Key Highlights
- Cornelia Sorabji broke gender barriers to become India’s first female lawyer in the early 20th century.
- She earned the first‑class degree from Bombay University and later qualified as an advocate after the 1923 amendment.
- Her legal practice primarily defended women confined by purdah and numerous orphans across several provinces.
- Beyond law, she championed women’s education, authored influential books, and participated in national social organisations.
Detailed Insights
Sorabji was born on 15 November 1866 in Nashik to a missionary father and a mother devoted to girls’ schooling. After completing her primary studies in Belgaum and Pune, she enrolled at Deccan College, becoming its inaugural female student. Her academic brilliance continued at Bombay University where she graduated with a first‑class degree in literature—the first Indian woman to do so.
Facing institutional sexism, Sorabji traveled to England in 1889. With the encouragement of Adelaide Manning and Mary Hobhouse, she entered Somerville College, Oxford, and in 1892 became the first woman to sit for the Bachelor of Civil Law examination. She also secured unprecedented access to the Codrington Library at All Souls College.
Returning to India in 1894, Sorabji focused on the legal disenfranchisement of purdahnashins, women secluded from public life. She cleared Bombay University’s LLB in 1897 and the Allahabad High Court pleader’s exam in 1899. Although formally recognised as the nation’s first female advocate only after the 1923 legal amendment, she had already been representing marginalized clients pro bono across Bengal, Bihar, Orissa and Assam.
Her reformist agenda intertwined legal advocacy with education. Sorabji argued that political liberation would be ineffective without widespread female literacy. She served on bodies such as the National Council for Women in India and the Federation of University Women, while also publishing works like “Love and Life beyond the Purdah” (1901) and “India Calling” (1934) that highlighted women’s experiences.