Cornelia Sorabji: India’s Pioneer Women Lawyer

Cornelia Sorabji (1866-1954) was a pioneer woman lawyer of India whose formative years coincided with the high noon of the British Empire. She occupies a significant place in Indian history, as she played a crucial role in trying to open up the legal profession to women much before they were formally allowed to plead before the courts of law. This detailed biography uses rich and hitherto unused data to illustrate a remarkable individual who has remained neglected in studies on India’s transition to modernity and also in the historiography of women and gender. A Parsee and daughter of a convert to Christianity, Sorabji was the first woman to study law at Oxford, the second Indian woman barrister, and among the early Indian women to practice at the Calcutta High Court. She was also appointed to a senior office under the British Indian government to protect the interest of the purdahnashins, the women in purdah who owned property. Despite a critique of the Empire, and by opposing Indian nationalist politics in the Gandhian era, she placed herself on the wrong side of history. With considerable skill and insightful analysis, the author has succeeded in disentangling Cornelia Sorabji from the established stereotypes in nationalist and feminist studies. She also relates Sorabji’s life to the complexities of gender issues in colonial India, and raises questions about the significance of her life from the perspective of emancipatory politics of gender. This book, which recognizes the urgent need to locate gender issues at the intersection of gender, class, and racial politics, will be of use to general as well as specialist readers of women’s history and biographical studies. It will also interest those wishing to explore the complex working of colonialism in moulding the lives of the colonized.