Cornelia Sorabji

Cornelia Sorabji (1866-1954) was an Indian writer, lawyer, and social reformer. Born to Reverend Sorabji Karsdji and Francina Ford, prominent Christian missionaries and converts from Hinduism, Sorabji was raised in Belgaum and Pune. Educate in mission schools and at home, she became the first female graduate of Bombay University before travelling to England in 1889. In 1892, she became the first woman ever to take the Bachelor of Civil Law exam at Oxford University. Sorabji returned to India in 1894 to work as a lawyer representing purdahnashins, women barred from communicating with the outside world. Over the course of her decades-long career, Sorabji assisted over 600 women and orphans with their legal needs, often for free. She was also a successful author of articles, books, and such short story collections as Love and Life Behind the Purdah (1901). A staunch opponent of Mahama Gandhi’s campaign of civil disobedience for Indian self-rule, Sorabji was a controversial figure who stood at the crossroads of the British Raj and the modern Republic of India.