Cornelia Sorabji was the first woman lawyer of India. She was born on 15 November 1866 in Nashik, Maharashtra
Cornelia Sorabji emerged as a trailblazer in the spheres of women’s empowerment, legal advocacy and social reform in India. Defying the strict gender norms of the late 19th and 20th centuries, she achieved the notable feat of becoming first female lawyer of India.
While women in Britain were campaigning for the right to vote, Cornelia Sorabji became the first woman lawyer to practise law in India. After she received a first class degree from Bombay University in 1888, British supporters helped to send her to Oxford University. Here, Sorabji became the first woman to sit the Civil Law exams but was not able to graduate as women could not be awarded degrees until 1920. She returned to India in 1894. After a long struggle with the authorities, she became legal advocate for women in purdah, whose religious and cultural beliefs prevented them from speaking to men outside their family.
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 got involved in social and advisory work on behalf of the purdahnashins, 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 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.
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 of Bengal and by 1907, due to the need for such representation, Sorabji was working in the provinces of Bengal, Bihar, 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 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.
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:
- 1901: Love and Life beyond the Purdah (London: Fremantle & Co.)
- 1904: Sun-Babies: Studies in the Child-life of India (London: Blackie & Son)
- 1908: Between the Twilights: Being studies of India women by one of themselves (London: Harper)
- 1916: Indian Tales of the Great Ones Among Men, Women and Bird-People (Bombay: Blackie)
- 1917: The Purdahnashin (Bombay: Blackie & Son)
- 1918: Sun Babies: Studies in Colour (London: Blackie & Son)
- 1920: Shubala – A Child-Mother (Calcutta: Baptist Mission Press)
- 1924: Therefore: An Impression of Sorabji Kharshedji Langrana and His Wife Francina (London: Oxford University Press, Humphrey Milford, 1924)
- 1930: Gold Mohur: Time to Remember (London: Alexander Moring)
- 1932: Susie Sorabji, Christian-Parsee Educationist of Western India: A Memoir (London: Oxford University Press)
