Girls Girls Girls – Cornelia Sorabji

You're listening to Girls, Girls, Girls, the podcast Rewriting History One Episode at a time. I'm Bea Duncan. Hello and welcome to Girls, Girls Girls. You are listening to B. Duncan right now on Women's Radio station. And if you don't know, this is the show that attempts to rewrite history one episode at a time. Basically, we delve into the stories of incredible women who should be household names, but who you aren't for whatever reason. And hopefully, if you come on this journey with me, you'll learn something new. I learn something new every single week when I'm preparing these episodes, so I'm happy to be able to transfer that knowledge to you guys listening. Today we are going to be talking about the fantastic Cornelia Sourabji, who was India's first female lawyer, as well as being the first woman to graduate from Bombay University and the first woman to sit law exams at Oxford University. There are plenty, plenty more first as well that we'll delve into a little bit later on in the episode. But that's kind of. Those are the highlights, and pretty good highlights they are too. But before we do that, as always, it is time to celebrate someone or something. And in fact, this week I am celebrating multiple people. I'm breaking the rules a little bit, but it's okay. So a few weeks ago, I went to a panel discussion. It was called Help a Girl out. And I went there to cover the event for an amazing collective that I'm part of called Women of Power. So you should definitely go check them out. We put together a nice little video kind of behind the scenes of the event. But the event itself was fantastic. It was put together by the amazing illustrator Venus Libido. And it was held at a vegan cafe called Unripe Banana in Hackney. You should definitely go visit the cafe. It's a gorgeous space. There's art space as well in the basement, and the coffees and the food there is just to die for. So if you're ever around in Hackney, definitely make a beeline for there. It was incredible. And there were so many great women on the panel. So there was Ella, who is a structural engineer. She does tunneling. But as well as that, she is a beauty blogger and she is trying to sort of challenge the people's perceptions of what an engineer should look like. We had Shaheera, who runs Afro Glory. She's also social media editor of Galdem magazine, which I celebrated a couple of episodes ago. We had Flora, who owns the cafe and the art space, and she's A kind of environmental activist as well. Phoebe, who runs the movement 100 Women I know, which is trying to open up conversations about sexual violence, and Ashniko, who makes music and raps and specifically about her female experience. And as I said, it was such an incredible panel. And there was so much audience participation as well, which is great. And it was really, really cool to kind of be around that many female creatives and to hear their different perspectives because they were all in different industries, but they all were having the same similar struggles and they all had such interesting perspectives on that. So I'm so, so glad I went. It was incred. Go and check all of those women out and definitely look out for another panel, potentially from Venus. And if not, go and look at her art. It is incredible. I bought a couple of prints and they're, they're framed up in my room and I'm very, very proud of them. So definitely big celebration to all of those involved in that. So let's get into Cornelia Sarabji, who was born in Devlali in November of 1866. She was one of nine children, which w quite a lot, large, large family. And her father, who was the Reverend Sohrabji Khasadji, was one of the key figures in managing to get Bombay University to start admitting women, letting them do degrees there. Cornelia says she was heavily influenced by her mother, Francina Ford, who established a girls school in Pune and often consulted local women about their property and inherent rights inheritance, which Cornel also ended up doing when she moved on later in life, she was educated between homeschooling and also mission schools. Her father was a missionary and she moved around from Belgium to Pune as well. Kind of hopped around to lots of different schools. And eventually she enrolled in Deircan College and she topped the final degree exam. Now, what that should have entitled her to was a government scholarship which would allow her to continue her education in England. But she was denied this scholarship even though she had finished top of the class. So instead, she didn't let that deter her. She started being a temporary English professor at the Men's college in Gujarat. She eventually did become the first ever female graduate of Bombay University. And this was in part due to her father's influence. And he was able to kind of convince her, give her special consideration to go and enrol in the university. And in 1888, she decided to request assistance from the National Indian association to ask for funding and help so she could eventually go and actually study, do her further education in England as she had expected she would be able to. So she arrived in England the year after 1889 and she stayed with some of the people who had contributed funding to her going there, and they were quite established members of society, so that would have very, very much helped her. So she took the Bachelor of Civil laws exam in 1892 at Somerville College, which is a college at Oxford University. She made history with this. Once again, she was the first woman to ever do this. And she was also the first woman to be admitted as a reader to the Corringdon Library of All Souls College. So she basically was smashing out the park in Oxford with firsts right and centre. And she finished. She returned to India in 1894 with her degree in law. I mean, she didn't technically get awarded the degree. It's a little bit confusing because at that time, obviously women were still not able to hold degrees. So she'd finished all of the exams, she'd done incredibly well, but she technically didn't have a degree. But, I mean, that was the done thing at that time, so it didn't really hinder her that much. So when she returned to India, she started doing advisory work on behalf of a group of women known as perdanations. And these women were prohibited from communicating with any man who wasn't a family member. And often they owned lots and lots of property, but they had no access to legal expertise to defend that property. Obviously, as you can imagine, most of the lawyers at that time were men, and so if ever they had to fight something in court, they would have to have spoken to a man. And as they're not allowed to do that, they often fell by the wayside. So unless they had a family member who was a lawyer, they were pretty much stuck. And so that's where Cornelia came in. She would give them advice and she would help them build their for, especially inheritance and property rights, just like her mother. And in this way, she was really giving a voice to the voiceless and giving them the legal strength that they deserved. Ridiculously, however, Cornelia was not actually allowed to defend them in court because she was a woman. So she would kind of put together all of the defenses and put together all the arguments, but she wasn't allowed to actually give them. So she decided to take the LLB exam at Bombay University in 1897 and the Pleaders exam from Allahabad High Court in 1899. She would not actually be recognized as a barrister until the law changed in 1923. So she had to wait 24 years to get the formal recognition that she deserved. I mean, she'd taken all of the exams, she'd passed them with flying colours, she was already practicing law, but she wasn't technically recognized as a barrister. It's absolutely ridiculous. And she was doing really, really well. She managed. Eventually she won the right or for perdurnassians to train as nurses. So she really gave them so, so many rights, but she was never allowed to have those rights herself. She wasn't recognized and she wasn't defending them in court, which is really, really unfair. Just plain right unfair. Shashi started petitioning the India office from 1902 to provide female legal advisers to represent women and minors in provincial courts. And in 1904, she was appointed Lady Assistant to the Court of Wards of Bengal. By 1907, she was working in the provinces of Bengal, Bihar, Orissa and Assam. Now, it's estimated that in around 20 years, Cornelia helped over 600 women and orphans with their legal battles. And she very often did that for free. So 600 people she was really trying to give that voice to, even though she herself was not recognized as a barrister. It's absolutely ridiculous. It really frustrates me, but it's amazing people. And I think that really shows what a fantastic woman she was, and very altruistic, given the fact that she was often doing it for free because these people couldn't afford a fancy lawyer or afford fees, but she wanted to do it anyway. She was also involved in quite a lot of social justice groups, including the National Council for Women in India and the Federation of University Women and the Big Isle League of Social Service for Women. And thanks to all of this work, she was eventually awarded the Kai Sa Jehin gold medal in 1909. So, you know, she was still getting that recognition, even though she wasn't a barrister technically. But she was really, really working hard to change the perceptions of women and to change their rights and the way that they were being treated in India, which I think is really, really awesome. Now we are going to take a very, very quick little break. When we get back, we're going to be talking about some more of Cornelia's story, some more of the stuff that she was involved with and eventually where her life led her. Obviously, she was a massive trailblazer and she really, really did some incredible things. So there's a lot more to talk about. So I hope you'll join me after the break, but until now, have a. I'll join you afterwards and head to womensradiostation.com if you want to find out. Anything more? WRS Women's radio station Voice of Women Worldwide. Sarah's Universal Soul Show. What does your soul or spirituality mean to you? Welcome to future Classical Woman awards with me, Stefania Passamonte on Women's radio station. Welcome back. I'm Russ Cain. You're listening to in conversation with on women's radio station. I'm Angie. And I'm Patsy. And we're open. To see what other programs we have on Women's radio station, head to our website womensradiostation.com I'm Isabelle Manavy, an executive coach. Do you want to change a negative into a positive? We can do this by coaching you to rewire your brain using simple visualization techniques. In 20 years of practice, I seen this transform lives. For more information, look on Women's radio website. Call me on 079-844-22171. I'm listening. Mirae B Ltd. We are a virtual PA consultancy. We provide remote administrative services. Our offering is diverse. We manage your calendar, we update your client database. We take care of your property in France and in London. We also offer bookkeeping and translation services. Would you like to know more? Please call 077-868-48998 for further information. Mirae B Ltd. Making the life of the business owner successful. 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We're currently welcoming donations to help towards our running costs to keep this important initiative alive. To donate, simply simply head to our website. Every little will help. You're listening to Girls, Girls, Girls, the podcast rewriting history One episode at a time. I'm Bea Duncan. Hello everybody and welcome back. You are still listening to Girls, Girls, Girls with me, Bea Duncan, here on Women's Radio Station. And we're right smack bang in the middle of talking about the fantastic Cornelia Sohrabji. So, as well as being a pretty kick ass lawyer, Cornelia was a prolific writer. She wrote a whole load of short stories, articles, books, even two autobiographies. And she wrote articles for the likes of the Times, the Statesman and the Atlantic Monthly. So essentially what I'm saying is there's plenty to go and look at if you have enjoyed the life of Cornelia, if it was of interest to. You can go and read a whole load of stuff that she has written if you want to find out anything more about her. Now, one interesting thing that I found about Cornelia was although she was a huge advocate for social justice, she had some kind of changing opinions throughout her life about what she felt about the empire. Obviously at this time there was colonial rule, Britain, Britain, the British Empire was kind of ruling India. And she changed her mind quite a lot about this. You would expect, I think, or at least I expected, that she would be anti empire. But she actually was at the beginning. At first, she was quoted as saying she had no desire to see the wholesale imposition of a British legal system on Indian society. She was hugely supportive of the campaign for Indian independence. And that for me made a lot of sense. She was pro equality. She wanted to remain. I would have assumed that she wanted India to be independent and free from colonial rule. But this did change. By the late 1920s, she became actually quite a staunch anti nationalist. And she ended up going all around India and all around the USA talking about how much of an anti nationalist she was. And as you can imagine, this did end up up losing her quite a bit of support from kind of social justice groups who were all very pro independence. And as you can see from her life, she obviously was educated a lot in England. She did eventually settle in England. So I guess she was a bit of an Anglophile in that sense. And that might have been what changed her mind, I suppose. But it is very, very interesting to have somebody be so staunch pro independence and then suddenly switched to be pro anti nationalism. It's a little bit bizarre, but I mean, who knows what was going on in that time for her. Now, eventually in 1924, the ban on female lawyers was lifted. So she'd waited all this time, sat and waited it out, which must have been agonizing. But eventually it was lifted and she opened up her own legal practice in Calcutta. And she was actually still kind of confined to just preparing cases. She was often not allowed to defend in court, because while legally she was allowed, there was still a lot of male bias going on there. So while she was recognised as a barrister, she was able to have her own legal practice and by law she was able to defend people in court. That wasn't always what happened, so that must have been quite frustrating. You finally waited all this time and you got that recognition and it was kind of taken away from you and there wasn't much you could do about it. She eventually retired from the high court in 1929, so that was only about five years after she was formally recognized as a barrister. So she waited basically her entire career and had to retire almost as soon as she was given that recognition. And she ended up living kind of in between England and India, but she mostly was settled in London. She died in Home Northumberland House on the 6th of July 1954. And actually there is a brass bust which was unveiled in her honour at Lincoln's Inn, which is kind of the heart of London, London's judiciary service, and that was there in 2012. So if you want to go and make a trip and honour her, you can go and see her bust. It is quite cool. We don't have very many statues devoted to women, so to have one for her, that is very, very cool. Of course, it's important to mention that Cornelia was from quite a wealthy family which had a lot of stature in society. You could say it was through help from her father that she was given the special permission to study at the university. And she was also given a lot of help from wealthy people in England to help her study. And so it is very important to remember certain people who appear as trailblazers to definitely notice and remember that they had a lot of help. That's not to diminish her accomplishments, of course, because at that time, privilege wouldn't have helped you that much when you were a woman. But it is still important to remember, if it wasn't for her father, if it wasn't for the position of her family in society, she probably wouldn't have been able to get to the point that she was eventually at. But with all that being said, she was still an incredibly hard worker and she still did get all of those court cases done for women and orphans for free. So that wasn't anything to do with her family's position in society. But I do think it's still important to always recognise when there have been struggles. And although it could have been easier for her than somebody else, necessarily. So that was the incredible story of Cornelia, first female lawyer in India who made huge, huge strides towards equality and in the legal profession in general. She is a massive inspiration. She changed so many minds and lives and I think that she is really, really worthy of being a household name. But I hope that you're going to be tuning in next week as well, because we've got another even more incredible woman. No, not even more incredible. That's not fair. Just as incredible, but in a different way. So, as always, I give you a couple of little clues to see if you know who I'm going to be talking about next week. I don't have anything for you if you guess it right, but I will be very impressed. So if you like, you can can tweet me gggpod, or you can email me girlsgirlsgirlsmail, girlsgirlsgirlspodmail.com and tell me if you think you know who I'm going to be talking about. So here are a couple of clues. So next week we're going to be talking about a groundbreaking animator. She was born in Germany and she worked in Germany for most of her life and she was operating around in the 1900s, so kind of distant past. No, sorry, close past. So she wasn't that far, far away. And she, as I said, was a massive groundbreaker. And she was the predecessor to Walt Disney, so she did a lot of animating techniques that were way ahead of Disney. And yet she is not of the same profile at all. Chances are you have seen her art style in quite a few famous films that have come out recently. A very, very kind of obvious one that you might remember a scene from Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1. There is a small little short film within the film that employs her very iconic art style, essentially her iconic animation style. Other things that you might recognise it from the end credits of Series Of Unfortunate Events, she's also been. She also inspired a scene in Fantasia. So, yeah, she really touched a lot of people and her influence is still being seen today. So that's all you're gonna get. I'm not gonna give you any more clues. She's a really, really exciting woman and I'm extremely excited to be able to talk about her next week. So I hope you will join me. But in the meantime, as I said, please do get in contact with me. As I said, GGGpod, or you can go to womensradiostn on Twitter earlsgirlsgirlspod on Instagram and you can email presentersomenradiostation.com or girlsgirlsgirlspodmail.com There are so many different ways to get in contact with me and I really, really do love hearing what you guys have to do say. So whether you just want to suggest a topic, suggest a woman or just have a chat, please feel free to on my Instagram, I've also been posting some kind of more behind the scenes photos. So if you're interested in that and not just the the profiles of women, then you definitely want to check that out. There have been some really exciting people contacting me and asking me for specific topics. I had somebody who contacted me asking for a woman who was from Southern Latin America. So that is coming up soon. But it just does mean that you can influence the podcast in a way that you like. I've had people suggest times, time, dates and countries and industries so you really, really can make a difference if you've got a particular thing that you are interested in. I don't bite. So please do contact me. But in the meantime, don't forget to tune in next week. I'm going to be talking about that very exciting animator. And yes, in the meantime, get in touch and make sure to head over to womensradiostation.com There are so, so many amazing shows, not only mine, but loads and loads of others all done by amazing women. So if you want to go and explore, please, please do. Feel free. I promise you you won't regret it. I will see you guys next week. Have an incredible couple of days and yeah, tune in next week. With over 35 presenters, we have something for everyone on women's radio station wrs. Women's radio station, Voice of Women Worldwide. This is Amy Liu, Voice of China at Women's Radio Station. Welcome to future Classical Women Awards with me, Stefania Passamonte on women's radio Station. After a long day, I like to sit in my bath with a glass of wine and listen to women's radio Kamraskate that you're listening to in conversation with on women's radio Station. To see what other programs we have on women's radio station, head to our website womensradiostation.com are you looking to enhance your career? Are you looking to grow your business? Well then why not visit wearthecity.com wearthecity.com is a website for working women. It's full of inspirational stories of women that have been there, seen it and done it. We also feature events, women's networks and other articles that may help you to progress both in terms of your connections and business ideas. Visit wearethecity.com and take your business or career to the next level. Mirae B Ltd. We are a virtual PA consultancy. We provide remote administrative services. Our offering is diverse. We manage your calendar, we update your client database, we take care of your property in France and in London. We also offer bookkeeping and translation services. Would you like to know more? Please call 0778-684-8998 for further information. Mirabilimited Making the life of the Business Owner successful Would you like to host your own radio show? Would you love to be doing what I'm doing right now and be a radio presenter on Women's Radio Station? If you're passionate on your subject or topic, we'd like to hear from you, wherever you are in the world about what's happening in your country, town or city. It's your station, your voice to women of the world. So contact us. Send an email to involvedmensradiostation.com. I'm Isabelle Manevy, an executive coach. Do you want to change a negative into a positive? We can do this by coaching you to rewire your brain using simple visualization techniques. In 20 years of practice, I've seen this transform lives. For more information, look on Women's Radio website. Call me on 07-98442-2171. I'm listening. Women's Radio Station is a not for profit, community interest company. Supporting women is our passion. We're currently welcoming donations to help towards our running costs to keep this important initiative alive. To donate, simply head to our website. Every little will help.