172.100.96.40 at 18:14, 19 August 2021

2021-08-19T18:14:29Z

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[[File:FrancinaSorabji1905.png|thumb|Francina Sorabji, from a 1905 publication.]]

'''Francina Ford Sorabji''' (née '''Santya''') (1833 — October 24, 1910) was an Indian educator.

==Early life==
'''Francina Santya''' was born to a family in southern India, and converted from [[Hinduism]] and lived with Christian missionaries as a young girl.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1JkGDAAAQBAJ&q=Francina+Ford+tribal&pg=PA137|title=Anglophone Indian Women Writers, 1870–1920|last=Brinks|first=Ellen|date=2016-04-15|publisher=Routledge|isbn=9781317180913|language=en}}</ref> She was adopted at age twelve by a British couple, [[St Clair-Ford baronets|Sir Francis Ford, Baronet]], and his wife Cornelia Maria, Lady Ford (née Darling).<ref name="Doors">Richard Sorabji, [https://books.google.com/books?id=V57qLrUcbfAC&lpg=PA374&vq=Francina&dq=Francina%20Sorabji&pg=PA8#v=onepage&q=Ford&f=false ''Opening Doors: The Untold Story of Cornelia Sorabji, Reformer, Lawyer and Champion of Women's Rights in India''] (Penguin Books India 2010): 8-16. {{ISBN|9781848853751}}</ref><ref>[[Antoinette Burton]], [https://publishing.cdlib.org/ucpressebooks/view?docId=ft6z09p13n&chunk.id=d0e2485&toc.id=&brand=ucpress ''At the Heart of the Empire: Indians and the Colonial Encounter in Late-Victorian Britain''] (University of California Press 1998): 115. {{ISBN|9780520209589}}</ref><ref>Cornelia Sorabji, [https://archive.org/details/MemoriesCorneliaSorabji/page/n31 ''India calling: The memories of Cornelia Sorabji''] (Nisbet and Company 1934): 7-8.</ref> Her adoptive mother's father was [[Sir Ralph Darling]], the British army officer who became a controversial Governor of [[New South Wales]].<ref>Mary Jane Mossman, [https://books.google.com/books?id=-67bBAAAQBAJ&lpg=PA193&ots=FGrHqafFGJ&dq=Darling%20Ford%20Sorabji&pg=PA193#v=onepage&q=Darling%20Ford%20Sorabji&f=false ''The First Women Lawyers: A Comparative Study of Gender, Law and the Legal Professions''] (Bloomsbury Publishing 2006): 193, note 6. {{ISBN|9781847310958}}</ref><ref>[http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/darling-sir-ralph-1956/text2353 "Darling, Sir Ralph (1772–1858)"], ''Australian Dictionary of Biography'' (National Centre of Biography, Australian National University); published first in hardcopy 1966, accessed online 2 November 2018.)</ref>

==Career==
Francina Sorabji founded the Victoria High School for girls at [[Poona]], at first in her own home, and later in a separate stone building. The school was co-educational and enrolled all ages from young children to college-aged youth. At its peak Victoria High School counted a student body of 400. Her own daughters were among the first students.<ref>[[Padma Anagol]], [https://books.google.com/books?id=YICroPrSyz4C&lpg=PA229&ots=c06fqfAaIw&dq=Victoria%20High%20School%20Poona&pg=PA229#v=onepage&q=Victoria%20High%20School%20Poona&f=false ''The Emergence of Feminism in India, 1850-1920''] (Ashgate 2005): 228-229. {{ISBN|9780754634119}}</ref> She founded two other schools in Poona: one with teaching in [[Marathi language|Marathi]] for Hindu children, and one with teaching in [[Urdu]] for Muslim children; these were run by her daughters Zuleika, Susie, and Lena. Another daughter, Mary Sorabji, taught at the High School for Indian Girls in Poona.<ref name="Doors" /><ref>Delevan L. Pierson, [https://books.google.com/books?id=rH1AAQAAMAAJ&dq=Francina%20Sorabji&pg=PA150#v=onepage&q=Francina%20Sorabji&f=false "Some Modern Indian Idealists"] ''The Chautauquan'' (October 1905): 150.</ref> She encouraged her students, and her seven daughters, into high education and professions, including law, medicine, and midwifery.<ref>Leslie A. Flemming, [https://books.google.com/books?id=li2OS4QYPDoC&lpg=PA90&ots=OHCuOd_eWy&dq=Francina%20Sorabji&pg=PA90#v=onepage&q=Francina%20Sorabji&f=false "Between Two Worlds: Self-Construction and Self-Identity in the Writings of Three Nineteenth-Century Indian Christian Women"] in Nita Kumar, ed., ''Women as Subjects: South Asian Histories'' (University of Virginia Press 1994): 90-91. {{ISBN|9780813915227}}</ref><ref>Tim Allender, [https://books.google.com/books?id=ZlEUCwAAQBAJ&lpg=PA191&ots=apowHQAoZs&dq=Victoria%20High%20School%20Poona&pg=PA191#v=onepage&q=Victoria%20High%20School%20Poona&f=false ''Learning femininity in colonial India, 1820-1932''] (Oxford University Press 2016): 191. {{ISBN|9781784996987}}</ref>

Francina Sorabji also ran a teacher-training program. She went to England to fundraise for her work in Poona in 1886, and testified before a British commission on education in India. She fostered orphans and welcomed widows and their children into her household. During an outbreak of plague in 1896, she helped to introduce preventive public health and sanitation practices in villages near Poona.<ref name="Doors" />

==Personal life==
Francina Ford married Sorabji Karsedji, a [[Parsi]] Christian missionary, in 1853. Two of their children died in infancy; their seven surviving children included lawyer [[Cornelia Sorabji]], educator [[Susie Sorabji]], and medical doctor [[Alice Maude Sorabji Pennell]].<ref>"Alice Maude Sorabji Pennell" ''Making Britain'' (The Open University).</ref> Francina Ford Sorabji was widowed in 1894, retired to [[Nashik]] in 1906, and died in 1910, aged 77 years.<ref name="Doors" /><ref>[http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/fbe60bb8-07fa-4a53-8eb7-01028bdeb671 Correspondence and papers of and concerning Cornelia Sorabji's mother Francina Sorabji, mainly about her death and funeral in 1910], British Library.</ref> Philosopher Sir [[Richard Sorabji]] is her grandson.<ref name="Doors" />

==References==
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Sorabji, Francina}}
[[Category:1833 births]]
[[Category:1910 deaths]]
[[Category:Indian women educators]]
[[Category:Converts to Christianity from Hinduism]]

Francina Sorabji - Revision history

172.100.96.40 at 18:14, 19 August 2021