Opening Doors

Clever, attractive and ambitious, intellectually daring and physically courageous, Cornelia Sorabji was a truly remarkable woman. As India's first female lawyer, she was original and often outspoken in her views - for example, in her criticism of Gandhi and her surprising friendship with Katherine Mayo. Cornelia Sorabji resists easy classification, either as a feminist or as an imperialist. She is an Indian whose loyalty to the British Raj never wavered; a passionate advocate of women's rights whose own career was nearly compromised through her inappropriate relationship with a married man; and, an independent and free-thinking intellectual who depended for work on patronage from an elite circle. Cornelia Sorabji's long and fulfilling life was anything but simple. How did she reconcile these apparent contradictions? How did she succeed in opening doors to aspects of Indian and British life which remain closed to so many, even today - and where did she run into difficulties? Through its beguiling portrait of a determined and pioneering woman at the heart of the Raj, this rich and important story will captivate everyone with an interest in Indian or British history.