The age of consent debate comes into picture with a unique event of defiance when an 1884 suit was filed in the Bombay high court against a child-bride by her husband who refused to be obligated to an un consented marriage, formalised when she was 11 years old. Rukhmabai was thus thrown in the limelight, hailed and criticised by becoming a central figure around which revolved a large public discourse .
After a long legal battle, it was ruled that she would have to face imprisonment if she did not fulfil her wifely obligations to her husband, Dadaji Bhikaji. She chose imprisonment thus leading to her being made into a martyr for the sisterhood as well as a symbol for an evil stain on hinduism, a consequence of western education and morals coupled with the sensational cry of hinduism in danger. Many including Bal Gangadhar tilak were at the forefront of publicising this act as an evil dispensation of westernisation of the Indian woman.