuenced by
British discourse, which focused on a mothers responsibility
for the health of the nation. It reinforced the nuclear family
and elevated the role of motherhood.
Travancore Child Marriage Bill
The TCMB was referred to a committee and by the time it was
reported out in August 1938, Tamil brahmins had mobilised
and were ready to oppose the bill with strong religious argu-
ments (Travancore Sri Mulam Assembly 1938). The discus-
sions that followed showed a wide division in which tradi-
tional religionists and the secular modernists seemed to stand
out as a black-and-white dichotomy. However, the situation
was far more complex, especially if one includes the position
of the Syrian Christians. The religious arguments were ridi-
culed, with the chair admonishing one brahmin not to discuss
theology (ibid: 389, 422, 1399, 1437; Travancore Sri Mulam
Assembly 1939: 267-77). When the council voted on amendments
(which were mainly brahmin efforts to weaken the bill or
block its implementation), Syrian Christians and brahmins
stood opposed to the other Hindus and Christians. Muslims,
for the most part, remained neutral. The bill passed, but with
the minimum age for girls lowered to 14. Narayani Amma had
suggested that in exceptional cases the local district magistrate
could sanction the marriage of a girl who was 13 or 14 if her
principal guardian was expected to die before the girl turned
15 (Travancore Sri Mulam Assembly 1936, Annexure IV: xx). No
exemptions were proposed for boys, probably because it was
considered unlikely that any Travancore boy would marry
before his 18th birthday. The notion of child marriage was
associated with girls, and the situation of Syrian Christian
child husbands hardly received any attention.
The bill was then referred to the conservative upper house,
the Sri Mulam Assembly, where it failed. Again the discussion
seemed to be polarised between traditional and modernist
arguments. Although Syrian Christians opposed the bill, they
had difculty in allying themselves with any of the contending
groups. While they may have been the most modern and
enterprising community in Travancore, on certain family
issues such as the right of elders to decide when to marry off
their children, they were conservative. The Syrian Christians
remained silent during the discussion, but supported the
resistance during the voting. This time the dewan (and the
maharaja) disregarded both the objections of the Tamil brah-
min community and the recommendations of the upper house,
and on 1 January 1941, the TCMB became a law.
The reason the dewan changed his mind may be due to the
dramatically altered political environment over the previous
eight years. The dewan was controlled by the British, espe-
cially when it came to nancial matters, but had some auton-
omy in other areas. Although an overwhelming majority of
members voted in favour of the resolution in 1934, the dewan
and the maharaja chose to ignore the council. The dewan, a
devout Tamil brahmin, belonged to a community whose mem-
bers often held distinguished positions in society (Sreenivas
2008: 74). Although the power and privileges of these brahmins
were in question, it was not yet the time for the dewan to turn
them against the government by restricting the legal age of
marriage. Travancore was still characterised by what historian
Robin Jeffrey has called old Kerala: caste societies regulated
peoples lives and there was little place for individualism
(Jeffrey 1992). Over time, certain progressive groups, includ-
ing leftists and Syrian Christians, began to deride brahmin
rituals and caste rules. The civil disobedience movement that
had started in 1924 when Gandhi came to Travancore eventu-
ally turned more radical, and socialist slogans were commonly
chanted from the mid-1930s on. Travancore society underwent
a rapid transformation as social movements swept the country.
Demonstrators joined forces with students and striking factory
workers, and in 1938, in the largest political protest the region
had ever seen, people demanded a responsible government
(Jeffrey 1992: 121-24; Perumal 1939). With the rise of the com-
munist and nationalist movements, there was no room left for
anything but a modern society.
However, what was considered modern when it came to
family issues was not based on ideologies that would emanci-
pate women, but restricted to a few questions, such as child
marriage and widows remarrying. The government could
hardly tolerate child marriage (which many saw as a womens
issue) and still be considered on a path towards modernity.
The dewan and the maharaja struggled to remain in power,
even after a presumptive withdrawal of the British. To allow
something that was illegal in British India to take place in
Travancore would be viewed as unworthy of a state said to
be the most advanced on the subcontinent with regard to the
status of women.
1
In addition to the desire to modernise, a
Hindu-Christian conict was at stake. The dewan was probably
content to see a Syrian Christian tradition struck down, because
he saw them as a threat to the Hindus. Since the end of the 19th
century, many Syrian Christians had been on bad terms with
the government, which they found anti-Christian. A Christian
could not hold a government job and was considered polluted
by high-caste communities. Their higher education and
economic power could not alter this perception in the short
term. However, the transition from inherited to achieved
status was eventually acknowledged and the community rose
in the status hierarchy.
REVIEW OF WOMENS STUDIES
Economic & Political Weekly EPW april 26, 2014 vol xlix no 17 83
Syrian Christians were known as anti-communist leaders,
so they fought against both progressive leftist groups and
traditional authorities conicts that peaked in the 1930s
(Ouwerkerk 1994: 75-79). As a group, Syrian Christians did
not support the nationalist movement, although individuals
from the community did; however, they criticised the brah-
mins, who often were rural landowners, from the perspective
of a growing class of merchants, bankers and professionals.
The communal problem in Travancore was not Hindu-Muslim
as in many parts in British India, but rather Hindu-Christian
(ibid).
Petitions to be Exempted from the TCMA
In contrast to the dismissive attitude toward the corresponding
law in British India (Sagade 2005; Sinha 1999: 213, n 27-28;
Sreenivas 2008: 80), the government of Travancore was deter-
mined to implement the Travancore Child Marriage Act (TCMA).
Between 1941 and 1948, 98 cases citing the TCMA may be found
in the Kerala state archive. Brahmins (mostly Tamils, but a few
Malayalees as well) had submitted 41 of these, other Hindus-23,
Christians-27 and Muslims-seven. Two groups were conspicu-
ously over-represented in relation to their population: the Tamil
brahmins and the Syrian Christians. As people learned which
strategies and arguments would be successful, they appealed
to the government in terms they believed would be accepted,
sometimes with the assistance of lawyers. These petitions, re-
ports, and the succee ding investigations allow us to decon-
struct popular, ofcial and legal discourses. When a petition
was received, a local civil servant (either a proverthar at the
village level or a tahsildar at the level above him) investigated
the case. His report was then submitted to one of the four district
ofcers, the division peishkar, who forwarded a recommenda-
tion to the dewan, who in turn, suggested that the maharaja
grant or reject the petition.
Seventy-three of the 98 cases analysed concerned girls, but it
was a surprise to nd as many as 25 boys (out of whom 22
were from Christians). Most of the boys were 16 or 17 years
old, and one was 15, reecting the fact that Syrian Christian
boys married much earlier than other males in Travancore.
According to tradition a Syrian Christian boy was allowed to
marry at the age of 14.
2
Nairs and some other matrilineal
communities had regulated the marriage age through their
caste organisations setting it at 16 for females and 18 for
males. Tamil brahmins, however, held that girls should marry
before their rst menstruation, and boys should be above 18
(but were often in their mid-20s).
The chief arguments of the petitioners fell into ve main
categories: (a) the health of the childs guardian; (b) the
health of the grandparents, since they wished to see their
grandchild married in their lifetime; (c) nancial reasons;
(d) the need for practical help in the household; and (e) religious
considerations, including astrological claims. Additional
arguments often raised were the difculty of nding a suita-
ble match, and the maturity of the child. Not surprisingly,
brahmins referred to religious arguments more often than
other groups, who generally raised practical issues related
to the functioning of the household. Muslims and Syrian
Christians were unique in never invoking religious arguments
in their petitions.
The father of the child was the most common petitioner,
except in the category other Hindus (meaning non-brahmins),
who mostly practised a matrilineal family system. A substan-
tial number of petitions in the case of matrilineal families
came from mothers, uncles, or grandfathers, showing the
complex authority structures regulating children in those
communities.
Christian petitioners most commonly cited the need for an
extra hand in the household, the care of elderly and nancial
concerns such as dowry although dowry was seldom their
main argument.
Traditional Authorities
Those civil servants who investigated petitions for exemptions
were administrators with some education. They were closer to
the ordinary people than the educated elite on the legislative
council. Such civil servants were strongly inuenced by ideas
gaining currency in society and were proponents of individu-
alism and success founded on merit. For the most part, they
ignored astrological or religious arguments in the petitions,
calling them irrelevant, or responding to them with a tone
of disdain.
3

Although the TCMA stated that a girl had to be at least 14
years old to marry, civil servants thought that girls who were
13 (or almost 13), could be exempted from the law, because
they were old enough not to involve a real child marriage.
However, the physical maturity of a girls body had to be
assessed before such a recommendation could be made.
4
Per-
mission was seldom granted for a girl under 13 to marry. It
happened occasionally, but only when more stress was put
upon practical than religious arguments, showing the declin-
ing inuence of religious authorities.
Regardless of caste and religion, more than half of the peti-
tioners argued that elderly members of the family wished to
see their grandchild married before they died.
5
It was a line of
reasoning that civil servants acknowledged only in cases
where the grandparent was the sole guardian of the child.
Otherwise, such claims were dismissed as sentimental. One
Syrian Christian petitioner tried to evoke sympathy by refer-
ring to the authority of the older generation, writing: Tho-
mas grandfather (82) is very anxious to see his grandson mar-
ried and settled down to normal family life before the old par-
ent dies. ...It is well-known how hard and perilous it is to
oppose the will of such grand, old family dictators, though it
be in the name of technical law.
6
There was clearly a tension
between the popular discourse that elders held the authority
in family matters and the legal discourse of the modern state
that had introduced this new law. The state, however, included
both younger and older men, so the conict also took place
within the state government.
Several petitioners alluded to the fact that they paid land
taxes, were wealthy, or loyal supporters of the dewan and
the government.
7
Often they tried to please the dewan by
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april 26, 2014 vol xlix no 17 EPW Economic & Political Weekly 84
referring to their own dissatisfaction with the growing social
movements. A Syrian Christian father who wanted to have his
16-year-old son married wrote that the boy would run the risk
of becoming allied with communists and other bad compan-
ions unless he marries and settles down to ordered and
responsible family life without further delay.
8
Several other
Syrian Christian petitioners wrote that boys should be taught
responsibility early in life in order to become family men.

These arguments met with disapproval from civil servants,
who always recommended rejection if there were no other
substantial grounds in the appeal.
Children were commonly used as pawns in conicts
between male relatives, especially when property was at
issue. In matrilineal joint families, a maternal uncle tradi-
tionally had great responsibility for the welfare of his sisters
children. At the end of the 19th century, a societal change
began to shift this responsibility to biological fathers (Aru-
nima 2003). The petitions allow us to trace conicts between
these two categories of male guardians. For example, one
Nair man asked to have his 17-year-old nephew married
because the mother of the boy was sick and the grandmother
very old. The biolo gical father of the boy objected, writing
that he had a special right because it was his son. The divi-
sion peishkar took the side of the biological father (who had
never lived with his son), reecting the new view of the
investigators on fatherhood.
9

The discussions accompanying many of the petitions cited
above exemplify the decline in inuence that traditional
religious and generational authorities were undergoing in
society, as well as the weakening authority of maternal uncles.
The civil servants dismissed both the power of brahmins and
the elderly and wealth and loyalty as reasons to evade the
legal principles of the state. They also rejected arguments
that boys should marry early in order to become responsible
fathers. In their discourse, boys under 18 should enjoy their
youth. By contrast, girls were expected to leap from child-
hood into the role of a dutiful wife, and soon motherhood as
well. The view that females are entitled to an education was
still an ideology only held by a small elite. Many girls took up
household chores as early as age ve or six, so that (from a
contemporary perspective) they were often deprived of both
their childhood and youth. Prior to 1941, denitions of child-
hood and youth varied by sex, as well as by community in
Travancore, as in the rest of India. Even in contemporary
India, these concepts are gendered (Bajpai 2006: 2-5, 220-23;
Sagade 2005: xxxiii).
Economic Arguments and Practical Needs
The reports from the civil servants mirror an attempt to decide
cases on the basis of what they believed was the best for the
family concerned, but not necessarily for the children, whose
opinion they did not solicit. A girl of 13, for example, was mar-
ried off to the husband of her recently deceased sister and had
to assume responsibility for a young child because there was
no one else to care for the baby.
10
Another girl of the same age,
whose mother, according to investigators, was a helpless
widow, was granted an exemption because it was argued that
if the daughter is married to NN as contemplated, the present
uncared-for condition of the poor family will be changed for
the better.
11
Civil servants often showed a concern for poor
people, acting as their rescuers and trying to alleviate their
hardships. Such instances were exceptions to the principle that
nancial arguments alone were not compelling. Civil servants
rarely approved a petition for the marriage of a 12-year-old
girl. Where they did, it was to save a widow or a girl from a
difcult situation (nancially or otherwise) where marriage
was thought to be a solution.
12
For example, a poor brahmin
widow was permitted to marry off her 12-year-old daughter
so that the girl could take possession of the property where
they lived as dowry. If the mother were to die before the
daughter married, the property would revert to the family of
her deceased husband, leaving the daughter impoverished
and insecure.
13

Among the petitions of wealthy individuals who tried to
impose their will on civil servants is the case of a Syrian Chris-
tian boy of 17 whose father argued that the boys mother was
bedridden, the boy looked older than 17, and that a bride had
already been arranged. He pleaded that his humble petition
with the utmost expedition possible (sic) be met, lest the mar-
riage contemplated should be dropped by the brides party,
and irreparable harm and hardship be occasioned to the peti-
tioner and the boy and their family. The divi sion peishkar
wrote that he suspected dowry had been paid to the boys fam-
ily,
14
and that it was not a relevant argument for exemption.
Dowry was not illegal, but was already seen as an emerging
social evil in certain communities (Travancore Sri Mulam
Assembly 1941: 456-71).
This was only one of many petitions seeking to gain nan-
cial advantage through a child marriage that civil servants dis-
missed.
15
Another case involved a wealthy Christian family
with a few sons in college who sought to have their 16-year-old
son married to a girl of the same age; the petition was thrown
out on similar grounds.
16
In other petitions from Christians,
we nd such arguments as: The only remedy is to get my eld-
est son NN (age 16) married to a capable and hard working
girl,
17
or bringing in an additional female member...would
cope with the helpless situation in the family and...would give
relief both to the sick and the old;
18
(It is) impossible to carry
on the management of the family, (without) bringing in an
additional member who could look after both the sick and the
old;
19
and There will be a mitigation to our sufferings by hav-
ing a daughter-in-law in our house to look after the domestic
affairs.
20
Such arguments were believed likely to be met with
approval, and were often raised when lawyers assisted peti-
tioners who had been rejected earlier. For families who were
not well-off, petitions were likely to be granted with practical
needs in mind.
The care argument was mainly heard from Syrian Christian
petitioners for reasons that had to do with property and family
structures.
21
Like (Tamil) brahmins, Christians had a strict
patrilocal family system, whereas other communities had
mixed customs involving both matrilocality and patrilocality.
REVIEW OF WOMENS STUDIES
Economic & Political Weekly EPW april 26, 2014 vol xlix no 17 85
Syrian Christians frequently lived in smaller households than
brahmins, who generally had several women available in their
joint families to carry out domestic chores. Family size may be
one explanation for the lack of females hands in Syrian
Christian families, but there was also an ethical principle that
no one able to work should be idle.
Bodies and Household Help
In the majority of cases, the petition or the follow-up report
made specic reference to a childs body. Although exemptions
were mostly granted to girls based on their appearance, the
child marriage of a boy was occasionally granted if it could be
argued that the boy looked mature and was big for his age.
Exactly how the degree of maturity was established is unclear
and seems to have been arbitrary.
22

Boys who looked older than their age would often be char-
acterised by phrases like too young, he needs his child-
hood, or he should not be forced to take responsibility.
23

Thus, civil servants dismissed Syrian Christian arguments that
young boys needed to be channelled into roles as fathers. Girls,
on the other hand, were frequently exempted from the law,
especially if they looked more mature than their chronological
age. In such cases it was said that they were needed to care for
aged in-laws and be a maid and nurse. In a legal sense a girl
of 14 was considered grown-up enough to enter into married
life, with all its domestic responsibilities.
24
Marriage Squeeze and Dowry
A girls parents anxieties, and a boys parents nancial consid-
erations, have been cited as reasons for child marriages in co-
lonial India (Anagol-McGinn 1992). Numerous petitioners in
Travancore added the difculty of nding a suitable match to
the other arguments in their applications. This marriage
squeeze has been linked to the Indian caste system, which
minimises the pool of available spouses (Billig 1991; Botticini
and Siow 2003; Caldwell et al 1983; Rao 1993). Because males
have the privilege of choosing from a larger and younger group
of potential spouses, the marriage squeeze has mainly been
seen as a problem for a girls family (Billig 1992). Although the
consensus today is that genders are constructions that must be
contextualised and historicised, a biological and essential di-
mension remains when it comes to human reproduction. The
idea that women should marry older men, or at least avoid
men, who are younger than themselves, has been very persist-
ent in different societies. In Travancore in the 1940s, a hus-
band was an average of eight years older than his wife; the
largest gap was among brahmin spouses and the smallest
among Syrian Christians (Census of India 1941: 62). Most mar-
riage squeeze arguments came from the petitions of brahmins
and they concerned girls.
25

Traditionally, the marriage of children or young people
was left for families to decide, both among Christians and
brahmins. Dowries were negotiated between families, but the
demand from the side of the groom was not as extreme as it
later came to be. In Travancore, the commercialisation of
marriages involving large dowries began after the turn of the
20th century and intensied in the 1930s (Lindberg 2014). As
in Bengal during the second half of the 19th century, caste
(jati) and status, while important in all communities, were
soon to be supplemented (or even displaced) by other criteria
for marriage, such as education and future prospects for
income in a profession or business (Majumdar 2009). Travan-
core was no longer a society based solely on agriculture,
where wealth could mainly be acquired through landowning.
Education was seen as the road to a secure future in times
of nancial difculty. Simultaneously, an ideology that
worked against joint families and in favour of nuclear fami-
lies was resulting in a married woman becoming increasingly
dependent on one man. The size of a dowry rose exponen-
tially and became more of a groom-price that came to be
demanded, paid in cash, and controlled by the groom or his
family (Lindberg 2014).
26

Only Syrian Christian petitioners complained about a short-
age of brides and argued that they needed permission to get
their 16- to 18-year-old sons married because they now had
found a proper bride.
27
The custom of boys not marrying
much younger girls may explain the complaints by some
Syrian Christians that it was difcult to nd a bride in their
narrow circle, but does not clarify why Syrian Christian boys
married earlier than males in other communities. Syrian
Christians often claimed that they were Malayalee brahmins
who had converted to Christianity long ago. Whether true or
not, it is likely that they either kept the brahminic tradition of
child marriage or went through a process of sanskritisation
and emulated this marriage custom. In contrast to Tamil brah-
mins, Malayalee brahmins had abandoned the practice of girls
marrying before maturity, and as a result the age at marriage
rose among both sexes in their community, which may be
related to their relationships with the matrilineal Nairs. The
author of the 1891 Travancore Census, noting that Syrian
Christians often married their children off when they were
below seven or eight years old, wrote that Syrian Christians
are more Hindus than the Hindus themselves (Census of
Travancore 1891). By the 1930s, the age at marriage for girls in
the Syrian Christian community had risen, but the number of
married boys in the 10 to 15 age group had increased slightly
and had increased considerably among those 15 to 20 (Census
of India 1931: 187-90).
One may wonder why this community that was considered
to be very progressive continued to marry off girls and boys at
a young age, when they changed their practice in other areas,
such as education. Perhaps the fact that Syrian Christians had
already become the leading group in banking, newspapers
and other commercial enterprises may explain why boys were
encouraged to become responsible individuals at an early age.
Although there may have been an economic motive in the long
term, there were also more immediate concerns, such as
dowry. Historically, dowry among Syrian Christians was con-
sidered a pre-mortem inheritance for a daughter, since she
would no longer be entitled to any inheritance from her fathers
property after her marriage. Amid the turbulent societal
changes of the 1930s, it was more important than ever for a
REVIEW OF WOMENS STUDIES
april 26, 2014 vol xlix no 17 EPW Economic & Political Weekly 86
boys parents to nd a girl whose dowry could pay for the
education of their son (Lindberg 2014).
Implementation of the Law
The many petitions led with the government show that
people took the child marriage law seriously. One man sought
a two-day exemption, although his daughter would become of
legal age 48 hours after her proposed marriage, indicating
considerable deference for the law.
28
Relatives, neighbours,
teachers, and clergy reported suspected child marriages, lead-
ing to the investigations of such allegations.
29
As the registra-
tion of births and marriages was not compulsory, violations of
the law often could not be proven. Sometimes the only docu-
mentation of a childs age was school registration.
30

The government was determined to implement the law, and
higher ofcials closely monitored the civil servants beneath
them. Those who did not do a thorough investigation could be
punished. This happened to one police inspector who had been
assigned to investigate the marriage of the daughter of one of
the richest men in NN. The report he led was dismissed as
false and the police inspector was suspended and ned.
31
The
incident shows the clash between the old elite (based, in this
case, on wealth) and the authority of the state, which was of-
ten represented by younger men.
Conclusions
The Travancore census reports illustrate two competing national
discourses in the 1920s and 1930s: one embraced the matrilineal
family system as modern and progressive with regard to the
position of women, and the other stressed another kind of moder-
nity led by Christians that eventually became dominant. Holding
up the marumakkathayam system as superior to that of the
western family was an effort to construct a modern tradition, but
it ultimately failed, despite efforts to normalise it by denouncing
matrilocality and other matrilineal characteristics. The conviction
that Christians represented modernity became such a strong
discourse that census authors sometimes chose to disregard
statistics that questioned it. The Syrian Christian modernity was
closely linked to capitalist entrepreneurship and western educa-
tion, both of which overshadowed their traditions in the repro-
ductive sphere. Capitalist development, however, does not gener-
ally imply social progressivism with regard to womens em-
powerment, which the case of the Syrian Christians illustrates.
The achievements of the Syrian Christians in Travancore in-
vite comparison with groups in Europe who were said to pos-
sess a Protestant ethic that instilled in them a predilection
for capitalist enterprises although most Syrians were not Prot-
estants (Weber 1958). In the 1940s, Syrian Christians exercised
strong control not only over their daughters, but also over their
young sons, reecting Christian morals based on work and dis-
dain of idleness. A married son, it was thought, would be more
likely to work harder than an unmarried one.
The denition of a child or a youth as it pertained to mar-
riage varied with religion, community and gender. In addition,
ofcial discourses were contested in unofcial positions that
approved the marriage age of girls at the age of 13 years, at
least if their bodies looked mature. The concept of youth was
rarely applied to females, whichever community under consid-
eration, and whether an ofcial or unofcial situation.
As a result of social and political developments in the 1930s,
the Travancore government changed its position from refusing
to restrict child marriages to demonstrating its capacity to be
modern by implementing the new law. Travancore differed
from British India, where a colonial modernity that paralleled
the reformulation of tradition was constructed. Women were at
the centre in this contested process. At the same time, the British
Indian government had to please orthodox religious groups,
which was why they barely implemented the law against child
marriage. The Sarda Act has been referred to as a turning point in
the struggle between colonialism and nationalism to symbolise
modernity. In Travancore, the Act was not on the agenda until
the 1930s, mainly because child marriage was only considered
a minor problem in a few communities. Orthodox brahmins
could be disregarded as their power had waned, and the Syrian
Christian community, although against regulation of child
marriage, was rapidly changing their position with increased
education. The Child Marriage Act neither symbolised a colo-
nial nor a nationalist modernity in Travancore, but was an
attempt to demonstrate an enlightened princely state enforcing
the law in its struggle to survive the political turbulence of the
time. In a state characterised by Hindu-Christian disagree-
ments (and not Hindu-Muslim conicts as in many other places
in India), its implementation was another blow to the Syrian
Christian community on the part of the Hindu rulers.
Nearly 70 years after the TCMA set the minimum age for
marriage at 14 for girls and 18 for boys, it is discouraging to
nd that child marriage remains an issue in Kerala, although it
is now dened as below 18 for females and below 21 for males.
Since for Syrian Christians and Muslims in the 1930s and
1940s, child marriage was not driven by religious belief, but by
economic and practical reasons, and only Hindu brahmins
urged it on religious grounds, it is surprising that Muslims
base their position on religious traditions in contemporary
Kerala. Encouraging child marriage is clearly contrary to the
well- being of teenage girls. At the very least, their education is
curtailed, recalling Narayani Ammas ringing words three-
quarters of a century ago that girls should be accorded intel-
lectual consideration and not only viewed as future mothers.
Notes
1 Nevertheless, people in British south India
who wanted their children to marry at an
early age most likely continued to do so as
the law was not enforced: only one person was
prosecuted in the rst decade after the CMRA
became law (Sreenivas 2008: 80).
2 Kerala State Archive, Legislative Department
(KSALD) I Vol I, 1919-48 (KSALD I), B 135, File
421 (1944); Leg Department, Vol II, 1949
(KSALD II), B 172, File 933 (1949), File 968
(1949), File 969 (1949).
3 KSALD I, B 127, File 139 (1941); B 142, File 105
(1946).
4 KSALD I, B 127, File 139 (1941).
5 See, for example, KSALD I, B 131, File 51 (1943),
File 55 (1944); B 133, File 55 (1944); B 136 File 17
(1945); B 137, File 113 (1945), File 1147 (1945);
B 140, File 321 (1945); KSALD II, B 172, File 928
(1949), File 929 (1949), File 933 (1949), File 968
(1949).
REVIEW OF WOMENS STUDIES
Economic & Political Weekly EPW april 26, 2014 vol xlix no 17 87
6 KSALD II, B 172, File 969 (1949).
7 KSALD I, B 133, File 163 (1944); B 137, File 163
(1945); B 138, File 214 (1945); B 143, File 233
(1946); KSALD II, B 172, File 113 (1949).
8 KSALD II, B 172, File 969 (1949).
9 KSALD I, B 145, File 371 (1946).
10 KSALD I, B 135, File 424 (1944).
11 KSALD I, B 128, File 37 (1942).
12 KSALD I, B 128, File 37 (1942); B 134, File 275
(1944); B 137, File 143 (1945).
13 KSALD I, B 134, File 275 (1944); see also KSALD
I, B 127, File 126 (1941).
14 KSALD II, B 172, File 968 (1949).
15 Ibid.
16 KSALD I, B 128, File 204 (1945).
17 KSALD I, B 143, File 233 (1946).
18 KSALD I, B 137, File 163 (1945); B 138 File 208
(1945).
19 KSALD I, B 128, File 204 (1945).
20 KSALD II, B 173, File 1069 (1949); See also
KSALD I, B 140, File 334 (1945); B 157, File 721
(1948).
21 For similar cases, see KSALD I, B 136, File 99
(1945), File 167 (1948), File 178 (1948); B 137,
File 163 (1945), File 173 (1945); B 142, File 127
(1946); B 143, File 233 (1946).
22 See, for example, KSALD I, B 137, File 136
(1945), File 173 (1945), File 163 (1945); B 138,
File 204 (1945); B 140, File 334 (1945); KSALD II,
B 172, File 933 (1949), File 968 (1949), File 969
(1949); B 173, File 1069 (1949).
23 KSALD I, B 157, File 721 (1948); B 172, File 969
(1949).
24 KSALD II, B 173, File 1069 (1949); See also
KSALD I, B 140, File 334 (1945); B 157, File 721
(1948).
25 KSALD I, B 123, File 163 (1944); B 128, File 37
(1942); B 141, File 71 (1946); B 142, File 105
(1946), File 103 (1946); B 149, 203 (1947).
26 KSALD II, B 172, File 113 (1949).
27 KSALD II, B 172, File 968 (1949).
28 KSALD I, B 137, File 168 (1945).
29 See, for example, KSALD I, B 136, File 32
(1945), File 48 (1945); File 82 (1945); B 137, File
158 (1945), File 170 (1945); B 143, File 205
(1946); B 155, File 551 (1948).
30 KSALD I, B 135, File 468 (1944).
31 KSALD I, B 138, File 214 (1945); B 141, File 4
(1946).
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