Google on Wednesday paid its tributes to Cornelia Sorabji, India’s first woman lawyer, through a dedicated doodle on the occasion of her 151st birth anniversary.
A woman with many accolades to her kitty, Cornelia was the first female graduate from Bombay University, the first woman to read law at Oxford University and the first Indian national to study at any British university, the first female advocate in India, and the first woman to practise law in India and Britain.
Cornelia was born in Nashik as one among nine children to Reverend Sorabji Karsedji and his wife, Francina Ford, who had been adopted and raised by a British couple.
She enrolled in Deccan College, and claims to have topped the Presidency in her final degree examination, which would have entitled her to a government scholarship to study further in England.
However, according to Sorabji, she was denied the scholarship, and instead took up a temporary position as a professor of English at a men’s college in Gujarat.
After becoming the first female graduate of Bombay University, Sorabji wrote in 1888 to the National Indian Association for assistance in completing her education.
This was championed by Mary Hobhouse (whose husband Arthur was a member of the Council of India) and Adelaide Manning, who contributed funds, as did Florence Nightingale, Sir William Wedderburn and others.
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