Bengal Renaissance — Key Changes

Entry	Year	Description	Impact
Act X of 1891	1891	The Age of Consent amendment, Act X of 1891, changed the relevant criminal-law age from ten to twelve. The Law Commission’s account places the measure after public outcry over the Phulmoni case in Bengal. The connection makes the amendment relevant to Bengal’s social-reform debates, while its legal content remains narrower than a prohibition of child marriage. A case that influenced a legislative debate and the amending law that followed are different kinds of evidence.	Use this example to connect a public controversy to a specified legal response, without attributing the law to a single earlier reformer or treating Bengal’s educated society as unanimous. The outcome changed a statutory threshold; it does not establish that practice changed immediately or equally across communities. In a Renaissance answer, distinguish intellectual criticism, organised advocacy and enacted reform. Keep the age-of-consent change separate from a minimum marriage-age rule and from later legal developments.