It was entirely due to CORNELIA SORABJI’s efforts that the legalprofession was opened towomen in India in 1924Cornelia Sorabji occupies pride of place as India’s first woman lawyer, the first woman to practice law in India and Britain, Bombay University’s first female graduate to be admitted to the Allahabad High Court, the first woman to study law at...
It was entirely due to CORNELIA SORABJI’s efforts that the legal
profession was opened to
women in India in 1924
Cornelia Sorabji occupies pride
of place as India’s first woman
lawyer, the first woman to
practice law in India and
Britain, Bombay University’s
first female graduate to be admitted to the
Allahabad High Court, the first woman
to study law at Oxford University, and
the first Indian to study at any British
University.
Born in 1866, Cornelia was among
nine children born to Reverend Sorabji
Karsedji, a Parsi, and his wife, Francina
Ford, a Parsi, adopted and raised by
a British couple. While Cornelia was
homeschooled by her father at several
of the couple’s mission schools, she was
initially refused admission to Bombay
University on grounds that no woman
had ever been to the University. She
was admitted only later and went on to
matriculate at the age of 16. Cornelia
proved all the naysayers wrong when,
in six years’ time, she topped her
college in English Literature. Once again
though, gender came in the way of her
getting a scholarship to an English
University. Help arrived in the form of
Mary Hobhouse, Adelaide Manning,
Sir William Wedderburn, and Florence
Nightingale, who spent from their own
pockets to fund Cornelia’s scholarship. At
first, she was barred from studying law;
however, thanks to academic-philosopher
Benjamin Jowett, Cornelia became the
first woman to take the Bachelor of Civil
Laws exam at Somerville College, Oxford,
in 1892. What was expected to be learned
in five years, Cornelia set out to achieve
in just two. But the examiner initially
refused to examine her and later gave her
a third-class in the post-graduate exam.
Despite passing the exam, Cornelia could
not collect her degree for another 30
years as was the norm in those days. She
worked for a year at Lee & Pemberton,
a solicitors’ firm in London, where
the husband of one of the women who
had funded her scholarship helped her
get permission to read at the Lincoln’s
Inn library. The same year, Cornelia
completed her Bachelors of Law and
decided to return to India with a view to
empowering the women there.
then Chief Justice of Bombay passed
an order disallowing legal practitioners
from employing women. Cornelia
then undertook an undergraduate degree
in law from Bombay University hoping
that this would ease her problems but
failed in the program. Surprisingly, it
was not the British Raj but the Maharajas
who offered Cornelia an opportunity to
practice law in the Bombay presidency,
only to restrict her to trivial cases. Not
the one to give up, Cornelia continued to
fight for recognition as a barrister and
finally decided to become a legal advisor
to the British Raj on the state of
purdah nasheens aka secluded women
in the country. At the time, these
women wore purdah and lived a dreary
existence where their education was
stopped the moment they got married
and they were forbidden from any
form of communication with the
outside world. Worst of all, in cases
of dispute over property, which these
women owned considerably, they
could not get legal help as all lawyers
out there were men. In 1904, the
then Secretary of State for India, Lord
Broderick, granted Cornelia special
permission to enter appeals on behalf
of these purdah nasheens before
British agents of the principalities
of Indore and Kathiawar. For two
decades thereafter, Cornelia worked as
a practicing lawyer, helping more than
600 women (purdah nasheens, child
brides, and widows) and orphans fight
their legal battles, sometimes free of
cost. Cornelia not only protected her
female clients against fraud and murder
but also helped them gain independence
and forge their own identity. It is
entirely due to Cornelia’s efforts that the
legal profession was opened to women
in India in 1924. Cornelia set up practice
in Calcutta only to retire in 1929. She
moved to England and continued to live
there, visiting India every now and then
until her death in 1954. The women of
India, especially all women lawyers, will
forever remain indebted to this great
lady.
Disclaimer – Statements and opinions expressed in this article are those from the editorial and are well researched from various sources. The content in the article is purely informative in nature.