https://indianpedia.org/index.php?action=history&feed=atom&title=Cornelia_SorabjiCornelia Sorabji - Revision history2026-07-31T11:00:47ZRevision history for this page on the wikiMediaWiki 1.45.4https://indianpedia.org/index.php?title=Cornelia_Sorabji&diff=299204&oldid=prev>Simon Peter Hughes at 02:50, 6 December 20212021-12-06T02:50:05Z<p></p>
<p><b>New page</b></p><div>{{good article}}<br />
{{Short description|Indian barrister, writer, and social reformer}}<br />
{{Use Indian English|date=August 2014}}<br />
{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2014}}<br />
{{Infobox person<br />
| name = Cornelia Sorabji<br />
| image = Cornelia Sorabji at the 1924 Braemar Gathering.jpg<br />
| alt =<br />
| caption =<br />
| birth_name =<br />
| birth_date = {{Birth date |df=yes|1866|11|15}}<br />
| birth_place = [[Nashik]], [[Bombay Presidency]], [[British India]]<br />
| death_date = {{Death date and age|df=yes|1954|07|06|1866|11|15}}<br />
| death_place = London, United Kingdom<br />
| alma_mater = {{ublist|[[Bombay University]]|[[Somerville College, Oxford]]}}<br />
| occupation = Lawyer, social reformer, writer<br />
|mother = [[Francina Sorabji]]<br />
|relatives = [[Susie Sorabji]] (sister), [[Alice Maude Sorabji Pennell|Alice Pennell]] (sister), [[Richard Sorabji]] (nephew)<br />
}}<br />
<br />
'''Cornelia Sorabji''' (15 November 1866 – 6 July 1954) was an Indian [[lawyer]], [[social reformer]] and [[writer]]. She was the first female graduate from [[Bombay University]], and the first woman to study law at [[Oxford University]]. Returning to India after her studies at Oxford, Sorabji became involved in social and advisory work on behalf of the ''[[purdah]]nashins'', women who were forbidden to communicate with the outside male world, but she was unable to defend them in court since, as a woman, she did not hold professional standing in the Indian legal system. Hoping to remedy this, Sorabji presented herself for the [[Bachelor of Laws|LLB]] examination of Bombay University in 1897 and the pleader's examination of [[Allahabad High Court]] in 1899. She became the first female [[advocate]] in India but would not be recognised as a barrister until the law which barred women from practising was changed in 1923.<br />
<br />
She was involved with several social service campaigning groups, including the [[National Council for Women in India]], the [[Federation of University Women]], and the Bengal League of Social Service for Women. She opposed the imposition of Western perspectives on the movement for women's change in India, and took a cautious approach to social reform, opposing rapid change. Sorabji believed that until all women were educated, political reform would not be of genuine lasting value. She supported the British Raj, and purdah for upper-caste Hindu women, and opposed [[swaraj|Indian self-rule]]. Her views prevented her obtaining the support needed to undertake later social reforms. Sorabji authored multiple publications, which were influential in the early 20th century.<br />
<br />
==Early life and education==<br />
[[File:The-Times-1888.jpg|thumb|Letter by Mary Hobhouse, published in ''[[The Times]]'', 13 April 1888, Sorabji]]<br />
Cornelia Sorabji was born on 15 November 1866 in [[Nashik]], in the [[Bombay Presidency]], [[British India]].<ref name="ONDB">{{Cite ODNB|id=36195|title=Sorabji, Cornelia}}</ref> She was one of ten children, and was named in honour of Lady Cornelia Maria Darling Ford, her adoptive grandmother. Her father, the Reverend Sorabji Karsedji, was a Christian missionary who had converted from [[Zoroastrianism]], and Sorabji believed that she had been a key figure in convincing [[Bombay University]] to admit women to its degree programmes.{{sfn|Sorabji|1934|pages=2–6}} Her mother, [[Francina Sorabji|Francina Ford]], had been adopted at the age of twelve and brought up by a British couple, and helped to establish several girls' schools in Poona (now [[Pune]]).{{sfn|Forbes|1996|page=98}}{{sfn|Rappaport|2001|page=659}} Her mother's support for girls' education, and care for the local needy, was an inspiration for Cornelia Sorabji to advocate for women.<ref name="TOBIT">{{cite news |title=Miss Cornelia Sorabji |work=The Times |location=London |date=8 July 1954 |page=10}}</ref>{{sfn|Flemming|1994|pages=90–91}} In her books, Cornelia Sorabji barely touched on religion (other than describing [[Parsis|Parsi]] rituals), and did not write about any pressures relating to religious conversion in her autobiographical works.{{sfn|Flemming|1994|pages=90–91}}<br />
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Sorabji had five surviving sisters including educator and missionary [[Susie Sorabji]] and medical doctor [[Alice Maude Sorabji Pennell|Alice Pennell]], and one surviving brother; two other brothers died in infancy.{{sfn|Sorabji|1934|page=6}} She spent her childhood initially in [[Belgaum]] and later in Pune. She received her education both at home and at mission schools. She enrolled in [[Deccan College Post-Graduate and Research Institute|Deccan College]], as its first woman student, and received the top marks in her cohort for the [[Final examination|final degree examination]], which would have entitled her to a government scholarship to study further in England.<ref name="ONDB" /><ref name="TOBIT" /> According to Sorabji, she was denied the scholarship, and instead took up a temporary position as a professor of English at [[Gujarat College]], an educational institution for men.<ref name="TOBIT" />{{sfn|Sorabji|1934|page=20}}<br />
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She became the first female graduate of Bombay University, with a first-class degree in literature.<ref name="ONDB" /> Sorabji wrote in 1888 to the [[National Indian Association]] for assistance in completing her education. This was championed by Mary Hobhouse (whose husband [[Arthur Hobhouse, 1st Baron Hobhouse|Arthur]] was a member of the [[Council of India]]) and [[Adelaide Manning]], who contributed funds, as did [[Florence Nightingale]], Sir [[William Wedderburn]] and others. Sorabji arrived in England in 1889 and stayed with Manning and Hobhouse.<ref>[http://www.open.ac.uk/researchprojects/makingbritain/taxonomy/term/343 Mary Hobhouse] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150924074459/http://www.open.ac.uk/researchprojects/makingbritain/taxonomy/term/343|date=24 September 2015}}, Open University. Retrieved 26 July 2015</ref> In 1892, she was given special permission by Congregational Decree, due in large part to the petitions of her English friends, to take the ''post-graduate'' [[Bachelor of Civil Law]] exam at [[Somerville College, Oxford]], becoming the first woman to ever do so.<ref name=ht>{{cite news|title=UK honours Cornelia Sorabji|url=http://www.hindustantimes.com/world-news/Europe/UK-honours-Cornelia-Sorabji/Article1-860876.aspx|work=Hindustan Times|date=25 May 2012|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120528190012/http://www.hindustantimes.com/world-news/Europe/UK-honours-Cornelia-Sorabji/Article1-860876.aspx|archive-date=28 May 2012}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=University strengthens ties with India|url=http://www.cherwell.org/news/academic/2012/12/13/university-strengthens-ties-with-india|work=[[Cherwell (newspaper)|Cherwell]]|date=13 December 2012|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140222163254/http://www.cherwell.org/news/academic/2012/12/13/university-strengthens-ties-with-india|archive-date=22 February 2014}}</ref> Sorabji was the first woman to be admitted as a reader to the [[Codrington Library]] of [[All Souls College, Oxford]], at [[Sir William Anson, 3rd Baronet|Sir William Anson]]'s invitation in 1890.<ref>{{cite book|title=Somerville for women: an Oxford college, 1879–1993|page=114|author=Pauline Adams|publisher=[[Oxford University Press]]|year=1996|isbn=978-0199201792}}</ref><br />
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==Legal career==<br />
[[File:Cornelia Sorabji bust in Lincoln's Inn.jpg|thumb|Cornelia Sorabji's bust in [[Lincoln's Inn]], taken at the 2012 [[Gresham College#Gresham Special Lecture series|Gresham Special Lecture]]]]<br />
Upon returning to India in 1894, Sorabji became involved in social and advisory work on behalf of the ''[[purdah]]nashins'', women who were forbidden to communicate with the outside male world. In many cases, these women owned considerable property, yet had no access to the necessary legal expertise to defend it. Sorabji was given special permission to enter pleas on their behalf before British agents of [[Kathiawar]] and [[Indore]] principalities, but she was unable to defend them in court since, as a woman, she did not hold professional standing in the Indian legal system. Hoping to remedy this situation, Sorabji presented herself for the [[Bachelor of Laws|LLB]] examination of Bombay University in 1897 and the pleader's examination of [[Allahabad High Court]] in 1899. She was the first female [[advocate]] in India, but would not be recognised as a barrister until the law which barred women from practising was changed in 1923.<ref name="ONDB" /><ref name="OXLAW" /><br />
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Sorabji began petitioning the [[India Office]] as early as 1902 to provide for a female legal advisor to represent women and minors in provincial courts. In 1904, she was appointed Lady Assistant to the [[Court of Wards (India)|Court of Wards]] of Bengal and by 1907, due to the need for such representation, Sorabji was working in the provinces of [[Bengal]], [[Bihar]], [[Orissa, India|Orissa]], and [[Assam]]. In the next 20 years of service, it is estimated that Sorabji helped over 600 women and orphans fight legal battles, sometimes at [[pro bono|no charge]]. She would later write about many of these cases in her work ''Between the Twilights'' and her two autobiographies. In 1924, the legal profession was opened to women in India, and Sorabji began practising in [[Calcutta]]. However, due to male bias and discrimination, she was confined to preparing opinions on cases, rather than pleading them before the court.<ref name="ONDB" /><br />
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Sorabji retired from the high court in 1929, and settled in London, visiting India during the winters.<ref name="ONDB" /><ref name="OUM">{{cite web |title=Making Britain: Cornelia Sorabji |url=https://www.open.ac.uk/researchprojects/makingbritain/content/cornelia-sorabji |publisher=Open University |access-date=12 August 2021}}</ref> She died at her home, Northumberland House on [[Green Lanes (London)|Green Lanes]] in [[Manor House, London]], on 6 July 1954, aged 87.<ref name="ONDB" /><br />
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==Social and reform work==<br />
Sorabji's primary interest in her campaigning work was in social service.<ref name="Mrinalini" /> She took a circumspect approach to social reform, supporting the [[British Raj]], [[purdah]] for upper-caste Hindu women, and opposing rapid reform,<ref name="Mrinalini">{{cite book |first=Mrinalini |last=Sinha |editor-first=Ann-Louise |editor-last=Shapiro |title=Feminists Revision History |chapter=Gender in the critiques of colonialism and nationalism: Locating the "Indian Woman" |publisher=Rutgers University Press |year=1994 |isbn=0813520649 |page=255}}</ref> believing that until all women were educated, political reform would not provide "any real and lasting value".{{sfn|Forbes|1996|page=99}} She also opposed the imposition of Western women's perspectives on the movement for women's change in India.{{sfn|Flemming|1994|pages=92–93}}<br />
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She was associated with the Bengal branch of the [[National Council for Women in India]], the [[Federation of University Women]], and the Bengal [[League of Social Service for Women]].<ref name="ONDB" /> For her services to the Indian nation, she was awarded the [[Kaisar-i-Hind Medal|Kaisar-i-Hind Gold Medal]] in 1909.<ref name="ONDB" /> Although an [[Anglophile]], Sorabji had no desire to see "the wholesale imposition of a British legal system on Indian society any more than she sought the transplantation of other Western values."{{sfn|Rappaport|2001|page=660–61}} Early in her career, Sorabji had supported the campaign for [[Indian Independence movement|Indian independence]], relating women's rights to the capacity for self-government. Although she supported traditional Indian life and culture, Sorabji promoted reform of Hindu laws regarding [[Child marriage in India|child marriage]] and [[Sati (practice)|Sati]] by [[widows]].{{sfn|Rappaport|2001|page=659}} She believed that the true impetus behind social change was education and that until the majority of illiterate women had access to it, the [[Universal suffrage|suffrage movement]] would be a failure.{{sfn|Forbes|1996|page=99}}{{sfn|Rappaport|2001|page=661}}<br />
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By the late 1920s, however, Sorabji had adopted a staunch anti-nationalist attitude.<ref name="ONDB" /> By 1927, she was actively involved in promoting support for the Empire and preserving the rule of the British Raj. She favourably viewed the polemical attack on [[swaraj|Indian self-rule]] in [[Katherine Mayo]]'s book ''[[Mother India (book)|Mother India]]'' (1927),<ref name="ONDB" /> and condemned [[Mahatma Gandhi]]'s campaign of [[civil disobedience]].<ref name="OXLAW">{{cite web |title=Alumna: Cornelia Sorabji |url=https://www.law.ox.ac.uk/content/alumna-cornelia-sorabji-1866-1954 |publisher=University of Oxford |access-date=12 August 2021 |archive-date=8 June 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210608042200/https://www.law.ox.ac.uk/content/alumna-cornelia-sorabji-1866-1954 |url-status=live }}</ref> She toured to propagate her political views; her publicised beliefs would end up costing her the support needed to undertake later social reforms. One such failed project was the League for Infant Welfare, Maternity, and District Nursing.{{sfn|Rappaport|2001|page=660}}<br />
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Pallavi Rastogi, reviewing the autobiography ''India Calling'', wrote the Sorabji's life was "fraught with contradictions", as were those of others who were unable to reconcile Western and Indian ways of life.{{sfn|Rastogi|2001|page=822}} Historian [[Geraldine Forbes]] argued that Sorabji's opposition to nationalism and feminism has "caused historians to neglect the role she played in giving credibility to the British critique of those educated women who were now part of the political landscape."{{sfn|Forbes|1996|page=98}} For Leslie Flemming, Sorabji's autobiographical works are "a means of justifying her unusual life by constructing herself as a change-agent" and, although they are not widely read in modern terms, succeeded on those terms by having an influential readership in the early 20th century.{{sfn|Flemming|1994|page=105}}<br />
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==Publications==<br />
In addition to her work as a social reformer and legal activist, Sorabji wrote a number of books, short stories and articles, including the following:<ref name="OUM" /><br />
*1901: ''Love and Life beyond the Purdah''&nbsp;(London: Fremantle & Co.)<br />
*1904: ''Sun-Babies: Studies in the Child-life of India'' (London: Blackie & Son)<br />
*1908: ''Between the Twilights: Being studies of India women by one of themselves'' (London: Harper)<br />
*1916: ''Indian Tales of the Great Ones Among Men, Women and Bird-People'' (Bombay: Blackie)<br />
*1917: ''The Purdahnashin'' (Bombay: Blackie & Son)<br />
*1918: ''Sun Babies: Studies in Colour'' (London: Blackie & Son)<br />
*1920: ''Shubala – A Child-Mother'' (Calcutta: Baptist Mission Press)<br />
*1924: ''Therefore: An Impression of Sorabji Kharshedji Langrana and His Wife Francina'' (London: Oxford University Press, Humphrey Milford, 1924)<br />
*1930: ''Gold Mohur: Time to Remember'' (London: Alexander Moring)<br />
*1932: ''Susie Sorabji, Christian-Parsee Educationist of Western India: A Memoir'' (London: Oxford University Press)<br />
<br />
Sorabji wrote two autobiographical works entitled ''India Calling: The Memories of Cornelia Sorabji''&nbsp;(London: Nisbet & Co., 1934) and ''India Recalled'' (London: Nisbet & Co., 1936). She edited ''Queen Mary's Book for India'' (London: G. G. Harrap & Co., 1943),<ref name="ONDB" /> which had contributions from such authors as [[T. S. Eliot]] and [[Dorothy L. Sayers]]. She contributed to a number of periodicals, including ''[[East_India_Association#Publications|The Asiatic Review]]'', ''[[The Times Literary Supplement]]'', ''[[The Atlantic|Atlantic Monthly]]'', ''[[Calcutta Review]]'', ''The Englishman'', ''[[Macmillan's Magazine]]'', ''[[The Statesman (India)|The Statesman]]'' and ''[[The Times]]''.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.open.ac.uk/researchprojects/makingbritain/content/cornelia-sorabji|title=Cornelia Sorabji {{!}}Britain|website=www.open.ac.uk|access-date=2017-11-10|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171107024034/http://www.open.ac.uk/researchprojects/makingbritain/content/cornelia-sorabji|archive-date=7 November 2017}}</ref><br />
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==Memorials==<br />
In 2012, a [[Bust (sculpture)|bust]] of her was unveiled at [[Lincoln's Inn]], [[London]].<ref name=ht/> A [[Google Doodle]] celebrated her 151st birthday on 15 November 2017.<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/technology/internet/googles-doodle-honours-cornelia-sorabji-indias-first-woman-advocate/article20448394.ece|title=Google's Doodle honours Cornelia Sorabji, India's first woman advocate|work=The Hindu|access-date=15 November 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171115055032/http://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/technology/internet/googles-doodle-honours-cornelia-sorabji-indias-first-woman-advocate/article20448394.ece|archive-date=15 November 2017|url-status=live}}</ref><br />
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==See also==<br />
*[[First women lawyers around the world]]<br />
*[[List of Parsis]]<br />
<br />
==References==<br />
{{reflist}}<br />
<br />
==Bibliography==<br />
* {{cite book |editor=Kumar, Nita |title=Women as subjects : South Asian histories |last=Flemming |first=Leslie |chapter=Between two worlds: self-construction and self-identity in the writings of three Nineteenth-century Indian Christian Women |publisher=Stree |year=1994 |isbn=8185604037}}<br />
* {{cite book |title=Women in modern India |first=Geraldine |last=Forbes |author-link=Geraldine Forbes |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=1996 |isbn=0521268125}}<br />
* {{cite book |last=Rappaport |first=Helen |author-link=Helen Rappaport |title=Encyclopedia of Women Social Reformers |location=Santa Barbara |publisher=ABC CLIO |year=2001 |isbn=1576071014 }}<br />
* {{cite book |editor=Jolly, Margaretta |title=Encyclopedia of Life Writing: Autobiographical and Biographical Forms |volume=I |publisher=Fitzroy Dearborn |last=Rastogi |first=Pallavi |isbn=157958232X |year=2001}}<br />
* {{Cite book|title=India Calling: The Memories of Cornelia Sorabji|last=Sorabji|first=Cornelia|publisher=Nisbet & Co|year=1934|location=London}}<br />
<br />
==Further reading==<br />
* Blain, Virginia, et al.,''The Feminist Companion to Writers in English: Women Writers from the Middle Ages to the Present'' (New Haven : Yale University Press, 1990)<br />
* [[Antoinette Burton|Burton, Antoinette]], ''At The Heart of the Empire: Indians and the Colonial Encounter in Late-Victorian Britain'' (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1998)<br />
* Matthew, H.C.G and Brian Harrison, ed., ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' (Oxford : Oxford University Press, 2004)<br />
* Mossman, Mary Jane, ''The First Women Lawyers: A Comparative Study of Gender, Law and the Legal Professions'' (Toronto: Hart Publishing, 2007)<br />
* [[Richard Sorabji|Sorabji, Richard]], ''Opening Doors: The Untold Story of Cornelia Sorabji'' (2010)<br />
* Zilboorg, Caroline, ed. ''Women's Firsts'' (New York : Gale, 1997)<br />
* Innes, C.L. 'A History of Black and Asian Writers in Britain' (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008). Contains a Chapter on Cornelia and Alice Pennell Sorabji.<br />
<br />
== External links ==<br />
*{{commons category-inline|Cornelia Sorabji}}<br />
*{{Wikisource author-inline}}<br />
* [http://www.npg.org.uk/live/search/person.asp?LinkID=mp61443 Cornelia Sorabji images] Link to images of Sorabji at the National Portrait Gallery website<br />
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20130427070523/http://www.ox.ac.uk/media/news_stories/2010/100301.html 'Celebrating Indian legacy in Oxford'] University of Oxford Press Release, March 2010<br />
* [http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/opening-doors-the-untold-story-of-cornelia-sorabji-reformer-lawyer-and-champion 'Opening Doors: The Untold Story of Cornelia Sorabji – Reformer, Lawyer and Champion of Women's Rights in India'] Public lecture by Professor [[Richard Sorabji]]<br />
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Sorabji, Cornelia}}<br />
[[Category:1866 births]]<br />
[[Category:1954 deaths]]<br />
[[Category:Indian barristers]]<br />
[[Category:19th-century Indian lawyers]]<br />
[[Category:Indian women lawyers]]<br />
[[Category:20th-century Indian lawyers]]<br />
[[Category:Recipients of the Kaisar-i-Hind Medal]]<br />
[[Category:University of Mumbai alumni]]<br />
[[Category:Alumni of Somerville College, Oxford]]<br />
[[Category:Indian Christians]]<br />
[[Category:People from Nashik]]<br />
[[Category:Parsi people]]<br />
[[Category:Indian reformers]]<br />
[[Category:Indian women activists]]<br />
[[Category:Indian women's rights activists]]<br />
[[Category:Activists from Maharashtra]]<br />
[[Category:Writers from Maharashtra]]<br />
[[Category:Women writers from Maharashtra]]<br />
[[Category:Indian women novelists]]<br />
[[Category:Indian women essayists]]<br />
[[Category:Indian women short story writers]]<br />
[[Category:19th-century Indian women writers]]<br />
[[Category:20th-century Indian novelists]]<br />
[[Category:20th-century Indian short story writers]]<br />
[[Category:20th-century Indian essayists]]<br />
[[Category:20th-century Indian women writers]]<br />
[[Category:19th-century Indian novelists]]<br />
[[Category:Novelists from Maharashtra]]<br />
[[Category:20th-century Indian women lawyers]]<br />
[[Category:19th-century Indian women lawyers]]</div>>Simon Peter Hughes