Cornelia Sorabji: India's first woman lawyer
Witness History
BBC
4.5 • 1.6K Ratings
🗓️ 13 January 2021
⏱️ 10 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Cornelia Sorabji was the first woman lawyer working in India. She helped women living in purdah or seclusion in the 19th century who had no access to the law. The women were married into royal families and prevented from seeing men other than their husbands or family. This meant they had no way of seeking justice when they received cruel treatment, attempts on their lives or were disinherited by their husbands' families. Cornelia Sorabji was able to visit these women and often helped free them from violent abuse. She was so successful that some royal families tried to kill her. Claire Bowes has been speaking to her nephew, Sir Richard Sorabji, about her life and how she helped pave the way for women lawyers in Britain.
Photo: Cornelia Sorabji in a BBC studio in January1931.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Choosing what to watch night after night the flicking through the endless |
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| 0:14.0 | Cladie Aide. |
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| 0:19.0 | Lovely. Off the telly with me Joanna Paige. |
| 0:21.0 | And me, Natalie Cassidy, so your evenings can be a little less |
| 0:24.9 | searching and a lot more auction listen on BBC sounds. |
| 0:30.9 | Thanks for downloading the Witness History Podcast from the BBC World Service with me Claire Bowes. |
| 0:40.0 | Today we're remembering India's first woman lawyer. |
| 0:45.0 | Cornelia Serabji's work promoting Indian women's rights in the late 19th and early 20th century |
| 0:51.0 | led to death threats and daredevil rescue attempts. |
| 0:55.0 | I've been finding out more from her nephew and biographer Sir Richard Serrabgy. |
| 1:00.0 | It was a family relationship, it wasn't a great lady or anything of that kind. |
| 1:07.0 | No, it was Aunt Cornelia. |
| 1:11.0 | I am to read law. The desire of my heart is accomplished. |
| 1:17.0 | Cornelia Serraubji was born in 1866 in India to parents who were comfortable with British rule. They had both converted to Christianity |
| 1:26.2 | and she was named after the wife of a British colonel. I think they felt very much at home |
| 1:31.9 | the English community out there. |
| 1:34.2 | After all, they spoke perfect English, |
| 1:36.6 | and they knew that it was through England |
| 1:39.8 | that you could get your children to succeed. And Cornelia Serraubji did succeed. The first woman to enroll at Bombay University, she came top of her year and won a scholarship to the UK. She was to become the first |
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