Sorabji, Cornelia (1866–1954)

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Sorabji, Cornelia (1866–1954)

First Indian woman to become a lawyer. Born on November 15, 1866, in Nasik, in the Bombay presidency, India; died on July 6, 1954, in London, England; fifth daughter of nine children of the Rev. Sorabji Karsedji Langrana (an ex-Zoroastrian) and Francina (also seen as Franscina); graduated from Decca College in Poona, India, in 1886; studied at Somerville College in Oxford, England; received Bachelor of Civil Law (BCL) in 1922.

Selected writings:

Love and Life Behind the Purdah (1901); Sun-Babies (1904); Between the Twilights (1908); Social Relations: England and India (1908); Indian Tales of the Great Ones Among Men, Women and Bird-People (1916); Therefore (1924); Susie Sorabji, A Memoir (1932); India Calling (1934); India Recalled (1936).

Cornelia Sorabji was born on November 15, 1866, in Nasik, in the Bombay presidency in India. Her father, a Parsi who converted to Christianity, raised Cornelia and her eight siblings with an appreciation for Indian and British culture, both of which shaped her life. Another influence was her mother's concern for the numberless Indian women repressed by cultural customs that forced them to live lives of seclusion. Both Cornelia and a younger sister, Susie Sorabji , picked up her reformist tendencies. While Susie went on to a career as an educational reformer, Cornelia became determined to improve the condition of India's widows, orphans and wives through the courts.

Sorabji became the first female student at Decca College in Poona. Her grades merited her ascension to the top of her class, but, when she received her degree in 1886, her gender prevented her from collecting the scholarship to a British university the school typically gave to its number-one student. The setback prevented further schooling for another two years, but she eventually made it to Somerville College at Oxford with the help of friends. Doors which had been closed to other women opened for Sorabji as she cultivated friendships with many distinguished people in the fields of law, politics, social service and literature, including Florence Nightingale and the vice-chancellor at Oxford, Benjamin Jowett. Her studies in civil law should have been a purely academic pursuit since women were not allowed to advance to the examination, but her connections granted her special permission to take the exam in 1892. She passed, but did not actually receive her degree for another 20 years, as women were not allowed to become lawyers until 1919.

Even without the degree, Sorabji embarked on her life's work, returning to India in 1894 to become an advocate for women in the court system. As a private individual, she represented women appearing in court, but longed for official recognition as a lawyer. India proved to be as unyielding as England on this point, denying her professional standing even after she passed two exams. Sorabji did manage to achieve some notice when the Indian court system honored her request to appear in court as an adviser on behalf of women in 1904. Her legal work for hundreds of women, as well as her efforts on behalf of infant welfare and nursing, earned her the Kaisar-i-Hind gold medal in 1909.

Sorabji continued this work until she officially passed the bar in 1923, after which she started her practice as a lawyer in Calcutta. Failing eyesight necessitated a move to London at the close of the 1920s, and although she returned to India during the winters, she was more in sympathy with her adopted country than with the independence movement in her native land. During her later years, she wrote memoirs of her family (including her sister Susie, who died in 1931) and of her years as an adviser in the Indian courts. Previous to these works, she had published numerous stories, mostly about Indian women, which she geared towards a British audience. Her final work before her death in 1954 was her editing of Queen Mary's Book for India, a small anthology of India-oriented themes.