Cornelia Sorabji

'', 13 April 1888, Sorabji Cornelia Sorabji was born on 15 November 1866 in Nashik, in the Bombay Presidency, British India. 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. Her mother, Francina Ford (née Santya), 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). Her mother's support for girls' education, and care for the local needy, was an inspiration for Cornelia Sorabji to advocate for women. In her books, Cornelia Sorabji barely touched on religion (other than describing Parsi rituals), and did not write about any pressures relating to religious conversion in her autobiographical works. Sorabji had five surviving sisters including educator and missionary Susie Sorabji and medical doctor Alice Pennell, and one surviving brother; two other brothers died in infancy. 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, as its first woman student, and received the top marks in her cohort for the final degree examination, which would have entitled her to a government scholarship to study further in England. 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. Sorabji was the first woman to be admitted as a reader to the Codrington Library of All Souls College, Oxford, at Sir William Anson's invitation in 1890. ==Legal career==

, taken at the 2012 Gresham Special Lecture Upon returning to India in 1894, Sorabji became involved in social and advisory work on behalf of the purdahnashins, 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 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. In 1923, 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. She died in Northumberland House nursing home, Green Lanes, Manor House, London, on 6 July 1954, aged 87. ==Social and reform work==

Sorabji's primary interest in her campaigning work was in social service. believing that until all women were educated, political reform would not provide "any real and lasting value". She also opposed the imposition of Western women's perspectives on the movement for women's change in India. She was associated with the Bengal branch of the National Council of Women in India, the Federation of University Women, and the Bengal League of Social Service for Women. By the late 1920s, however, Sorabji had adopted a staunch anti-nationalist attitude. 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. Pallavi Rastogi, reviewing the autobiography India Calling, wrote that Sorabji's life was "fraught with contradictions", as were those of others who were unable to reconcile Western and Indian ways of life. 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." 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. ==Publications==

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: ==Memorials==

In 2012, a bust of her was unveiled at Lincoln's Inn, London. ==See also==