Cornelia was born in the year 1866 in Bombay's Nashik to Reverend Sorabji Karsedji and Francina Ford.
Sorabji, her father helped women pursue their higher education from Bombay University, while her mother established schools for girls at Pune. Other than being the first woman to practice law in India and Britain, Cornelia has many firsts to her credit.
She is the country's first woman to go to Oxford Law School, and graduate from Bombay University. Cornelia returned to India in 1894 and started to work as a legal adviser to the Indian government.
It was a struggle for Cornelia to enter the Allahabad High Court until 1923, as there was a ban on female lawyers. She challenged the purdah system and fought for the rights of purdahnashins (women clad in purdah).
Cornelia supported over 600 women and children and fought their cases without charging a fee. Cornelia, who studied literature wrote a number of books, short stories and articles, and also her autobiography known as Between the Twilights.
Google said, the doodle was designed to mark her "persistence in the face of great adversity".
Published 15 November 2017, 09:00 IST