Har Bilas Sarda

Har Bilas Sarda spent decades as a judge, quietly working through the colonial legal system. Then he introduced one bill that made him famous, and made child marriage illegal across British India.

The Judge Who Outlawed Child MarriageNeed to Know

• Har Bilas Sarda was born on 3 June 1867, in Ajmer. He died there on 20 January 1955.
• He is best known for introducing the Child Marriage Restraint Act, 1927, in the Central Legislative Assembly. It became popularly known as the Sarda Act.
• The Act was passed on 28 September 1929. It came into force on 1 April 1930, across British India.
• It set a legal minimum marriage age: 14 for girls and 18 for boys, for all communities.
• The Act was later folded into IndSoc0001 — Child Marriage in India‘s history. It was eventually repealed and replaced by the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, 2006.
• Sarda served the judicial and civil service of Ajmer-Merwara for over three decades, before turning to legislative politics.
• He was first elected to the Central Legislative Assembly in January 1924, when Ajmer-Merwara got its own seat there for the first time.

Passing the Sarda ActGood to Know

• Sarda’s bill was referred to a select panel, the Age of Consent Committee. It was headed by Sir Moropant Vishwanath Joshi and included several women members, including the reformer Rameshwari Nehru.
• Organised women’s groups, like the All India Women’s Conference, actively lobbied for the bill. They are widely credited with helping secure its passage.
• Muslim women also presented their own views to the Joshi Committee, favouring a higher marriage age, even though they expected opposition from Muslim religious leaders.
• Mahatma Gandhi also spoke out against child marriage during this campaign, partly at the urging of these same women’s organisations.
• The Act was repeatedly toughened after independence. A 1949 amendment raised the girls’ age to 15; a 1978 amendment raised it further, to 18 for girls and 21 for boys.
• Sarda was a devoted follower of Swami Dayananda Saraswati and a lifelong member of the Arya Samaj. He served as President of its Ajmer branch.
• He was also Secretary of the Paropkarini Sabha, a body Dayananda Saraswati’s own will had set up to continue his work after his death.

Test Yourself

Please wait…

1. Har Bilas Sarda is best remembered for introducing which legislation in the Central Legislative Assembly?

The Child Marriage Restraint Act, 1927

The Hindu Widows’ Remarriage Act

The Age of Consent Act

The Hindu Succession Act

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A Mixed LegacyGreat to Know

• The British Indian government itself opposed the bill. It still passed, since Indian members held a majority in the legislature by then.
• In practice, the Sarda Act was weakly enforced. Historian accounts, including Jawaharlal Nehru‘s own memoirs, blame the colonial government’s reluctance to alienate conservative religious groups.
• Sarda was also a prolific author. His books include Ajmer: Historical and Descriptive and biographies of the Rajput rulers Maharana Kumbha and Maharana Sanga.
• He was honoured by the British Indian government with the title Rai Sahib, for wartime service, and later Dewan Bahadur, in 1931, for his legislative work.